Fashion connects students on the red carpet at Black Student Movement Ball

On Friday night, dozens of students traveled through the rain in suits and elegant dresses to the Frank Porter Graham Student Union for the 2024 Black Student Movement Ball.

Founded in 1967, BSM is a community space and advocacy group for Black students at UNC. This year’s BSM Ball theme was masquerade, and was followed by an after-party co-hosted with One Africa UNC at Cat’s Cradle.

On the way to the Great Hall, where the ball took place, attendees walked along a red carpet in dazzling outfits featuring vintage, already-owned and newly-purchased pieces. Many wore lace masks and black and white outfits, though the room steadily filled with blues, greens, pinks and reds.

Sophomore Senja Levy  wore a beaded pink dress that her mother purchased for her 30th birthday over 20 years ago and saved, along with other pieces of clothing, throughout her life. 

“She just likes filling her closet with beautiful pieces, and I’m glad I got to inherit a lot of them,” Levy said.

Toluwanimi Dapo-Adeyemo, sophomore and outreach co-coordinator for BSM, wore a flowing, all-black outfit with gold earrings and a mask accented with white features. They said their style is androgynous, and typically lands in the middle of masculine and feminine clothing.

“Gender is a performance and I don’t know any of my lines, and I just do what feels best, and this feels good,” Dapo-Adeyemo said. 

The ball featured performances by Ebony Readers/Onyx Theater  and UNC Kamikazi Dance Team.

Established in 1979 under BSM, EROT is a slam poetry group that provides space for students of color to perform, write and find community with one another. 

The club led attendees through appropriate responses to slam poetry — snaps, hums of approval and rubbing hands together to send love to performers — before Kennedy Covington, the organization’s co-publicity chair and secretary, performed.

UNC Kamikazi is a co-ed hip hop group that began in 1996. In its money heist-themed performance, dancers shifted in formation on stage as the music jumped between songs.

Toward the end of the night, the BSM Royal Court was crowned based on votes cast earlier in the week. Justice Haygood, a junior, was named BSM Royal, and Will Walker III and Zuri Sweatt were named Freshman Royals. 

Haygood wore all black, adding a pop of color with a white flower on the front of her dress and pink nails, and mixed in patterns through lace tights and a mask. Fashion is a way of setting yourself apart, she said.

Sweatt said her outfit, an off-the-shoulder black dress with diamond accessories, and swept hairstyle was inspired by Old Hollywood.

Janae Carter, another first-year, had similar inspiration, accentuating her black dress with diamond accents and long, black gloves. Carter said she tries to express her outgoing personality through her fashion.

The night was punctuated by line dances, a dance circle and a dance battle between Walker and student body president-elect Jaleah Taylor.

Walker runs the Instagram account Tuff Fit Tuesday, which documents student outfits throughout campus.

“I think fashion is like one of the biggest keys to just showing who you are, your individuality, I think it gives people a platform to really just express — that can be like politically expression or just honestly anything, but I think it's one of the best ways to unite people,” he said.

Editor's Note: Senja Levy is a former staffer at The Daily Tar Heel.  

@eliza_benbow

@dthlifestyle | lifestyle@dailytarheel.com

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