Written: By Chaya Gurkov
During the pandemic, Glamazon’s e-board members have been putting their brains to work trying to come up with interesting events for members and participants to enjoy as we wait to resume in-person learning.
“Say I came up with an idea like Game Night and I bring it to them, then they would be like, ‘Hey, maybe we should do a theme. Like what about a Halloween-themed Game Night,’” said Shawuana Charles, the president of Glamazon. “I’m like, ‘Oh, okay.’ So we all have our input in creating the events.”
As Brooklyn College’s first fashion organization, Charles and her six fellow e-board leaders were determined to carry out their usual club activities with some modifications. Glamazon now holds events over Zoom, where participants can have fun with whatever the theme is for the day. A meeting at the end of last semester had the members making their own DIY face masks, body scrubs, and lip scrubs.
“With finals around the corner and the stress of this semester, let’s take a moment to take care of ourselves and our mental health,” Glamazon shared on their Instagram post to promote that event.
Routinely, the club collaborates with other BC organizations to further their reach and connectivity. In early November, Glamazon and the National Black Law Student Association – Pre Law Division (NBLSA) held a watch party for a movie that would speak to both fashionistas and law students: Legally Blonde.
The screening was a part of the fashion club’s weekly movie nights on Fridays, a series Glamazon started during the pandemic.
Not every event at Glamazon is strictly fashion-related, however. To wind down the fall semester, Glamazon club members gathered toys to give to the Downstate Child’s Life Center, a fundraiser they’ve volunteered for in previous years.
One of their more popular events, dubbed Sip N’ Journal, has more to do with community building than with styling. During a night of mocktail sipping, Glamazon members prepare prompts for participants to journal about and share their experiences from this past COVID-year.
“We had a good amount of people that came to just openly express and be vulnerable about their experiences and their stories. And I personally loved it. It was a little before finals and like, a little before Thanksgiving, so we got the time to just connect with each other and just vent,” Charles said.
Staying true to its motto of promoting judgment-free self-expression since its establishment in 2018, Glamazon really took off in May of 2019 when members organized their first on-campus fashion show.
Charles, then an event organizer and social media manager, remembered the show featured performers from rappers to models, making it the biggest event the club had ever taken.
“In that moment it was honestly exciting. It was actually coming to life – all this work we did for the past few months and the ups and downs, the challenges,” Charles recalled. “It’s all coming together now and we are actually having the show. It was fun!”
As of now, with social distancing rules remaining in place, the club will continue to display their fashion love through virtual means. The club’s Instagram account is updated weekly with posts supporting artists like Black Drag Queens and Kings for Black History Month, while also featuring looks from the Glamazon team.
Although things are not the same as they were when things were in person, many of the club members share a core philosophy about fashion. Charles, a psychology major explained that to her, it’s all about being able to express yourself.
“We always say to people, just be yourself, but to actually mean what we say – you know, give people the space to be who they are. Fashion is one of those things,” she said.