By Serin Sarsour
The Women of Color club welcomed Brooklyn College students to a night full of fun, dancing, and horror on Thursday, Oct. 27. The Halloween Horror Bash had a mandatory dress code where all those wanting to party away had to be wearing a costume.
“Midterms were over and everyone needed a break,” said the club’s treasurer and BC junior Rhema Mills. “I can’t speak for everyone, but it was kind of a rough midterm season, so I know everybody really wanted to just come out and celebrate and dress up and have a fun time.”
WOC was founded in 2013 with the initiative to provide both graduate and undergraduate women of color with professional and personal resources such as internship opportunities, mental health outlets, and services the BC campus offers. This knowledge is passed along via the WOC’s Instagram page and their group chat.
The bash consisted of food, music, dancing, raffles, and a spooky costume contest. “We had people who painted their skin and who were drenched in fake blood. Our costume contest winner was Carrie, the prom queen. So it was just fun to see people in costumes and having fun,” said Ari Turay, the president of WOC and a senior at BC.
With Turay’s role as president, she felt as though the pressure was on for the event to go as smoothly as possible. The fear that not many people would show up was something she worried about. Luckily, about 100 people were in attendance.
Additionally, time was of the essence for both Turay and Mills as they had classes that ended just a couple of hours before doors would open to guests. The lack of time to set up all of the decorations in the Student Center’s Bedford Lounge was an obstacle WOC overcame, and the party ended up being a hit.
The pair credits friends from other clubs and Central Depository for assistance in ensuring the bash would be a success.
Apart from the extravagant costumes, the dancing was Mills’ favorite part of the night. “We danced to ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson,” she said. “That was a kind of surreal experience because most of us, our college experience has been online, so seeing everybody enjoying themselves and dancing was fun. It didn’t mean they were dancing well, but it was great.”
Mills and Turay appreciated the change in scenery of the bash compared to past events WOC hosted on Zoom during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
WOC is currently in the process of planning more events this school year. “In regards to next semester, we can say that our first event is going to be a girls’ movie night, kind of like a sleepover type of thing, a pajama thing. And then by the time the semester ends, we will also have two pretty cool events we could say,” Turay shared.
Mills highlighted that seeing smiles on the faces of those who attended the Halloween bash made all of the club’s hard work and running around worth it. WOC hopes to keep this momentum going throughout the rest of the year.
“We’re continuing to maintain this space on campus where you can really talk and meet other people who understand what you’re going through, and who really understand what it’s like to be a woman and at Brooklyn College to have so many classes and stuff like that,” said Mills.