Music exhibit featuring black artists celebrates healthy relationships

Photos of black artists including Ray Charles and Etta James were showcased on the walls of Arizona State University’s Downtown Phoenix campus post office building at a music exhibit on Feb. 18.

The music exhibit was hosted by the Movement for Violence Prevention in collaboration with the Black History Month Committee to celebrate healthy relationships and positive sexuality in honor of Black History Month.

Along with the music playing over the speakers, the exhibit also had an interactive element where students could choose from a song list and listen to music individually on laptops.

The exhibit featured biographies of black artists, an interactive song list and more.

Students had the ability to submit their favorite artists and even feature their own music.

This year’s event was the first of its kind.

Sydni Cook, a master’s student at ASU studying American media and popular culture and a member of the Black History Month Committee, said the Movement for Violence Prevention reached out to the committee and wanted to highlight black relationships.

“We kind of brainstormed what we thought would be cool,” Cook said. “It was a great opportunity to educate a lot of our students about black culture and black culture in relationships.”

Cook said this event is important since in the media there are a lot of negative identifications around black relationships.

“We thought a good entryway into this subject, since it can be a little bit touchy, was through music,” said Cook.

Netanya Quino, who recently graduated with a degree in psychology, was part of the Sexual Violence Prevention department group that wanted to create an event culturally specific to Black History Month.

“I collaborated with several black student organizations as well as regularly visiting the Black History Month Committee to create this exhibit,” she said.

Quino said she hoped that people could learn from the event and about the different artists and their backgrounds.

“I want [this exhibit] to represent the community,” she said.