What BIPOC Family Dinner Means to Me
Students crafting and creating at a BIPOC family dinner
Black, Indigenous and Students of Color on Chatham’s campus have met for a “chosen family” dinner to find community with each other ever since I started attending Chatham. The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’s (ODEI) description of BIPOC Dinner is “Any student, faculty, or staff who identifies with those communities is invited for a two-hour gathering featuring food, games, and activities like speed-friending, karaoke, and mocktail tasting.”
Sharing a meal allows Black and POC students to see each other periodically throughout the year and check in with one another. It’s become a tradition at Chatham that’s incredibly special to me.
Identity-based events like this one have been so important to my experience as a Black student on campus. Identity-based spaces like this one have a significant effect on quality of student life for people on and off campus. They help people who hold identities that may not feel seen as often to find safety in others like them. Sharing vulnerability with those who do not relate to you can feel exhausting, and these types of groups are important because they begin to relieve students from this exhaustion. The dinners have creative activities like open mic night, senior sendoffs and more. I have gotten to know many students on campus at family dinner and have gotten closer with some of my best friends through this event.
Danielle Thompson ’23
Danielle Thompson ’23, who runs and operates the family dinners under ODEI, says that family dinners have exceeded what she could’ve ever thought they’d be: “They're not just monthly dinners that offer free food, they're a way for Chatham's BIPOC community to decompress, come together, and create new connections on a campus that may not always aim to foster connections between BIPOC students.”
Danielle works hard to create an inclusive space for all the students who come to dinner every month, and those who are coming for the first time. These dinners have existed as a place for all BIPOC students to speak freely, laugh and develop relationships with each other that they might not otherwise. Dinners are 5-7pm but Danielle remembers times when dinner became more than just a meal. “There have been many times where we've gone into the late evening because students needed that space to talk and just exist without being observed constantly.” Black and POC students on college campuses can often feel under surveillance by those who do not relate to them. BIPOC Dinner has always been a place for me as a Black student on campus to embrace safety and joy. Everyone works together to protect and respect the space that we’ve worked together to make for ourselves.
If I were to speak to someone who had never come to BIPOC Dinner before, I would tell them that these dinners are so worth going to. I recommend that any student of color on campus who’s looking to find community attend a BIPOC dinner to see for themselves how special this dynamic can be.
For more information on family dinners, you can check out the ODEI website and Chatham’s event calendar. The last BIPOC Dinner of the 2022-2023 school year will be Thursday, April 13.
Lirit Gilmore is a Creative Writing and Food Studies student. Lirit’s academic focus is centered in food writing and how it intersects with social location and identity. She is from the DMV and the Midwest, and enjoys baking in her free time. See all her work on Pulse@ChathamU here.