Stepping into the Office of Black Student Affairs’ (OBSA) bungalow, there’s an instant and engulfing warmth that radiates off the walls. Hidden behind OBSA’s main office, a path lined with string lights leads you into the cozy space where students gathered last Thursday evening for the opening of a new exhibition featuring Black students’ artwork.
On Nov. 13, OBSA invited the Claremont community to an intimate opening featuring a large charcuterie board, wine and mocktails. Black student creatives from across the 7Cs had the opportunity to share their art publicly, which ranged from photography and collage to painting and lyric.
The exhibit was curated by OBSA student liaisons Werlie Cius PO ’26 and Rahim Chilewa PZ ’27. They envisioned the project as a way to uplift community artists while also transforming the OBSA bungalow into a space that embodies and represents the pulse of the current 7C Black community.
Cius described how back when she was a first-year, the bungalow’s walls still featured photographs of students from 2011. Despite the bungalow being a prominent community space, hosting 7C classes and various OBSA events, Cius and her friends agreed that it didn’t feel lived in by the current Black community.
“When I got hired to be a liaison for OBSA, that was one of the things I was really passionate about: making the bungalow a space that, as a community, we can continue using, and somewhere we feel grounded to,” Cius said.
The student art show is just one of the many ways in which Cius and Chilewa continue to reshape the bungalow into a lively space for students to gather and feel at home. This is the second year that the OBSA team has organized the art show.
Chilewa, creative director and editor-in-chief of the Blaremont Magazine, worked primarily on the exhibit’s promotional videos and photography, encouraging Black creatives to submit their work. Through this, OBSA received copious submissions — enough to flood the walls of the bungalow and main house with color, conviction and emotion.
Chilewa and Cius emphasized that the student exhibit was open to all 7C Black creatives.
“That is a core tenet of it: if a Black student comes, wanting to display and showcase their work, they aren’t going to be denied,” Chilewa said.
Given this array of artistic mediums, Chilewa worked to unify everything under a central theme.
“The thematic source of inspiration was ‘Black artists feel,’” Chilewa said. “This [is the] idea that Black artists are deeply emotional and vulnerable in their showcase of their work. When you are engaging with these Black artists’ work this year, you are going to be engaging with feeling, emotion and vulnerability.”
As the night progressed, more and more people filed into the ambient space. With wine in hand, students clustered together as the artists stood by their pieces, explaining their creative processes to eager attendees.
“It was amazing to see such a wide range of people come and support,” Cius said. “It was faculty, graduate students and students [who] go to the 5Cs. They showed up and showed out. They supported, and honestly, that was my favorite part, just seeing everyone come to support these artists and be a part of that space.”
Conversations deepened with every second, as the artists’ words prompted dialogue over the emotionality and depth of each piece.
Michael Gaskins PO ’28, who makes art under the name of Mike Von, spoke about how he has always had a desire to create — for this show, Gaskins chose to focus on Black photography as his means of expression.
“I shoot every person and type of thing, but for this event, [I thought] it would be good to show a Black creative that I met downtown,” he said.
Gaskins described how he had met the man in the photograph during a night out with his friends. Laughing outside of the party, he took a blurry image of the Black creative that he’d met, intentionally shooting the subject out of focus. Blurred in motion, the work stands to represent the night’s fleeting energy.
“Capturing people in their element — that candid shot is what I love,” Gaskin said.
Gaskin talked about how meaningful it felt for him and other student artists to have their work displayed in an exhibit.
“It feels really good, you feel a sense of accomplishment to have a photo that you took on a wall,” he said. “It motivates you to see, [and it makes you think] ‘can I get more pieces on more walls and different spaces?’”
For some artists, like Asia Best CM ’27, who makes art as Ayrise, this event was their first opportunity to have art exhibited in a public space. Best described how the level of engagement and curiosity attendees had for her work added a new dimension of meaning to her artistic process.
“I was never intentional about what I chose,” she said. “So when I started sharing [my art] with other people, that was my main thing: What do you feel, what do you see in these pieces?”
Best creates all of her art on impulses; She explained that it is created in a flow state and through the release of grand emotions. Knowing which feelings inspired her pieces only pushes her to be more curious on how viewers interpret it.
“I used to think people would just see blobs. I was like, ‘Do you really see anything in this? Do you see the intention? Do you see where I am going?’ And they did,” Best said.
When one creates art in response to impulse, how people will receive it becomes somewhat of an afterthought. However, it is still important for artists to know that their ideas are seen, and their work makes a meaningful impact on its viewers.
“For me, being able to see [Best’s] work on canvas … it just made me feel very emotional,” Chilewa said.
For many of the artists, their art is more than a pastime; it is a whole new language through which emotions are translated. It is a way of naming experience, both personal and collective. Having their pieces on the wall was an accomplishment, and it also served as a declaration of presence.
The student art did what many institutions often forget to do: make room for current voices.
“This is transformative for people,” Best said. “For people to just have their work on display, and talk about it, engage with it, and be in a place where you can connect with one another … I think it is a beautiful thing.”
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