Lelia Contee, Contributing Writer
Black Minds Matter moved, grooved and built a community through a line dancing event called “Learn Your Line Dance” on March 20 in Harris Hall at VCU, according to the event’s page.
Black Minds Matter, or BMM, is a mental health organization founded at VCU that aims to create a safe space for students of color to open up about their mental health, according to Keir Sumpter, the event coordinator of BMM.
BMM hosts several events that address their support for students struggling with mental health, according to Sumpter. This is done through decompressing events, forums, educational sessions and volunteer work, according to Sumpter.
“We try to listen to both the community and the rest of the e-board about what we think students need to hear or how we could best support them,” Sumpter said. “We’re trying to give a space where we can talk about things that we feel like we wouldn’t be able to talk about otherwise.”
BMM encouraged students to gather at Harris Hall to learn classic line dances, using movement as a way of engaging with mental health, according to Sumpter.
The event started off with recognizing that some members of BMM did not know how to do certain line dances and recognized it as an opportunity to teach others.
“We thought, ‘Let’s open up a space where we can learn some of the popular line dances that might be a little harder to learn on your own,’” Sumpter said. “We just wanted to create that safe space like, ‘Hey, you don’t know how to do it, that’s okay. Let’s come in here and all have fun together.’”
Sumpter said a big part of mental health, especially for the Black community, is the ability to engage with your community. Line dancing is a “really big element” that the Black community experiences at any event, anywhere, no matter what is going on.
At “Learn Your Line Dance,” students learned different line dances such as the Electric Slide, VCU’s Left Slide, the Biker Shuffle and more, according to Sumpter. BMM also provided drinks and food for students to enjoy and take breaks in between dances to socialize.
Sumpter said she believes that physical movement is a “major part” of mental health that is often neglected. People need to get active, similar to emotional release, to release physical tensions within the body that come with stress and everyday life.
It is also a matter of cultural importance. Some Black people feel left out in the Black community because they feel like they are missing key elements of the Black experience, in this case, line dancing, according to Sumpter.
Sumpter said she hopes that BMM creating safe spaces for other Black students will inspire them to be more open about their shortcomings and get comfortable with the people around them so that they can learn and elevate themselves.
“I hope that by us creating these spaces within this event, and in all of our events, that we inspire other people to create spaces like that as well so that we can just grow as a people,” she said.
VCU has a plethora of different cultures and experiences that sometimes can make students feel isolated from their peers, such as not having the same major, job or other interests, according to Sumpter. She said that she felt significantly less alone with BMM.
“The impact that this organization has had on other Black students is just bringing us all together and letting us know like if nowhere else, you have a space here,” she said.
Jordan Hill, a fourth-year criminal justice student, said she attended the event with an interest in line dancing and was excited to have a good community to learn trending line dances and refamiliarize herself with old ones.
“My favorite part was definitely the sense of team building and encouraging one another,” Hill said. “I feel like it’s definitely cool to be in a space where it’s a judge-free zone.”
Sunday Wright, a fourth-year biology and bioinformatics student, said they love line dancing and were excited about this event.
“I think it’s really nice, especially for Black people, to come together to do one thing and find joy in it together,” Wright said. “It’s always beautiful to me.”
