It was 4:30 on a Saturday afternoon and sophomore Tamir Poindexter was demonstrating two line dances he hadn’t planned on teaching to a room full of Tufts students. By this point, the group had already blown through all the dances that Poindexter and the other club leaders had prepared to teach. But they weren’t ready to stop.
“We did two extra dances that we really didn’t expect because people were like, ‘We want to keep going,’” Poindexter said.
This was the energy throughout the entirety of the Line Dance Dance-A-Thon on Saturday. The event was hosted by three on-campus groups: the African American Foundations and Roots Organization, the Theta Iota Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. and the Tufts chapter of The National Society of Black Women in Medicine. The event served as a fundraiser for the Resilient Sisterhood Project, a Boston-based nonprofit dedicated to educating and empowering women of African descent on reproductive health issues that disproportionately impact their community.
Line dancing, a form of choreographed dance in which people repeat a sequence of steps while arranged in lines, has deep roots in Black history and culture. It was an integral form of artistry during the Harlem Renaissance, a time when Black artistic expression surged to the forefront of American culture. In recent months, line dancing has gained widespread attention on social media, with dances to songs like “Boots on the Ground” by 803Fresh and “Can’t Get Enough” by Tamia going viral.
Some attendees, such as junior Jasmine LaMotte, were already familiar with many of the line dances taught at the dance-a-thon via informal settings such as cookouts and family gatherings.
“I know most of the dances we learned, but the ones that were towards the end I didn’t really know, and they were much harder. So that was a challenge, but it was still fun,” she said.
However, many others were approaching the dances for the first time.
“A lot of [people] did not know the line dances before they got here, but everyone walked out with a new piece of culture and knowledge towards it,” Poindexter, AAFRO’s external vice president, said.
All of the dances were taught by leaders of the three hosting groups, who took the time to learn the choreography beforehand.
“We were practicing for two or three hours. All the first few dances, the easy to medium level dances, were really easy to get. But then once we got to our hard and difficult [level dances], it was like, ‘Whoa, we’re going to have to spend more time on this,’” AAFRO president Tyler Alphonse said.
According to sophomore Jerrica Arnett, internal vice president of AAFRO, the dance-a-thon was a way to combine fun and community with the pressing issue of Black maternal health.
“Our dance culture is one of the most visible aspects of our culture that people like to participate in. A lot of people do the Cha-Cha Slide, they don’t even know how significant it is to us. This isn’t just a dance to us. There’s history, there’s culture,” she said. “The charitable aspect is the most important. But how are we going to get people to donate? … We had to mix the fun with the charitable.”
Regina Agyemang, founder and president of the Tufts chapter of the The National Society of Black Women in Medicine, agreed.
“When we talk about reproductive health, it can be such a heavy topic, because a lot of times we talk about maternal death and things like that. Using such a lighthearted activity that’s really connected to the Black community through line dancing was a great way to get us to all open up,” Agyemang said. “Personally, I couldn’t think of another event where we’d be collaborating with a fraternity, but it was a nice way to break the ice and then actually truly realize that all of our missions really do align.”
The dance-a-thon comes at a time of great national uncertainty for public health services, especially considering the abrupt actions of the new presidential administration. In recent weeks, President Donald Trump’s administration has worked relentlessly to slash budgets for state health services, a decision that disproportionately affects Black communities. On March 26, the Department of Health and Human Services cut $12 billion in federal grants for state health departments — funds that had previously been used for disease tracking, addiction services, addressing health disparities and more.
Racial disparities in accessing quality healthcare are especially evident when it comes to reproductive health, where Black women are 3.3 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. Additionally, Black people are severely underrepresented in the medical field. In 2023, only 5.7% of doctors in the U.S. identified as Black, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
This underrepresentation was a key reason Agyemang founded the Tufts chapter of The National Society of Black Women in Medicine in 2024, whose mission is to increase the retention of Black women in medicine.
“After finishing my general chemistry classes, I found that I was experiencing a lot of imposter syndrome, and then upon talking to other Black women here on campus, I realized that it was a shared experience. So I wanted to create a space where we could acknowledge that, but also praise the accomplishments of Black women pursuing careers in medicine,” she said.
Similarly, Alphonse, Arnett and Poindexter founded AAFRO after arriving on campus their freshman year and realizing that there was no designated affinity space for African Americans.
“We had all initially noticed that vacancy and reacted to it differently, and … there was a point at which we all realized we were in the same struggle,” Poindexter said. “There was a need for someone to spread awareness about the [role] that African-Americans play in the overall Black community.”
AAFRO was only recognized as an official club this past spring. Before then, club leaders had been hosting events without university funding as they worked to have it officially established.
“There’s a lot of moments where the doors get slammed in your face and you’re just like, ‘What are we going to do?’ We went an entire semester, last semester, [with] no funding. … We ran six or seven events [with our own money],” Arnett said.
Since then, AAFRO has put on several events for the Tufts community, with the dance-a-thon only being the latest. One notable highlight is when Alphonse, Arnett and Poindexter were keynote speakers at Medford City Hall for Black History Month on Feb. 17 and presented on the topic of “African Americans and Labor.”
But Alphonse notes that the club felt particularly supported during the dance-a-thon.
“[There’s] been overwhelming support. And I really appreciate that everybody in the community came out to learn about line dancing and came out to learn about the Resilient Sisterhood Project,” he said. “I feel like our mission was fulfilled.”
Both AAFRO and the Tufts chapter of The National Society of Black Women in Medicine have big events upcoming before the end of the semester. On April 25, AAFRO will be hosting a Soul Food Showdown that also encourages students to donate to their Community Pantry Food Drive. On April 29, the Tufts chapter of The National Society of Black Women in Medicine will be hosting an ice bucket challenge event in collaboration with Tufts Athletics, Black Athletes at Tufts and Athletes of Color at Tufts to raise awareness about ALS.
But above all, Alphone, Arnett, Poindexter and Agyemang urge the Tufts community to donate to the Resilient Sisterhood Project to help create a space where Black women can learn about and speak freely on reproductive health issues.
“To support our mission, it would be great if people could donate towards the Resilient Sisterhood Project, just to help them out with more research,” Agyemang said.