Black Leadership Awareness and Culture Club hosted its annual retreat Aug. 18. This year, the event took place at the Middle School and included a trip to The Broad museum to help students further develop their self-identity as African Americans.

BLACC first gathered on campus to engage in team-bonding activities and attend a panel that Executive Producer Nkechi Okoro Carroll and Actor Daniel Ezra, who worked on the show “All-American,” hosted. They described their experiences as African-Americans in the television industry and answered the audience members’ questions.

“It was just really interesting to hear the parallel experiences between Carroll and Ezra] trying to make it in Hollywood and how a lot of kids in independent schools like Harvard-Westlake are trying to fit in and find their way in an environment that isn’t always so reflective of them,” BLACC co-chair Remi Patton ’20 said.

Following Daniel Ezra’s and Nkechi Okoro Carroll’s panel, BLACC visited The Broad downtown, where they viewed the “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power” exhibit. In addition, students perused other galleries on display, such as Jean-Michel Basquiat’s paintings, with their free time.
The retreat concluded with another panel, where faculty and alumni answered any questions regarding the students’ trip.

At the same time, members of the BLACC club helped assemble 200 backpacks to donate.

“I remember this one exhibit included a upright door with the word ‘Admissions’ tacked on above it and a lot of hands and other shapes on the door,” Upper School Dean and faculty BLACC adviser Chris Jones said. “I thought it was interesting how when we got back, a lot of other students noted this same exhibit due to the fact that even at a younger age during the middle school even, kids were already thinking about these things in the past too.”