Sanaa Scott-Wheeler
Op/Ed Editor
The air was thick with the germs of other schools and thermal energy. Bodies fusing together forming crowds oriented to the middle circle. The number of boys is much higher than the number of girls. Friend groups are staying in their respected corners as a strategy of finding their way back to each other. The slippery floor kisses the soles of your shoes, then vanishes, and….
How did we get to a scene like this? Let’s go to the beginning.
On Friday, February 22nd, the Black Student Union at Science Leadership Academy hosted the follow-up to September´s Kick off party in the cafe. The original kickoff was according to everyone, a banger — almost everyone showed up and had a good time, and those who weren’t t there knew what happened through Snapchat or Instagram. Naturally everyone who was not at the first, would come to the second one. We knew it would be wild.
Social media helped blow up the second party. Weeks in advance it was advertised through videos, screenshots, memes and whatever else on several platforms.
Then came the week of the party, people steady making plans for before. Deciding on outfits, makeup then finally hair. What would be appropriate for this event? And the big debate: Do I want to look cute vs Do I want my favorite pair of Jordans stomped on?
The day of the party, I met up with other students after school to confirm what time we would all arrive. 8:00 on the dot. 3:30-8:00 is four and a half hours and I still had to factor in transportation. The time to get ready starts now, go!
4:30 approached as a walked up front steps to my house. My first thought was to take a shower, because who doesn’t shower before a party? Everyone should.
5:30: I get dressed and accessorize. At 6:30, I let my cousin beat my face with makeup, knowing for a sure fact that everything will sweat off during the first hour of the party.
Sweat we did, the heat concentrated into one space, my locs started to soak up some of the moisture in the atmosphere. One section of the building had become the cool down area. The bathrooms and when you first walked into the building. The deeper you went into the cafe the higher the temperature went.
The final headcount was at about 300, but it felt like the entire school district was there. The windows were fogged up to the third floor, coat racks filled so SLA students had to put their belongings in lockers. Because it was so crowded, no one really knew who came until the lights came on.
Not everybody enjoyed the crush.
¨I walked into this one area, it had a weird musty smell, I wasn’t feeling it,¨ Said Keyonne Johnson, a junior at SLA. ¨I came into school Monday morning and saw all the dirt on the floor, It’s still not clean.”
They played “A lot of upbeat songs, they never played the whole way through, the DJ did not connect with the crowd. ¨ Said Jeremiah Butler when speaking about what he thought went wrong.
He also griped about the attendance: ¨There should be and equal amount of boys and girls.¨
So overall what have we learned? You won’t be seen so don’t stress over how you look, just make sure you can dance. Always shower before parties no exceptions or questions allowed. At the party instead of asking to dance, people were just grabbed, there was no real space for dancing with friends unless the crowd moved in the opposite direction.
Each party should have an equal amount of boys and girls to keep the party at a good size. Bring water because it will get hot. Don´t bring too much stuff, you don’t know that you’ll have a place to store it. Then last but certainly not least, a critical skill for parties in Philadelphia: pick the right time to play Dreams and Nightmares and let it play the whole way through.
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