The annual Black Diamonds party, organized by Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, was Saturday night at Alumni Hall.
The annual event brings together black students for a night of dancing and high fashion. It was formally known as Black Diamonds and Pearls because pearls are a symbol for Alpha Kappa Alpha and diamonds are a symbol for Kappa Alpha Psi .
“When I was a freshman I came in hearing about this event,” senior and chapter president Courtland Crenshaw said. “Everyone was talking about Black Diamonds and Pearls, and it wasn’t until the end of January. So this event is literally the event that everyone looks forward to.”
The room was crowded with people wearing all different colors and styles — a black suit with patterned cuffs, a mink coat, a velvet dress, a blue silk floral cheongsam dress, a white suit jacket with a red striped shirt and bandana, a holographic dress shirt. The women of Alpha Kappa Alpha all wore various styles of white dresses.
This event started with Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority coming together to bring a formal type of party to campus, Crenshaw said.
"We like to set the standard but for this event, specifically, we want everybody to look at this as the party to be at, to wear your best outfit to, because you know there are going to be cameras and you know everybody is going to be dressed in their best outfit," Crenshaw said.
Alpha Kappa Alpha was not officially a host of the event this year like years past, but its members attended. Crenshaw said they might be a part of it in the future, bringing back the Pearls to Black DiamondsThe event has been around for about a decade.
Junior Daionna Watkins said the event was a good experience because it offered the chance to get more dressed up than other events.
Forrest Glasper, an IU student and rapper known asAlmighty FO, performed for the attendees.
“The concert aspect gave you something more to look forward to," Watkins said. It wasn’t just going to be a DJ playing music. We got to listen to one of our local people perform. Whenever you have performers from our campus, it adds something to the experience.”
