By Jade Myers/campus editor

Students and faculty sat together at tables and engaged in conversation Feb. 8 in the Riverfront Cafe for TR Cultural Arts Night.

“Each February we made the tradition where our campus basically rents out the Jubilee Theater,” said Carter Bedford, TR student development services director. “We do a pre-performance dinner and discussion here on campus and then we all as a collective go over to the Jubilee Theater and enjoy whatever play is going on in February.”

The evening began with dinner and mingling.

“I came to this event because I am really interested in the Jubilee Theater, and I think it is going to be interesting,” TR student Madison Holman said.

UTA sociology associate professor Jason Shelton took the floor to drive the discussion over President Barack Obama’s presidency.

“Was his presidency a symbolic gain, or were there real tangible gains that we can point to and say ‘See, here’s the effect of a black president?’” Shelton asked. “When you think of President Barack Obama, what do you think of?”

Students and faculty were handed mics to voice their opinion. One thing most attendees said is how much pride they had when Obama became president and how that made them feel.

“I just liked that song, ‘My President is Black’ by Young Jeezy,” TR student Landri Walker said. “When that song came out, I felt proud.”

Some said they still are proud of the progress he made on subjects like gay rights and civil rights and the way they feel he represents the African-American community.

Others who were excited in the beginning said over time the excitement wore off because of some of the things he did or did not do as president such as Obamacare.

After dinner, Bedford introduced guest speaker Jubilee Theater artistic director D. Wambui Richardson to talk about this year’s play, Obama-ology.

“What you find is a young man by the name of Warren who has just graduated,” Richardson said “He’s ready to go out into the world. He’s ready to change the world.”

In the play, Warren is working on the Obama campaign.

“It’s the story of him knocking on doors and his interactions with people that agree and disagree with him,” Richardson said.

Obama-ology
7:30 p.m. Thursdays,
8 p.m. Fridays,
3 p.m., 8 p.m. Saturdays
3 p.m. Sundays