When I first came to Harvard, I was looking for a community that felt like home. As a Generational African American (GAA), which is an identity for descendants of enslaved Africans in America.

I’ve often found myself navigating the experience of being a minority within a minority. After searching for a space that honored our specific history, beautiful culture, and lively traditions, I found a home in the Generational African American Students Association (GAASA).

Founded in the fall of 2019 by three Harvard students, GAASA is an affinity space and student organization created to celebrate GAA culture and to advocate for our needs on campus. Our culture is rich and beautiful, yet often under recognized – even within broader Black spaces. Harvard College GAASA was founded to change that.

Since I became a member of GAASA in 2021 as a first-year student, I’ve had the honor of serving as Vice President, President, and now a Senior Representative for the GAASA Family (which is what I like to call our community). What has always made GAASA unique is our two core pillars of community and activism, which are what guide our programming and activism. The events that we hold are each rooted in GAA tradition, Black joy, and fostering community. Some of our signature events have come to be:

• Spades & Slade’s: This is a celebration of food and fellowship where we invite our members to play Spades (a card game that has long been favored by Black Americans) while eating soul food from Slade’s Bar & Grill, which is a beloved soul food restaurant in Boston.
• Line Dancing Workshops: One of my favorite events, this is where we practice and pass down classic line dances such as the "Wobble”, “Tamia Shuffle”, “Bunny Hop”, and more! I had the honor of leading our inaugural Line Dancing Workshop in 2022, and I’m excited to see the tradition carry on. Line dancing is an integral aspect of community that is seen from cookouts to family reunions, and now GAASA events!
• Mardi Gras Mixer: Although we are across the country from New Orleans, every February, the GAASA Family comes together to celebrate Mardi Gras as a nod to Black Southern traditions. We started a potluck tradition where students can cook family recipes and bring dishes to GAASA events. My favorite dish to make are “Baby Shower Meatballs”!
• GAASA Kickoff: Every September, we collaborate with local chapters of the Divine Nine, which are a national group of historically Black fraternities and sororities. We host a cookout at JFK Park in the heart of Harvard Square in celebration of the start of the academic year. Recently, we have expanded our collaborations with other GAASA chapters that have since been founded after Harvard GAASA came about.

Every event is a love letter to the communities we come from. And every time we get together, we’re not just building fellowship, we’re preserving our culture, honoring our legacy, and affirming each other’s experiences as Generational African Americans. 

Earlier this semester, we held one of our biggest events of the year: the Second Annual GAASA Gala, a night of elegance, celebration, and GAA pride. This year’s theme was Harlem Nights, honoring the Harlem Renaissance, which was a golden age of African American creativity and culture in the 1920s and 1930s. The color scheme of black, gold, and deep indigo set the tone for an evening rooted in glamour and culture. The night was filled with soul food, line dancing, and performances, ranging from a beautiful rendition of the Black National Anthem (Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing) to a captivating lyrical dance performance. It was a night of joy, movement, and community.

One of the most powerful moments for me came during the senior recognition. As a Senior Representative, I helped honor what we call our  “GAASA Elders”, the graduating students in the GAASA Family. This comes from the GAA tradition of “respecting your elders. This time was truly special, however, as many of the Elders like myself who have helped grow this organization, especially in the years following the pandemic, are graduating. Many have served on the board, mentored underclassmen, and poured their time and energy into creating the community we once needed. Without them, there would be no GAASA as we know it today. Watching them be celebrated was deeply emotional. I saw the full arc of our collective work, and I felt an immense amount of pride.

The GAASA Gala didn’t exist when we first stepped on campus, but we had a vision. And at Harvard, when you have a vision and a group of people who believe in it, you can make it happen. That’s what we did: we built something beautiful from the ground up, something that will live on long after we graduate.

GAASA is about more than events, it’s about family, legacy, and love. It’s about advancing our pillars of community and activism. It’s about creating spaces for Black students whose history is American history. I always like to say, once a member of the GAASA Family, always a member of the GAASA Family. I am so proud to have helped write this chapter of GAASA’s story as one of my final acts on campus.