This is the third part of a three-day series on the relationship between the African-American communities on campus and in Champaign-Urbana.

A female resident of Champaign stands in front of a crowd of 30 people swaying back and forth humming at first and then bursting into a song. She is dressed in a green head rap, blue shirt and black pants. She claps her hands as a student joins her on stage. They begin harmonizing together. Their voices echo through the coffee shop of the Krannert Art Museum.

This performance was apart of the SPEAK Cafe. SPEAK stands for Songs, Poetry, Expressions, Art and Knowledge.

Heather Downs, a graduate student of sociology, said programs like this are needed to bring the community and the campus together. She said organizations that do outreach programs linking the experience of the campus to the community are the best way to overcome the disconnection. Downs said if the University had classes that required students to go out into the community this would expose students to the idea of outreach.

Professor William Patterson, assistant director of the African-American studies program, with a combination of students and local residences started this monthly open mic event in order to help link the campus and the community together while digitizing the hip-hop generation.

“This serves as an opportunity for black people and black students to be stewards of managing the image of black people and black artists,” Patterson said.

Patterson said when he originally constructed this idea he wanted the community to be involved. He wanted SPEAK to be a place where residence and students could meet and address social issues.

“The goal was to get the community on the campus,” Patterson said.

Patterson said this task is difficult because not all of the community trusts campus.

He has noticed this barrier more as he tried to connect with the community from the University’s side.

“You often hear about being concerned that the University is always taking and not giving back,” Patterson said. I think the University gives back, it just gives back in different ways.”

He said SPEAK is just one idea to help bridge this gap between the campus and the community.

Gabrielle Pendleton, sophomore in Engineering, is the president of SPEAK. She said the idea started with Patterson’s class.

“It started off as an idea, and it is amazing that now it is actually in the works,” Pendleton said.

She is in charge of bringing in monthly artists from the community and the campus.

“We are all African-Americans . regardless we are still being discriminated against,” Pendleton said.

Stefanie Jones, senior in LAS, is a very active member of SPEAK. She said she is currently working on the Black Power conference, which is set to be held in April.

“I am working on the overall funding of this show and the organization,” Jones said.

She said she worked on a committee over the summer to get the effort off the ground.

“Many people on the campus don’t know anything about the community and vice versa,” Jones said, “We are trying to bring those two sectors together.”

Ed Vinci, resident of Champaign, said before SPEAK he never wanted to come to campus because of how he thought the students were.

“People from the community stay away because it is a lack of resources and knowledge,” Vinci said.

He started coming around the campus because his fianc‚e was a student here. He said before dating her he did not have the need or feel welcomed to come to campus.

“I was blind to it myself, I did not see all the things that went on because it was not advertised to the community,” Vinci said.

Nathaniel Banks, director of the African-American Cultural Program, said efforts like SPEAK are great but the University needs to get more involved.

He said the Chancellor is trying to come up with ideas that would benefit the local community and create programs that would fall under the Land-Grant mission of the University.

“Part of our mission is the community engagement,” Banks said. “The black community is a significant percent of the population, and that community needs to be engaged with the same type that takes place with the local farm community or even the areas in Engineering.”

He said there need to be more programs like the East St. Louis Project. He said that program is proof that the University can create successful programs to engage the community.

Jinni Sorensen, assistant director to the East St. Louis Project, said this project has existed since the late eighties, and it brings students along with professors into the community to help build its landscape. She said state representatives wanted the University to become involved with the city of East St. Louis. She said the area at the time was impoverished and needed extra assistance from outside sources.

“The University, led by some of its faculty members, took this area under its wing,” Sorensen said.

The project is responsible for creating buildings and parks in the community, but there is not a program such as this that exists in Champaign.

Banks said if the University could help in East St. Louis, they can assist with the black community here in Champaign.

“We already have the resources,” Banks said. “Rather than seeing it as an aside, we can also view this as an important part of the mission of the University of Illinois.”

Patterson said he is on a steering committee that looks at civic engagement at the University.

“The Chancellor’s office and the President’s office are looking into this whole idea of students’ engagement in communities and provide that service, which helps them become stronger citizens and how the University play in this development,” Patterson said.

Patterson said he does not know if SPEAK will be back next year, but he feels the program has been successful.

“It is not about rocking the crowd, it is about rocking the world, and you do this by understanding how to create the space for artistic expression,” Patterson said.