Shedding Light on the things left unsaid...Boxes & Walls

Boxes and Walls, an interactive display of oppressive issues concerning college students, was established at Southeast Missouri State University in February of 2007. This semester, the event will take the form of a play on Dec. 7, 2011 at 7 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom.

Former Southeast hall director Sh'Nita Mitchell initially attended a Boxes and Walls event at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, her alma mater.

"Boxes and Walls is a common name people use for different diversity programs," Mitchell said. "It just means the breaking down of the symbolic walls and boxes many put up from each other; for people to communicate and understand one another in hopes of them ending up getting along."

To help students gain an understanding of others' situations and learn how to interact with those different from themselves, Boxes and Walls at Southeast is produced as a combination of skits or a play. It focuses on diversity issues that are present at the university and varies every semester.

"Boxes and Walls is run differently at Whitewater," said Mitchell. "It is held in the basement of one of the buildings and the students traveled throughout the different diversity themed rooms. There aren't skits or plays like at Southeast."

Graduate student Joseph Binkley has been an active participant since the very first Boxes and Walls event at Southeast, of which there have been seven so far.

"Boxes and Walls started small with a few short skits and slowly developed into the play-like presentation that it is today," Binkley said. "In the beginning, participants were mainly resident assistants and a few members of Phi Beta Sigma, but now the group is comprised of members of Diversity Peer Educators (DPE), Phi Beta Sigma, Residence Life and others with no affiliation to any of these organizations."

Members of DPE and other participants of Boxes and Walls suggest themes for the event during early meetings. After all the topics have been discussed and their possible story lines elaborated on, the organizers of Boxes and Walls vote on those suggestions. The ideas that have received the most votes are used to compose the production.

Southeast senior Donald Coleman organized the Boxes and Walls event this year.

"To me, Boxes and Walls' main purpose is to expose those things that go unsaid, such as sexual identity, date rape, internal battles, growing up with one parent, inter-racial dating, army and college life, etc," Coleman said.

Southeast students write and act in every Boxes and Walls event on campus.

"Sometimes we include real people who are or have been affected by the issues or who have truly lived though some of the scenarios," Coleman said. "We display various issues and debrief with the audience following the production."