Alice Lloyd | Bursley | Couzens | East Quad | Mary Markley | Mosher Jordan | Oxford | Stockwell | South Quad | West Quad

Alice Lloyd

Vicky Barner Lounge
Vicky Barner was born in Alaska in 1919 to Native American parents. She was moved at a young age to be raised by an aunt in Ohio, where she later attended Ohio State and Western Reserve University. During World War II Vicky enlisted in the army as a registered nurse. She married Leroy Barner when they both returned from service overseas. They settled in Pennsylvania and began raising a family. In 1965, a few years after the family had moved to Michigan, Vicky became dissatisfied with nursing and enrolled in art school at the University of Michigan. She graduated in 1969 with her BFA. Shortly thereafter she was involved in the creation American Indians Unlimited. This student group put on the first pow-wow in Ann Arbor, a tradition that continues today. Vicky's activism on campus included protesting the presence of the senior honor society Michigamua, on the grounds that it showed disrespect for Native American traditions. Vicky went on to earn her master's degree in education from Easter Michigan University, and became a recruiter of Native Americans for that school. She also formed a group called Women of American Native Tribes, which helped Native Americans find jobs. The Vicky Barner Multicultural Lounge in Alice Lloyd Hall was rededicated in Vickys honor in 2000. The lounge features artwork on Native American themes and as well as examples of Native American crafts.

Bursley

Martin Luther King Jr. Lounge
The lounge in Bursley Hall is named after one of this nation's foremost civil rights leaders, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15,1929. He sometimes endangered his life as well as the lives of his family while facing harassment, arrest and many other hardships to fight the equality battle for all minorities. Dr. King delivered some of the most powerful speeches of the 20th Century, including the most well known "I have a Dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963. He was killed by an assassin on April 4, 1968 while standing outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Every year the University of Michigan commemorates Dr. King's birthday with University Symposium activities, which include lectures, community service projects cultural events, and marches.

Couzens

CAMEO Lounge
This lounge is named after the hall's own Multicultural Council, CAMEO (Couzens Active Minority Ethnic Organization). The council represents students of color in Couzens who share common interests and who seek to make residents aware of multicultural concerns and issues of diversity. CAMEO serves as a peer support group for the multicultural student population and conducts cultural/race programs for the benefit of all residents.

East Quad

Abeng Lounge
An "Abeng" is an African word meaning conch shell. In the Caribbean and West Indies, it was used as a horn, often accompanied by a drum, which was used by the slaves in Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean to call a meeting and to otherwise communicate with one another. Abeng is also the name of East Quadrangle's minority cultural organization and lounge. The second of its kind at the University of Michigan, the Abeng organization and lounge were developed in 1971 as the result of BAM (Black Action Movement). The Movement, through protest, sought to attain for students of color equal access and equal opportunity at the University. The Abeng organization, which addresses and positively effects issues unique and important to people of color, meets on a regular basis in the Abeng Lounge.

Markley

Angela Davis Lounge
The multicultural lounge in Markley was rededicated on October 17, 1991 and is named after the renowned and controversial political activist, Angela Davis. Ms. Davis was on the U-M campus that day delivering a major address, and also attended the rededication ceremony at the namesake lounge in Markley. She was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1944. She received her Bachelor's degree in Philosophy from Brandeis University where she was involved in organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and carried out her graduate work at the University of California, San Diego. Although Angela Davis is most often remembered for her strong political activism, she has been involved in other activities. She joined the communist party in 1968 and was its vice-presidential candidate in the 1980 presidential election. Her Communist views caused her to lose her first teaching job at UCLA in 1969. Although her dismissal was overturned by a court order, her contract was not renewed the following year. She went into hiding in 1970 after being charged with aiding in an attempted courtroom escape that resulted in the murder of four people. She was apprehended in 1972, tried and acquitted. Angela Davis remains politically active today.

Arati Sharangpani Lounge
This multicultural lounge in Markley Hall honors the memory of Arati Sharangpani, a remarkable young woman who studied at the University of Michigan from 1993 to 1997. Born in Baroda, India in 1975, Arati (which means “offering to God”) moved to Holland Michigan with her family when she was two years old. An active and outgoing person, she traveled to Germany as an exchange student during her senior year in high school. Inspired by the cultural diversity to which she was introduced in her travels to Germany as well as to her native India, Arati resolved to try to make the world a better place.

While pursuing a double major in German and Organizational Studies, Arati became involved in many other activities during her years at UM. In addition to working as a resident advisor at Markley Hall for two years, she actively participated in the Indian American Students Association and served as its vice president in 1995 and 1996. Arati also became a facilitator for UM’s 21st Century Program and served as a graduate assistant for the American Culture Department. Despite her hectic academic and extracurricular schedule, Arati managed to find time to volunteer for a number of local community organizations.

On January 9, 1997, en-route from a successful job interview with Proctor & Gamble in Cincinnati, Ohio, Arati was killed when the plane in which she was traveling crashed during a snowstorm near Monroe, Michigan. She was posthumously awarded Bachelor of Arts degrees in both German and Organizational Studies by the University of Michigan. In 1998 the former Concourse Lounge in Markley Hall was dedicated to celebrating the life and spirit of one of the hall’s most vibrant young residents. The lounge was rededicated in 2003 with new artwork and a display specifically in honor of Arati.

Mosher Jordan

Nikki Giovanni Lounge
The poet, writer, and lecturer Nikki Giovanni was born in Knoxville, TN in 1943. She received her college education at Fisk University. She also holds many Honorary Degrees from Institutions all over the country. She is the author of numerous books of poetry such as Black Feeling and Those Who Ride the Night Winds. Ms. Giovanni has taught at many Universities including Rutgers, Ohio State and Queens College (City University of New York). She visited the UM campus in January to speak at the 1999 MLK Day Symposium. While in Ann Arbor, she also spoke to a group of students in the lounge that bears her name. Ms. Giovanni is currently a Professor of English at Virginia Tech.

César Chávez Lounge
César Chávez was born of Mexican heritage in Yuma, Arizona in 1927. He founded and led the National Farm Worker's Association (NFWA), the first successful farm worker's union, later known as the United Farm Workers (UFW). During the 1950' and 1960's, Chávez worked for a self-help group, the Community Service Organization. He became a full-time organizer for the group, organizing new chapters across California and Arizona. After serving as National Director of CSO, Chávez resigned his position to follow his dream and create his own organization to help farm workers. The UFW held boycotts and fasts to protest the treatment of farm workers worldwide. César Chávez said, "If you're outraged at conditions, then you can't possibly be free or happy until you devote all your time to changing them and do nothing but that". He died in 1993, at the age of 66.

Oxford

Mahatma Gandhi Lounge
Oxford Hall’s minority cultural lounge is dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi, a civil rights pioneer who initiated the practice of non-violent protest for achieving social and political change. Born at Porbandar, Kathiawad, India on October 2, 1869, Gandhi devoted his life to achieving equality for all people and self-rule for India. After studying law in India and England, Gandhi first became involved in human rights activities after experiencing color and race discrimination and harassment in South Africa while on a legal assignment there. Establishing a method of passive resistance known as satyagraha, he used protest marches and hunger strikes to achieve his humanitarian and political objectives in South Africa and, later, in India.

Despite his peaceful approach to change, Gandhi’s work incited outrage in both the establishment and the population. After enduring 2,338 days in prison, numerous hunger strikes, and years of attempts on his life, in January 1948 Gandhi was assassinated in Delhi, India at the age of 78. American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. was strongly influenced by Gandhi and patterned his own political and social activism on Gandhi’s methods.

Stockwell

Rosa Parks Lounge
Rosa Parks, for whom one of the lounges in Stockwell Hall is named, was born in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1913. In 1955, the tired seamstress refused to give up her seat to a White man on a bus in Montgomery as was required by city ordinance at that time. This action started a bus boycott that lasted over a year and inspired civil rights activist protests nationwide. The Supreme Court ruled such segregation unconstitutional in 1956. Mrs. Parks was once the secretary to the NAACP President and remained active with the organization. In 1996, the civil rights pioneer received the President's Medal of Freedom. Mrs. Parks passed away in Detroit on October 25th, 2005 and was the second woman and first African American to lie in state in the US Capitol Building Rotuda.

South Quad

Afro-American Lounge
Established in 1972 following the initial BAM (Black Action Movement) on the University of Michigan campus, the Afro-American Lounge was one of the first U of M residence hall lounges to be decorated with art and artifacts that reflected African American culture and history. Of the seven murals in the lounge, two reflect the struggle of the African American community in America. When the lounge was designed, no other cultural group had asked for meeting or living spaces, which reflected their culture and history. A major issue for the BAM participants was the absence of African American meeting and living spaces at the University and within the residence halls.

In developing this Housing-funded lounge - a place where students of color would feel welcome and comfortable - members of the African American community actively participated in its layout and overall design. At its inception, Ambatana (a Swahili verb meaning, "stick together") was the name of South Quadrangle's African American student organization - a group that addressed African American students' issues only. Around the same time, Minority Peer Advisors (MPAs), who were paraprofessional student staff hired by Housing to work with the African American student organizations, focused primarily on African American student issues. Over time, the focus of the MPA job expanded along with the role of Ambatana to include all federally recognized students of color: Native American, Asian American, Hispanic and Latino/a American, and African American residents. Today, Ambatana is an organization for any and all South Quadrangle residents who wish to participate in activities oriented towards students of color. Ambatana organization meetings usually take place in the Afro-American Lounge, which is often referred to as the Ambatana Lounge.

Yuri Kochiyama Lounge
Yuri Kochiyama was born in San Pedro, California in 1922. After being held in World War II Japanese internment camps, she became involved in the civil rights movement. She moved to Harlem, NY with her husband and became a strong political activist and speaker. She supports black liberation, Japanese-American redress for the internment and other social justice. Yuri Kochiyama was a close friend of Malcolm X, and a member of the Organization for Afro-American Unity (OAAU) as well as many other organizations. She is most famous for the photo of her holding the nation of Islam leader after he was shot at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem in 1965. Although she no longer accepts offers for speaking engagements, she continues as an active human rights activist and still resides in Harlem, New York. The lounge was dedicated to Yuri Kochiyama on April 17, 1999. She visited South Quadrangle before the interior design of the lounge was completed.

West Quad

Asubuhi Lounge
The Asubuhi (a Swahili word meaning, "morning") Council formed in Fall 1981 to serve as the resident council for students of color in West Quadrangle, as well as Betsy Barbour and Helen Newberry Houses. Until that point, no organized resident forum for students of color existed in these residence halls; consequently, no vehicle through which social, recreational, and educational activities directed to that population could take place.

One of the main projects of the Asubuhi Council, in conjunction with a series of Minority Peer Advisors and the director of the building, was to develop plans to remodel the existing minority cultural lounge. It was the decision of two Councils over successive years, along with other building staff, not to name the lounge in honor or memory of a specific individual, as had been done in a number of other Housing minority cultural lounges. Instead, the Council decided to name the facility the Asubuhi Cultural Center and Lounge. There were several design goals for the lounge: First, the lounge was to serve as a pleasant and effective lounge for students of color activities - including discussion sessions, small group seminars, meetings, and social functions. And second, it was to serve as a storytelling educational gallery and an African society-inspired media presentation that would challenge residents and visitors.

The renovated lounge was dedicated on February 5, 1985. Jon Onye Lockard, a University of Michigan faculty artist, worked closely with lounge designers. Since the early 1970's, Lockard has been involved with the design of several minority cultural lounges throughout the Housing system. More information is available about Jon Onye Lockard by visiting the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies' website.