"So I put my hands up, they're playing my song, the butterflies fly away......Yeah, its a party in the...."

Picture the scene:

After a long and hard semester, African students of the Detroit area are ready to socialize and have a little fun. So they decide to attend a little end-of-year dinner hosted by Wayne State University's own Wayne African Student Society (WASS). The hosts spend hours in their respective kitchens cooking for the potluck-style dinner: fried rice, rice and stew, chicken, spaghetti, plantain, meatpie, cake. As partytime draws near, fine young ladies and gentlemen get dressed in some of their flyest gear, making sure to check that their swag is turned on. Last-minute people buy their gift for the secret Santa exchange, get cans for the food drive and make their way to the event. They find a place to park and after one last look in the rear view mirror, they get out of the car. In the cold of the late-December night, well-dressed young men and women arrive on Wayne State's campus and walk quickly to the venue. They enter the place. Some take the elevator; some climb the stairs to the third floor. When they get to the room, a DJ is spinning the latest and greatest in popular African music. A table in the back has a spread of food that makes one hungry just looking at it. All around are clusters of beautiful black people that hail from Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana (and other African countries), the Islands, and the United States, talking and eating. After a while the dancefloor opens up and people proceed to break it down. But after some time, noise patrol comes to see why the room is so noisy. He opens the door and can't believe his eyes. After picking up his jaw that has dropped to the floor, he talks to those in charge. He tells them to keep it down. After all, this is a LIBRARY! Hahahaha...

I kid you not. My school's African group had our end of semester dinner/party in the school's undergrad library, in one of the rooms they have there for workshops and small lectures. I'm the public relations officer for the group, and when I went to book a large room in the student center a few weeks prior to the event, I was told that because the university was about to be closing for Christmas break, we couldn't use the room because it was being closed. So, I thought, we'll just use the room we usually use for our meeting. It's a good size. We can make it work. So I booked a room in the basement of the student center and thought it was all good. But to one of my fellow board members, it wasn't. He didn't think the room was good for a dinner where we were inviting non-Wayne State people. So he booked the community room in the library. I didn't think it was such a bad idea. That was until I realized that he invited a DJ. The music we were playing in the room before the DJ came was already loud. Imagine when the guy came and hooked up all his equipment to speakers and a mike. It was really a crazy situation. All I could do was throw up my hands and laugh, joining in on the madness. I'm still tickled just thinking about it. Lol. I was afraid that we were going to get kicked out, but they actually let us stay until the library closed at 10 pm. Some of the library staff and noise patrol came in at 10 and made sure we cleaned up and left. I know they probably thought we were crazy. I don't blame them!

During the normal school day, the first and second floors of the undergraduate library (UGL) are notorious for being unthinkably loud. On any given day of the week from around 10 am to about 8 pm you're liable to see all types of stuff. Baby mamas with their small children or crying infants trying to finish their papers at the computer. Large groups of people feasting on fast-food at the long tables and having loud conversations about things you don't want to hear about. Homeless and mentally disturbed people walking around talking to themselves. People playing music from cell phones and computers and having their own mini karaoke session. People arguing with bill collectors on the phone. I am not joking. You can ask anyone who goes to Wayne State. It's endearingly called Club UGL. I call it a zoo.

Our party was on the third floor though, the floor reserved for quiet study. During the school week, Wayne State hires noise patrol people to walk around and make sure no one is eating, talking, playing music on speakers, or even appearing to be having any kind of fun whatsoever. You have to go to a separate room if you want to do any of those things. This is where the serious people who actually came to the library to study go. I do want to mention, though, that it was the last day of finals and the library was relatively empty at the time this wahala went down. If that makes it any better......hahaha.

In conclusion, I would like to say: Some of you may have partied in Miami or Vegas. You might have gotten down in London. You might get it in on the Lagos scene. You may be a queen/king of the night life in wherever you live. But I bet you ain't never partied in no library, though! Ain't no party like a WASS party 'cause a WASS party can happen at any place and time. Na wa oh!