The Black Student Union held the event I Will Not Die Young in the Innovative Teaching and Technology Center Wednesday. 

This workshop/performance was lead by Muhibb Dyer, founder of the I Will Not Die Young campaign and co-founder of Flood the Hood with Dreams, an organization dedicated to helping high-risk youth, specifically black youth, realize that they do not need to die young and that they can follow whatever aspirations they may have. 

The event began with Dyer shaking the attendees’ hands, and explaining why he does what he does. 

“[The] only way to get free in life is to be willing to do what others don’t want to do,” Dyer said.

Dyer’s main focus was on youth that passed away too young due to violence. 

Dyer, a finalist in national poetry events, performed several story poems. One was about a young black man who died too soon; another a young child dying due to violent crime.

Following the poetic stories, the workshop began to “get deeper” as Dyer put it. One activity required attendees to write “truth is” statements — things that they are not happy about or things that they hope will happen. 

Throughout the event, the workshop strived to create a close bond, as some of the things attendees wrote were hard to cope with. Tears were shed as backs were patted, and arms surrounded each other. 

Dyer said his reason for his campaign and his work is to “prove that [one] can make it.” 

Dyer said he hoped the event shed light on some of the deceased that were forgotten, the names that stay on the streets, despite all the anguish that is caused by the violent crimes. In order to move on, Dyer said one needs to do “something positive with the pain.”