60 Seconds with Angela Gay-Audre

Angela Gay-Audre was named director of the African American Cultural Center in September after a summer of social unrest across the country. Gay-Audre, who had been assistant director of the Women’s Center, is also a Ph.D. candidate in NC State’s Educational Leadership, Policy and Human Development program.

The center has been closed since March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic sent students home. How are you reaching students?

We created [virtual] spaces for people to just be themselves, to engage, to check in. It has been facilitated conversations. It has been conversations very much focused on what’s happening across the nation. We still provide conversation-with-a-counselor space.

How do you think the role of the cultural center will change moving forward?

The work of community and cultural centers within educational systems should be evolving. If we’re listening to our students, if our work is student-driven, then it’s evolving. Students are evolving based on how the world evolves, how their parents are evolving, how their ancestry has evolved. There are so many components to that.

How can the university best support students of color right now — and all students?

We’re all humans. We come with our human frailties and our human powers. In terms of supporting students at this juncture, it is leading with grace. Leading with compassion. Sometimes leading means you’re not the only voice in the room.

How else are students getting support?

There are so many new trends that are starting. People are really into astrology. They’re really into exploring various spiritual means. They’re really into social media therapy and inspiration and aspiration. What that really tells me is that they’re looking for something. And most of the time when people are looking for something, guess what they’re looking for? Themselves.

You had to revamp your October wedding because of the pandemic. What did you learn from that?

Nothing about our wedding was expected — the venue, the building, the money. But it was beautiful. Lean into the unexpected, because beautiful things can emerge from it.  —Sarah Nagem

On the Web—diversity.ncsu.edu/aacc/