Editor’s note: This podcast was originally uploaded on November 20, 2023. 

In this episode of The Texan Recap, Audio Producer Jack Lewellyn chats about Texas National Pan-Hellenic Council’s biannual Hump Night event. Reported by Tyler Pullum. Hosted by Jack Lewellyn. Edited and supervised by Aislyn Gaddis. Cover art by Emma Berke. Music by Top Flow Productions.

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Jack Lewellyn: UT’s Black Greek Letter organizations foster connection at biannual Hump Night.

I’m your host this week, Jack Lewellyn and this is The Texan Recap.

Here’s what you missed this week.

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Jack: UT’s National Pan-Hellenic Council had its “Hump Night” event this week. General Life & Arts Reporter Tyler Pullum is here to tell us about it. Thanks for joining me, Tyler

Tyler Pullum: Thank you for having me.

Jack: So just to start, what is Texas NPHC?

Tyler: So Texas NHPC stands for the National Pan-Hellenic Council. And basically, it’s like a representation of all the Divine 9 organizations which are the Black frats and sororities that make up the council.

Jack: Tell me about your interview with Texas NPHC President Elle Grinnell.

Tyler: I interviewed her for the recent article, and in it, we talked about kind of her role as president, especially when organizing events such as Hump Night and kind of how she’s seen the organization grow after COVID, and how she hopes to continue to see it grow in future years.

Jack: And the NPHC has an event called Hump Night. Can you tell me about it?

Tyler: So basically, Hump Night is an event that stems from kind of HBCUs and other schools with Divine 9 presences on them. And it’s a celebration, and they kind of just, they do a lot of different things. But the main element of it is strolling, which is very common. And it’s a very important part of Greek life where Black frats and sororities and we hosted at UT every semester, but some schools, they might host it every couple of weeks, every month, something like that. It just depends on the school and how often they’re looking to host it. But it’s just an event that you know, people who are in Greek life and people who aren’t in Greek life can get together and kind of just see, you know, their strolls, which are, you know, their dance routines and kind of just going around in celebrate, you know, the organizations.

Jack: And at Hump Night they had a dance called strolling, you’ve already talked about a little bit. But if you want to go into more detail you can.

Tyler: So basically strolling is a kind of choreographed dance that each Greek letter organization will do on their own. I believe that they choreograph their own routines. But basically, it’s something that’s kind of evolved over the course of Black Greek life. I don’t believe that it started at the beginning of you know, a lot of these organizations, I think it really came about in the 60s and 70s. And it was something that kind of has become such a prevalent and almost dominant fact, or feature of each Greek letter organization.

Jack: What did you learn about why Hump Night is important to the community?

Tyler: I learned that Hump Night is an opportunity for Black students and Black students in Greek life to get together and celebrate, you know, just come together and have an opportunity to really enjoy each other’s presence, especially at a school like UT where there’s not a big population of Black students is oftentimes, you know, difficult to be in a classroom where, you know, you might be the only Black student or you know, one of the few Black students but opportunities and events like hot night really gives students the opportunity to not only showcase you know, Black students and what Black students are doing, but just come together in general and just have a good time all together.

Jack: That was General Life & Arts Reporter Tyler Pullum. Thanks for being here today.

Tyler: Thank you for having me again.

Jack: And that’s The Texan Recap for the week of November 13th. I’m Jack Lewellyn.

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Jack: The Texan Recap is a production of The Daily Texan Audio Department. If you like this episode, make sure you subscribe to The Daily Texan on your streaming platform of choice and follow us on Twitter @texanaudio. This episode was hosted by me, Jack Lewellyn and edited and supervised by Aislyn Gaddis. Special thanks to Tyler Pullum for his reporting and to Katy Nelson, Mimi Calzada and Chloe Moore for contributing to this project. Cover art is by Emma Berke and music is by Top Flow Productions. To read the news stories in this episode or see more from the Texan, head on over to www.thedailytexan.com. Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you next week.