After Dark to offer night of 'tremendous amount of hope'

Hip-hop artist KB, country artist Corey Kent White and guest speaker Joe White are taking the stage as part of After Dark � a free event catered to college students � at 8 p.m. Thursday at Southeast Missouri State University�s Academic Hall.

Director of After Dark Geoff Todd said the event is for everybody and described it as a time �where music and message meet.�

�Since 2000, we�ve been on hundreds of college campuses in front of about half a million students with this event,� he said.

The heart behind the event, Todd said, is to support students and organizations on campuses that otherwise couldn�t pull off the magnitude of the event.

Todd works with several on-campus organizations and students to put on the shows. His aim is to create something for the entire campus, he said.

�It�s not just a concert, it�s not just a speaker, and it really is an experience that you can bring anyone and everyone to,� Todd said, �regardless of the background or belief system that person has.�

Music talent for each After Dark event rotates slightly, Todd said, thanks to a long-standing relationship the organization has with artists nationwide including KB, Lecrae, Andy Mineo, NEEDTOBREATHE, Ben Rector, Judah & the Lion and Ellie Holcomb.

The goal is to fill Academic Hall on Thursday, Todd said.

�We believe that it�s a night that offers a tremendous amount of hope for anyone that shows up,� he said.

Senior Blake Henson, Southeast campus representative for After Dark, is coordinating the event, Todd said.

After Henson and a friend first heard about the event being a possibility at Southeast, he said they wondered, �Why not us? Why not SEMO?�

�I realized that it�s really easy to make a negative impact somewhere, but it�s really hard to make a positive one,� Henson said. �We really wanted to leave a good mark on SEMO and just do everything we could to provide a place of hope for students.�

Student organizations Ignite Campus Ministry, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Chi Alpha Campus Ministry, Lighthouse Campus Ministry and Remix University Church all contributed to bringing the show to campus, Henson said.

Joe White is the president of Kanakuk Kamps and founder of Kids Across America in Branson, Missouri. He has spoken to Promise Keepers, Focus on the Family Radio, Life on the Edge Conferences, Major League Baseball, the NFL and After Dark events across the country, according to After Dark�s website.

From Oklahoma, Corey Kent White mixes classic country sounds with modern pop melodies. His latest EP, �Long Way,� broke into the iTunes Top 10 Country Albums and his songwriting landed him a publishing deal with Warner/Chappell, according to his website.

KB won the Dove Award for Rap/Hip-Hop Song of the Year, �100,� in 2014.

More information can be found at the event�s Facebook page.

jhartwig@semissourian.com

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