Before most people left for the long weekend Thursday evening, Black Men Emerging (BME) hosted their 9th annual Phenomenal Love event in the Hughes-Trigg Theater at 7:00 p.m.

“We take pride in continuing to put on an event that’s 100 percent dedicated to women,” said Manny Harris, a BME member.

Phenomenal Love is a ladies’ appreciation event put on every spring by the BME organization to show women on campus and in the community how much men appreciate them.

The event was free and open to the general public.

Phenomenal Love is the “premiere event of BME; it is the focus for this semester,” said Warren Seay, a BME member.

The men of BME had been preparing for this event since the beginning of the spring semester.

The event began with a stage production titled “How a Real Man Should Appreciate a Woman.” The show incorporated song, dance and theater routines by all members of BME.

According to Seay, the aim of the stage production was “to highlight ways in which men appreciate women and how they should treat them.”

As you walked into the theater, each woman received a rose from BME members standing in the aisles.

The stage production included parodies of popular television shows such as “The Montel Williams Show” renamed “The Montel Warren Show” with Seay acting as host and “From G’s to Gents” with BME member Timothy Clarke acting as host Fonzworth Timothy.

The stage performance also had talent show portions where members danced and sang, giving members a chance to showcase their talents.

Confessionals at the end of the play allowed each BME member to tell the special woman in his life how much she meant to him.

After the stage production there was dinner and a dance afterparty that started at 10:00 p.m.