Khalyla Semexant had grown tired of Yardfest when she rounded up her friends and sat in Blackburn Cafe for a lunch break. Halfway through her meal, her phone lit up with a notification from her Cover2Cover magazine group chat.
“She’s outside the gates,” the message read, accompanied by a picture of supermodel Anok Yai.
Semexant and her friends abandoned their food, opting to rush through The Yard for a chance to get a glimpse of the model who had walked in the Victoria’s Secret fashion show less than a week prior.
“I was starstruck, personally,” the junior acting major said. “I didn’t believe that she was here, but then I saw her, and I immediately turned around. She said something to me because I was like, ‘You better work, b**ch!’ And then she was like, ‘You better work!’”
Yai’s modeling career kicked off after a photo taken of her by photographer and Howard alumnus Steven Hall at Howard’s 2017 homecoming went viral. She donned a black long-sleeve shirt and jean shorts.
Seven years later, on Oct.19, the model who has gone on to win awards like Models.com’s 2023 “Model of the Year,” returned to The Yard, sporting a striking red piece from Maison Schiaparelli’s Spring 2025 runway show.
After first seeing her at the end of 2017’s Yardfest, Hall, who goes by TheSUNK, instinctively sensed she didn’t attend Howard and told her so.
“If you did, I would’ve seen you and shot you already,” Hall said.
The artist expressed that her complexion and stature immediately stood out to him, prompting the alumnus to snap her photo.
Hall was one of many who were surprised by the return.
“I had no idea she was coming to campus, but I figured at some point she’d need to revisit the moment that launched her success,” he said.
In an interview posted by Essence magazine at the Met Gala in May, Yai spoke about returning to Howard.
“I have to come back to Howard soon. I don’t know when, but I’m coming to see y’all,” Yai told Essence.
The South Sudanese model decided Howard’s 100th homecoming was the right time to reunite with her career’s birthplace.
After her appearance on the first day of Yardfest, Yai took to X to post, “HU, I love you endlessly. I’m returning tomorrow. Can’t wait to see you again. Let’s turn up for real.”
Yai remained true to her claim and made an appearance in The Valley on Saturday.
McKenzie Cooper-Moore, a junior marketing major from Chicago, is a Class VIII Elite Model who’s been modeling since the 8th grade.
“I am a Black trans woman, and there’s not a lot of representation,” Cooper-Moore said. “She’s one of the top models right now, being a Black woman and being unapologetically Black. That’s really cool. I really do look up to her.”
Cooper-Moore isn’t the only model on campus that hails Yai as an inspiration to Black models.
Jahiem Holmes is a senior political science major from New York. The Models of the Mecca (MOTM) president has seen many celebrities but said he’s never seen a reaction like the one people gave Yai.
“For some reason, it just seemed like people were so in awe of who she was and her beauty that they kinda paused,” Holmes said.
In a TikTok shared by Essence, Yai is captured strolling through a bustling crowd on The Yard. The camera then shifts to a man in a red hat, his jaw dropped and expression frozen in astonishment.
“Relating it back to MOTM, we’re always talking about diversity and inclusion and always wanting to be in the industry. Not to assimilate, not to fix and change ourselves to their standard, but to come in with our own standard,” Holmes said.
The MOTM president went on to explain how he feels Yai embodies this sentiment through her work in modeling.
The supermodel has coined a viral sound on TikTok, taken from an interview with Vogue where she stated, “I refuse to do any shows or any shoots with straight hair. And I basically told them it’s afro or cornrows or nothing.”
In the past, Yai has also spoken out against retail store Zara for her mistreatment during a photo shoot in 2019, in which she said a photographer called her a cockroach. She named the brand on X in a thread and shamed them for their lack of response in protecting their clients.
“I feel like if the industry can acknowledge that this was her birthplace, there’s so many other gems that are at our school for people to find. The possibility of becoming a model is truly something that is in reach,” Holmes said.
Copy edited by Camiryn Stepteau
