Photo by Sarah Schecker

Juniors Darien Djoiurabthi and Evan Boone and freshman Celeste Rubino perform “No Music” by Mali Music in the African American Heritage Assembly.

On Thursday, Feb. 27, the African American Heritage Assembly took place in the WJ auditorium during a double-third period.

Organized by the Black Student Union (BSU), the assembly featured performances by the WJ Jazz and Pop Fly ensembles, the Step Team, and featured sections entitled “Evolution of Singing in the African American Experience” and “Evolution of the Spoken Word.”

“Evolution of Singing” featured performances of popular classics such as “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” by Stevie Wonder, “Fallin'” by Alicia Keys, and “Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson. “Evolution of the Spoken Word” included performances of the poem “I Dream A World” by Langston Hughes, and Sojourner Truth’s speech entitled “Ain’t I A Woman.”

“Evolution of the Spoken Word” was one of the options considered for the assembly’s theme, specifically the second runner-up in a poll conducted on the WJ student body. “Evolution of Singing” was the most popular topic, and with it the BSU came up with the theme of the assembly.

“The first thing we did was ask the school to help us pick our topic this year…we voted on possible topics and then we put the top three [up in the Mad Cows Facebook group],”  said science teacher and advisor of the BSU, Nichole Kellerman.

In order to prepare for the assembly, the singers picked the songs they wanted to perform and practiced with the dancers in Kellerman’s room.  The speakers memorized and practiced their parts chosen by Kellerman along with the president of the BSU, senior Endrais Samson.

“[The purpose of the assembly was] to celebrate African American culture during Black History Month and to show the school parts of our culture from old school to things that are more recent,” said junior and vice-president of BSU, Jabraughn Hill.