Several student organizations collaborated to present this year’s Black History Month assembly on Feb. 21, centered around the theme of Black Diaspora.
The Black Student Union and African Student Union spearheaded the assembly’s organization, and the Eritrean Ethiopian Student Association, Rwandan Heritage Association, STEP team, WJ dance team and jazz band were also involved. It was the first time the two clubs had jointly planned the assembly, with previous years’ assemblies having been directed by just the BSU.
“I’m happy that we did the partnership,” BSU President, senior Mwape Sokoni said. “The ASU officers are all very creative people who were able to really take the leadership roles that they had and do something good with them, and I think having another club involved also opened the door to a lot of other participants.”
The assembly featured a diverse set of performances, including songs, dances, spoken word segments and a fashion show. One of the first performances was “We Are Not The Same,” a spoken word written by ASU Vice President, junior Clifford Hubbard III that portrayed the conflicts between the African and African American communities.
The assembly came full circle with a second, connected spoken word near the end, written by multiple students. Together, the segments acknowledged the differences between the two communities but argued that said differences make each one unique, not divide them.
“The first spoken word was supposed to talk about the divisions between different diasporic communities that we wanted to highlight as being very unnecessary and divisive, but it sounds pretty inflammatory,” Sokoni said. “We thought we really needed another piece to wrap it up and show people that we are criticizing these divisions, not trying to further them.”
In addition to the spoken word segments, pop culture elements were woven throughout the assembly: members of various organizations sang and danced to songs by artists such as Kendrick Lamar and Tyler the Creator. Following this, the EESA and RHA both performed cultural dances.
“The traditional Rwandan dance, especially the guy part of it, was supposed to be a ceremony before war,” RHA President, senior Lenny Yuhi said. “It was a show of strength and power.”
The fashion show, the assembly’s finale, included clothing from the Harlem Renaissance, various African nations and several prominent black artists. Sokoni, representing Zambia in the cultural section, wore a chitenge dress.
“The specific dress I wore held a lot of weight for me because my late grandmother actually gifted me the fabric that the dress was made out of about a year before she passed away,” Sokoni said. “She chose the fabric for me and I chose the design, and it felt like something that both me and my grandmother worked on.”
Planning for the assembly began in November, and rehearsals have been ongoing since January.
“It was very stressful because we had more performances this year than last year so it took longer to get everything together,” ASU Secretary, senior Daniella Ngah said. “I think for the amount of time that we had and the amount of stuff that we had to perform, we managed it pretty well.”
All participants interviewed said that they were very happy with how the assembly went, and that the time spent preparing was well worth it.
“I think it was the best assembly we’ve put out,” BSU Secretary, junior Yibela Gebretsadik said. “The assemblies we’ve done in the past were mainly cultural showcases. This assembly we used to teach others, because this is an ongoing problem in our society today.”
Hubbard said the event was made possible by the support of numerous staff members, crediting the organizations’ sponsors, music teacher Kelly Butler and media services technician James Mulhern III.
“I’m really proud of them,” English teacher and BSU sponsor Ellie VanCuran said. “I feel like as a teacher we talk a lot about wanting to see kids put the skills that we’re talking about into practical use, and seeing the kids edit, write, rewrite, consider audience [and] cite their evidence was really cool.”
