February
RELEASE: A Showcase to Celebrate and Honor Black Art
Happy Black History Month!
As I have repurposed my outreach hours from table outreach to Black/African Descent specific outreach, our team has come up with ideas to do more effective cultural outreach. From there we have birthed BLISS: Black Lives In Soulful Solidarity! It was created for black students in the FOCUS community as a space to be seen, connected with, and celebrated.
I told my friend Renee that I was gonna try to put on an open mic for Black History Month, and she said to me "Why dont you make it a full experience? Like a showcase to celebrate black art?" I WAS SHOOK!! She took my idea and maximized it into what we ended up calling RELEASE!
At RELEASE we had performances of poetry, singing, dancing and drumming by Bandan Koro, Kickin Brass Band (New Orleans style). Two of my Dallas Black buddies even made an appearance and performed as well! From professionals to students to members from our family of churches , it was a HUGE turnout and people (and I) were blown away by the talent that showed up that night. It was a night to remember and I'm so glad to get to do it again next year! (This time instead of planning everything myself, I will bring a team of people in earlier so that I can delegate! Coordinating, emceeing, and performing all in the same show is very unideal 😅). Check out the photos below!
The Program
The Venue
The turnout!
Bandan Koro African Drumming and Dance Ensemble
My Dallas Black Friends
Students singing the Negro National Anthem!
Me dancing
Two of my Beloved Supporters, Garvin Williams and Bekwele Wodi
me emceeing
My Dallas Black friend Claude and his pianist Blake
Kickin Brass Band
2nd Line Parade
Stay tuned for next year!!
Thank you so much for your support and generosity and for those of you that came out!
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