Black History Month Performances

This February has been an eventful month— a great one to wrap up. We’ve had many special events such as, the Black History month performance, Valentine’s Cabaret, Literary Arts reading, and more. The Black History month performance included beautiful pieces of writing, dancing, and singing. Some students who performed: Darren Ekezie (piano) Kinston Smith and Kingston Kharif (dancing) Ariah McEwen (singing) Antrice Rhode-Williams, Ja’Miya House, and Kiree Gates (singing) and Maddie Moore (writing). This showcase enabled talented NSA students to represent their communities and share their talents with others. We have some pieces of writing from a couple of the student performances:

"Before I died, I was able to take in the beauties of that planet. See all the things that was never taught to hate me. The butterflies were never taught to hate me. Beech nor maple trees were sprouted through hate. Waterfalls and rivers flow, they do their job, and none of it is because of a hate for me. I thanked nature, and I loved nature. I loved feeling the sun. The wind was natural as much as the rain, both so beautiful and if you listen to them work together sometimes, you'd hear them call your name." –“A Star” by Tsurah Waire (11th)

Tsurah states the meaning of her piece: “I genuinely love nature; it can do no wrong in my mind. But it was a turning point in my piece. I focus on all the troubles and pain black women go through sometimes. That moment is a turning point to look away from all the ugly and try to see beauty in something, try to find any good in all the bad in a way. I can reminisce and talk about pain forever, that is an endless topic, but I love to take a step back and breathe for a second and just see/acknowledge beauty when I'm in it. That beauty for me is nature.”

“Oh, a black soul I have. Many people take it as a light soul or a dark soul. But everyone seems to forget black comes in all shades. I had a white soul, Once Upon a Time. He allowed people to abuse his brightness for his kindness. Well abuse…that’s the right word for taking, non-negotiating, recycling until nothing could possibly be left...right? He fell for the worst kind of...color in his world. He won’t say any names, those titles don’t deserve the recognition, but THEIR ACTIONS—he needs to recognize the faulty actions placed in his atmosphere so he may avoid those heavy meteors, so he may kill those heavy tears before they fall, magnifying to his soul. He was soon taught that actions spoke louder than words. But what he learned from experience was, words hit harder than actions. He got them confused, Once Upon a Time; he vowed to his blood that never again he will-he is a black soul.” –“Black Soul” by Marcus Robinson (10th)

Marcus states, “To me this poem is about the love I share between good and bad, like how every pure being becomes dark along the way, and it gets tiring being stuck in boxes/titles.”

These pieces were beautifully written and performed. This performance as a whole was loved by many: “Lots of personality shining through” and “The variety of great talents, the mix of genres and different medias were delightful.” -NSA students

This performance was definitely a great one— seeing the different talented conservatories come together to create a beautifully crafted show worked well. Can’t wait for the talent next year!