BSA Rocks Lowell Hall in 'Apollo' Event

The walls of Lowell Lecture Hall were thumping on Friday night as the Black Students Association (BSA) hosted its fourth annual "It's Showtime at the Apollo" event.

Based on amateur night at New York City's Apollo Theatre in Harlem, members of the Harvard community took to the stage to display their wide range of talents to a crowd of about 300.

Unlike the actual event, at which an extremely critical audience heckles incapable artists, the crowd had only exuberant praise for the performers.

The BSA first held this event in 1995 with the intention of bringing together members of the black community, BSA leaders said.

"The original intent was for us to have fun and display our talent, and to see what the freshman class had to offer," said BSA President Dionne A. Fraser '99.

But after the deaths of DeShaun R. Hill and Harvard C. Nabrit Stephens, two members of the class of 1999 who were killed in a car accident in the summer of 1997, members of BSA agreed that the Apollo celebration could best commemorate their lives.

All proceeds from the show were donated to the Harvard Stephens/DeShaun Hill Fund. The money will go to the parents of the two young men, who will decide how it will be used. Fraser said the event generated about $1,500.

"We would normally ask for a moment of silence [to remember them], Jason B. Phillips '99, the show's host for the third straight year and vice president of BSA told the crowd Friday, "but we known they weren't silent men, so give it up."

And "give it up" the crowd did. The enthusiastic audience, just beginning the weekend, cheered so loudly for the performers that it was often difficult to hear their names as they were announced or even some of the works they sang.

Audience members jumped out of their seats in between the performances and danced to the music of a live DJ spinning hip-hop and R&B music.

The evening's entertainment included dance by The Caribbean Dance Troupe, The Expressions, a campus hip-hop dance group, and the '02 Steppers.

Singers performed music from many different genres, including rap, hip-hop, soul and R&B, while musicians played solos on piano, guitar and saxophone.

Poet Omolara O. Fatiregun '00 delivered an emotional account of the perseverance of black women and the kindness and cruelty of some black men.

Audience members were also treated to new music from A. Ryan Leslie '98, producer of a memorial album dedicated to Hill and Stephens on which students collaborated.

Performing along with Leslie were Charlene Anderson and Pumla, new recording artists signed to Leslie's own record label.

Participants said they felt their hard work paid off in a successful evening.

"We worked really, really hard, and I feel like it really brought us together as a class, especially as far as the black community in the freshman class is concerned," said Vedra D. Chandler '02, one of the choreographers for the '02 Steppers. "It showed us what kind of things we could accomplish."