Benefit Concert Raises $11K

The singing group Kuumba, backed by 10 student groups and the Office for the Arts at Harvard, raised $11,000 last Saturday at a benefit concert for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, but the President’s Office has not yet said if it will match any part of those funds.

The printed program includes a letter from University President Lawrence H. Summers, who promised soon after the storm to match all staff, student, and faculty contributions of up to $100, and student group contributions of up to $2,500. Though 11 student groups collaborated in the fund-raising, which will benefit the American Red Cross, the funds from the concert would be treated as the product of a single group—leaving at most $2,500 to be matched, Associate Dean of the College Judith H. Kidd wrote in an e-mail yesterday.

Seven victims of Hurricane Katrina, who have been living at nearby Air Force Base Camp Otis, watched a capella groups like the Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones and dancers from TAPS, among others, perform in Sanders Theatre to raise money to rebuild their home.

The seven evacuees had been bused to Harvard through the Phillips Brooks House Association, where they attended a reception with student leaders and University administrators before the concert.

Kuumba President Michael L. Vinson ’07, who led the benefit effort, said that one woman bought dress clothes at the Salvation Army for the event.

“She had been waiting for this for weeks,” Vinson said. “This was her big Harvard debut.”

Vinson said that it was also the first time he could remember that so many groups—ranging from the buttoned-up Mozart Society Orchestra to a coalition of wifebeater-wearing Steppers—had collaborated to raise money for such a cause. More than 1,000 tickets were sold, though exact attendance had not been tallied by yesterday night.

The idea arose just days after the storm whipped through New Orleans and parts of Mississippi and Alabama on August 29, prompting massive flooding and violent lawlessness in a city that the groups would later pay tribute to.

At the start of the show, Louis Armstrong’s voiced scratched the dark silence: “Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?”

“Most of us don’t know what it means to miss New Orleans,” Vinson said in opening remarks. “Most of us don’t know how it feels to be forced to your rooftop and be stranded for days....Though the initial disaster has passed, the real relief work has yet to begin.”

Perry Tsai ’07, whose home in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie was badly damaged, led the Harvard LowKeys in an a capella arrangement of Des’ree’s “You Gotta Be,” helping to raise money for the city his parents and sister are struggling to live in.

Usually he performs for Children’s Hospital or local high schools.

“Our audience is our primary goal,” Tsai said after the performance, referring to the group’s standard fare. “But this time around, it was different because I was singing for the audience in front of me and I was also singing for people miles away.”

—Staff writer April H.N. Yee can be reached at aprilyee@fas.harvard.edu.