Apollo Night Gets Aggressive

“This is not the Met, and this is not Lincoln Center. This is Apollo Night.”

With these opening words, M.C. Justin A. Dews ’11 reminded a packed Lowell Lecture Hall what the Black Student Association’s Apollo Night was all about—leaving proper concert etiquette at home and coming ready to cheer, jeer, and heckle.

“Boo with vigor!” he said.

The first act, a four-piece band performing an original song, started the show off on the right foot and garnered generous applause. The next three acts were not so fortunate. A trio of vocalists was the first group to get booed off the stage, swept off by the evening’s stage janitor: Sandman, or Everton L. Blair ’13, who was decked out in long cotton socks, purple suspenders, a yellow shirt, and a garish pink and blue baseball cap. Next, a spoken word  performance quickly went downhill after an unforgivable stumble. She too was swept off by the broom-wielding Sandman, as were Da Stank Sistahs, a trio of exuberant dancers who couldn’t quite get their act together. During intermission, an impromptu dougie contest was announced, enticing two audience members and Sandman to go on-stage and perform. The winner of the contest and a free T-shirt was Iguosadolo O. Nosamiefan ’14.

“I love dougieing,” he said. “I wasn’t going to go up, but I couldn’t resist.”

In the second half, only several acts were booed off-stage, and the eventual winner of Apollo Night, Wesley A. Gordon ’13, delivered a show-stopping oratory entitled “Love and Lust” that was met with a standing ovation. Finally, at the end of the night, attendees flooded the stage to dance as organizers and BSA affiliates cleaned up. The evening’s entertainment had concluded, the party was just about to start, and the reviews were already in. Janell J. Holloway ’13, the organizer of the event, was happy with the results.

“They didn’t pull off a lot of the acts they were supposed to, but I was backstage checking the Twitter feeds of attendees,” she said. “The response was overwhelmingly positive.”