Black History Showcase Highlights Student Talents

February is Black History Month, and to celebrate, the Black Student Union (BSU) at RHS held a Black History Showcase on Thursday, February 23, 2023. The program consisted of African dancing, African American sorority/fraternity-style stepping, a fashion show that displayed African clothing, singing, entertainment from a fraternity from HBCU Hampton University, and a poetry reading. The sponsor for the BSU is Ms. Davis, an RHS English teacher, who was enthusiastic about leading RHS’s African American students in putting on such a program and promoting other activities that involved teachers for such an important month.

RHS has a very diverse population, and showcasing Black kids’ talents was very important. It’s imperative not only to put on such a program for fellow students but also to show parents and other RHS community stakeholders the talents and culture of African-American students.

Ms. Davis said, “Showcasing Black students’ talents is important because it’s always been that African American people weren’t valued, so now it’s important to showcase that, especially during Black History Month. It shows that students thrive academically, and Black Excellence is alive beyond the classroom. I think it’s important to value this idea.”

Whether it’s a Broadway play or a child’s show they put on for a family in their home living room, performing can be a challenge. “The biggest challenge was to get students to participate in the talent part because, since COVID, students aren’t used to performing in front of their peers,” Ms. Davis said. “They’re also just not used to being criticized based on the performances of their peers, and so it was hard to get the participants to understand that we are all just people. Nobody is Beyoncé out there!” Ms. Davis added, “We’re just here to celebrate Black history and should want to do that in a theatrical and artistic way, but it was hard because no one wants to be made fun of.” Many elements make the showcase a success. Some were more enjoyable than others.

“I particularly enjoyed finding closeness with the students and getting to know more students. I especially liked working closely with our leaders to get this done. I would say I mostly enjoyed building relationships.”

Ms. Davis

The BSU Showcase had many successes because there were so many highlights of the African-American culture. “It was very successful,” said Ms. Davis. “We had many students who were shocked at the number of people that came. I was surprised because I knew that people would come, especially just this being after COVID.

People want to come to more events and celebrations. Also, people outside the community wanted to attend, so it was only a standing room. Many people couldn’t find a seat. A solution would have been to allow us to use the auditorium space to provide those parents with a nice area to sit. The parents should not have had hard chairs. So the show’s major success was that many people showed up. The downfall is that we needed to have the appropriate space.

With the event’s success, the student performances deserved an appropriate platform with an actual stage and a quality sound system for the singers. We had a student who sang her butt off but had to turn her mic off because of the static and the sound. So it was highly successful in that regard; everyone’s talents were excellent, and the number of people that showed up, but with that, we should have had a
better space.”

In addition to the BSU Showcase, other activities encouraged teachers and staff to participate in Black History Month. For instance, there was a door decorating contest. Ms. Davis said, “For the door decorating contest, we just asked teachers to decorate their doors based on things they wanted to celebrate in Black history. It also celebrated Black culture in general, so when I put it out to the teachers, I told them they could decorate the door however they feel best represented black culture and our successes.” Ms. Davis added, “The teachers did the project well, and the door that won had a beautiful woman on it with the hair of an African American. I was impressed by the artistic level of the doors and everything.”