By Brianna Holcomb
arts and entertainment editor
African-American history is rooted in years of lessons, music, pain, protest and so much more. On Sunday Feb. 21, Hofstra celebrated this history with the program “Songs of Resistance: Protest Music and Dance from Around the World.”
This showcase featured a number of performances ranging from SP!T, Hempstead High School Select Chorale, Hofstra Chamber Choir and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Each section of the program covered a separate piece in the timeline of history, starting with the cries of the slaves and moving to those of today with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Sophomore Tunisia Seda made her Hofstra debut as MC, helping to switch between each performance as well as each segment. Seda was able to seamlessly transition from one act to another using a prose-like piece to explain what was happening next.
The show was split into five sections: “What Do We Want,” “Marching in the Light of God,” “Hey, We’re in a Revolution,” “Black Lives Matter” and “Ladysmith Black Mambazo.”
At the start of the program, I was unsure of how much I was going to enjoy it. Listening to Hofstra Chamber Choir’s version of “Wade in the Water” made me weary for it was not the soulful rendition that I, like many African-Americans, am used to. So I sat with a critical ear for the next piece to be performed and was pleasantly surprised as the show continued on.
My first pleasant surprise came from jazz singer Carol Carter who graduated from Hofstra in 2014 with a B.A. in music. For her solo performance, she sang “Caged Bird” by Abbey Lincoln and Archie Shepp, accompanied by Dave Lalama on piano and Peter Coco on the bass.
To end the “Hey, We’re in a Revolution” section of the show, Hofstra junior Jazara Morales performed “Revolution” by Nina Simone. That soulful sound that seemed to be missing at the start of the program came out during Morales’ performance.
“Revolution” was written as a response to the Beatles song with the same title, and its lyrics are still important today. Morales’ voice did more than bring justice to the song; she was able to get the crowd dancing in their seats.
The most powerful portion of the night came about during the “Black Lives Matter” segment. This portion was made up of three performances, two of which were done by Hofstra’s spoken word group, SP!T.
Their piece entitled “Why?” featured all four members of the organization. This powerful poetry was a testament to the many hashtags that have been circulating the Internet as a result of the Black Lives Matter movement: #SayTheirNames, #ICantBreathe, #HandsUpDontShoot and #BlackLivesMatter. Signs depicting these phrases were held up throughout the performance. SP!T’s performance did a great job of showing exactly what is currently going on in the country.
The Ladysmith Black Mambazo, which first formed in the early 1960s in South Africa, performed for the last portion of the night. In 2014 they celebrated the 50 years they had spent as a group while they continued to sing uplifting music while keeping in touch with their South African roots. The group has provided soundtrack material for “The Lion King, Part II” and Eddie Murphy’s “Coming to America.”
Their uplifting and energetic performance showed the joy that can be found in South African culture and its music. The performers danced as they sang, incorporating a large array of jumps and kicks. Every member, including the oldest at age 77, was able to run around the stage and kick past their head or jump. Their segment was interactive, involving the audience with a call and response to one of their songs. They also performed two songs with the Hempstead High School Select Chorale and Hofstra Chamber Choir to end the show.
“Songs of Resistance: Protest Music and Dance from Around the World” exceeded my expectations. The show was able to cover a lot of issues including more recent ones. This show attempts to capture a broad period of history in a small time frame, which isn’t easy. Despite the feeling of a shaky start, the show grew on me and did not shy away from addressing the hard topics.