To commemorate Black History Month, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School’s Black Student Union hosted its ninth annual Black History Month Show in the auditorium on Friday, Feb. 23 during first and second periods and included a nighttime showing at 7 p.m. Preparation for the show began in November 2023.
Various on campus clubs have hosted the event since it’s inception. More recently. the BSU has taken over the job of curating the show, which is student-run, with dancers, hosts and speakers from all grade levels.
The show has a total of nine choreographers and 17 acts. Auditions were held in the cafeteria on Nov. 6, 8, 9 and 13.
Students were able to try out for acts centered around Jamaica, Haiti and Trinidad, as well as a Beyoncé tribute act. The dancers were tasked with learning a small portion of those act’s dances in order to audition. Choreographers recorded those auditioning and selected people from there.
“I direct the show and make sure everything is taken care of,” event coordinator Eleasha Augustin said. “We have done a lot to prepare. We make sure dances are on task, scripts are written and everything is approved.”
If an act is not where it is supposed to be, or there is a conflict, Augustin fixes the problem and makes sure that all of the dancers are ready and able to perform by the day of the actual show.
Rehearsals were held in the auditorium in preparation for the show. All of the acts came together to practice and perfect the dances and poems, as well as to get a feel for the overall flow of the show. They also had a dress rehearsal the week before the show.
The BSU held a spirit week the same week as the show. They chose themes for each day based on Black culture. The week started off with Kickback Tuesday, in which students dressed up as a barbecue dad or soccer mom. Then, on Winning Wednesday, students wore Black athlete’s jerseys. On Throwback Thursday, they wore clothing from previous decades and finally, on Black-Out Friday, students wore all black clothing.
The Black History Month Show and all of the events leading up to it served as a way in which members of the BSU and other MSD students were able to recognize and celebrate Black culture. BSU representatives hoped the event was as entertaining as it has been in previous years and that they succeeded in informing others on the depth and beauty of Black culture.
This story was originally published in the March 2023 Eagle Eye print edition.
