Black History Month is a designated month to recognize and celebrate African Americans for their achievements and their roles in history. This month is celebrated in many ways, such as through supporting black businesses and learning about the culture and contributions to black history. Here at Olympia High School, we are celebrating with a Black History Month showcase, hosted by our IMPACT club.
“There are so many preparations for a showcase of this caliber, such as auditions and ensuring we have a range of talents to showcase. Figuring out an order of how to present the show, Black History Month facts to film/air on Titan TV, ensuring we have a stage monitor, [finding] volunteers [to] usher people in, setting a date for rehearsal, and even getting decorations. It’s been a lot, I’m surprised Mrs. Clancy and I aren’t sick of each other yet. She’s the mastermind behind the whole showcase and I’m happy to be here to assist in setting it up.” Ms. Ashley Dantinor stated.
Different talents will be performed in the showcase, from singing and dancing to comedy and even a spoken word poem.
“My talent is to make people laugh and entertain them,” senior Jovenson Lifleur expressed.
“I will be singing with a group of others,” senior Joven Lifleur said.
While there can always be difficulties when preparing for a big event like this, the process went relatively smoothly for those involved.
“I wouldn’t say there have been many difficulties. The main thing I can think of is getting enough people to participate in our small events leading up to the showcase. We wanted events that celebrated what Black History Month is supposed to mean, and it was difficult getting students to partake in the activities we had planned. Trying to pick exactly who we wanted to be in the showcase was a bit difficult, only because the audition dates didn’t work for some and others were out sick who did want to audition, so finding time to make auditions wasn’t easy. We also had to change the date from originally planned due to scheduling conflicts with the auditorium.” Ms. Dantinor expressed.
Being that there is a Black History showcase almost every year, there are new talents, challenges, and differences.
“Last year, we had a few outside guests who came in and participated in the show, but we decided not to do that this year and just focused on our students to bring the talent. We also have a different theme this year than what we went with last year. Last showcase mainly just focused on the rich history of African Americans, but this time, we are focusing on the Caribbean and Carnival and what makes those things unique,” Ms. Dantinor shared.
We hope that this show goes smoothly and the outcome is amazing. We can’t wait to see the new talents showcased this year!
