The Brandeis Black Student Organization (BBSO) celebrated its month-long Black History Month program Saturday night with its Main Event, "Blackness: Even Unto Its Innermost Parts," a variety show featuring the best dancing, singing, poetry and acting it had to offer. The show began with a welcome by BBSO Co-Presidents Shalwah Evans '05 and Alana Hamlett '06, and a slide show highlighting both historical black figures and BBSO. Headshots of stars like Tyra Banks, Denzel Washington and Muhammed Ali flashed on the screen accompanied by the music of Dead Prez.

This segued into pictures of BBSO members out to dinner, around campus and at their weekly meetings in the ICC. Cheers accompanied these pictures as people recognized themselves and their friends.
After the slide show, Darnisa Amante '06 took the stage as the evening's host. She introduced the next skit, entitled "Dangerously In Love." Evans once again came out to read a poem by Saul Williams to begin the skit. The poem explored the idea and the feeling of a kiss, asking "Where do you feel most comfortable? Where do you feel most loved?"

After her impassioned reading, Kyle Turner '06 and Amatullah Morgan '06 began the pantomimed skit. The Beyonc Knowles song from which the skit took its name played as Turner and Morgan brought to life an updated version of West Side Story, this time set in an urban club environment instead of the gang-filled streets of 1950s New York City. The lack of words left the audience a bit confused at times, but the emotion of the story easily made its way into everyone's hearts.
Next, Amante re-introduced Hamlett to the audience. Hamlett read a poem by Nikki Giovanni entitled "Ego Trippin'." The poem spoke of a woman in the same way one would speak of Mother Earth, proclaiming "I was born in the Congo / I walked to the Fertile Crescent and built / The Sphinx / I designed a pyramid so tough that a star / that only glows every 100 years falls / into the center giving divine perfect life." Hamlett's reading was impassioned, as she allowed her entire body to speak along with her voice. The audience's cheers and whoops were well deserved when the performance was over.

Following this somewhat-introspective moment was a tribute to Aaliyah and her choreographer, Fatima. Evans, Hamlett and Patrick Raymond '05 began with an amusing babysitter skit, where the babysitter (Evans) and her boyfriend (Raymond) were interrupted mid-romance by the news that Aaliyah had died in a plane crash.

As they left in shock, the stage filled with dancers to perform sections of Aaliyah and Fatima's most famous dances. Camilla Pineiro (TYP) stole the stage with her dancing, but all the dancers were both precise and passionate in their movements.

The songs highlighted were "Are You That Somebody," "Rock the Boat," "More Than A Woman," "We Need A Resolution" and "Four Page Letter."
Switching from dancing to singing, "Sweet Sixteen" highlighted the exceptional vocal talents of Claudia Fontes '04, Abiola Saliu '04 and Morgan. They performed a cappella the title song, originally performed by Destiny's Child. The three blended in beautiful harmony, and as each took a turn as soloist the audience responded with cheers. All three ladies posses beautiful voices and a spectacular talent for interpreting the music.

The show had been a little slow up to this point, with some technical delays, but BBSO's Main Event really picked up with "Warrior Dance," a dance battle between two steppers (Hamlett and Turner) and two African dancers (Morgan and Stanley Wiggins '06).

While both pairs showed exceptional talent at their dances, Wiggins and Turner stole the scene entirely. Wiggins' over-the-top posturing and almost childlike gestures as he backed up Morgan's verbal sparring with Hamlett had the audience in stitches. Turner surprised everyone with his dexterity and ability at stepping. The skit ended with both sides realizing that their respective styles were more similar than they had thought, and as the four danced together, the audience let out huge whooping cheers.

After the energy and excitement from "Warrior Dance," the audience was given a brief five-minute intermission. But if anyone was worried that the show would lose momentum after the break, they were wrong.
Will Chalmus '06 began the second half by reciting the poem "Trouble Won't Last" by acclaimed spoken-word poet Malik Yusef. It was a stirring performance, and the audience let the final word hang in the air for a moment to give its full power before breaking into well-deserved applause.

After such a powerful and sobering performance, BBSO lightened the mood once again with "Who's Bad (A Tribute to Michael Jackson)." Wiggins, Pineiro, Katherine Kim '05, Jordan Karney '06, Reasey Ngoun '05 and Shakiva Wade '07 blazed through a dance-tribute to the King of Pop, beginning with a comical "Michael Jackson Fan Forever" club meeting and segueing into performances from "Bad," "Beat It" and "Smooth Criminal." The audience cheered and sang along, bursting into applause each time a new song started.

To calm everyone down a tad, Jules Jeudy '06 and Candis Bellamy '06 took the stage to perform an original rhyme, half spoken-word and half hip-hop. The duo's performance was stirring and nearly flawless, save for some microphone problems at the very beginning of their song.
The final performance of the night was called "Drop." Choreographed by Evans and performed by Ngoun, Shanelle Henry '06, Wade, Pineiro, Evans, Andy Rawlins (TYP), Jacob Kim '05 and Wiggins, it included all styles of current urban dance spanning, as they said, "from New York to Chicago to the Dirty South." The performance was positively electric, possibly featuring the best dancing of the night.

When the music stopped and the lights dimmed, Evans took the stage for the final time to thank all the performers and participants in BBSO's Black History Month Main Event. The final segment to the show was entitled "Incense Burning."

Filmed by Evans and other members of BBSO, it was a documentary of sorts that followed the performers through freezing rehearsals in Ziv Commons, Shapiro practices and general goofing around. It was both touching and inspiring to see all the hard work that was put into the show firsthand, from messed-up choreography to camera-shy performers unexpectedly pounced upon by the film crew.

After the movie the lights came up and the audience gave Evans, Hamlett and all the performers a standing ovation. As the performers were flooded by friends and other audience members offering congratulations, all stood smiling and laughing, satisfied with an outstanding performance and an inspiring Main Event.