Members of the Clarke Central High School Black Culture Club stand on stage in the Mell Auditorium after their Black History Month program performance on Feb. 21. The program featured local and student talent to celebrate Black History. “The reason why we did this program and named (it) ‘Who are we?’ is because oftentimes, as people, we want to focus on what we aren’t: you can’t do this, you can’t do that. But we come from a great lineage of people that have done the impossible with very little,” CCHS senior and BCC president Jasani Byrd said. “I feel like today’s media and society expects so little from us, (and) this program was needed to show us that we’re more than capable of being extravagant.” Photo by Luna Reichert
The Clarke Central High School Black Culture Club performed its Black History Month program on Feb. 21 in the Mell Auditorium.
The 2019-20 Clarke Central High School Black Culture Club brought back the Black History Month program on Feb. 21 in the Mell Auditorium, after one year of the program’s absence. This year, the program put on a performance inspired by Black history through rehearsed skits and a variety of musical performances.
“(The hope for) this event is to really showcase student talent and look at local talent to show everybody the greatness that is Black history and to educate some people,” BCC sponsor and CCHS college advisor Brionna Johnson said.
CCHS junior and BCC Event Coordinator Hayyah De Lane performed a skit with other BCC members.
“The skit is based off of a classroom feel. Everything is going to be revolving around us being in the classroom and throughout the school,” CCHS junior and BCC Event Coordinator Hayyah De Lane said. “We have more people, poets such as Celeste (Divine Ngeve), we have Life (Lemuel LaRoche) coming, he’s going to be speaking. And then we also have some singers (and) some local student (talent).”
On Feb. 21, the Clarke Central High School Black Culture Club hosted the Black History Month program in the Mell Auditorium in order to celebrate Black History at CCHS.
In 2018, there was an incident during the show because of an unapproved performance. In 2019, the BCC decided not to hold the program. However, CCHS senior and BCC president Jasani Byrd wanted to bring back the show this year to continue the celebration of Black history.
“(Dr. Rucker) got up on stage and said that he really would love to implement Black history back into schools ever since it was removed. So I desperately got my team together and said, ‘We’re going to do this,’” Byrd said. “There was a bit of shakiness at first, but once we got the (Black History Month program) rolling, it turned out amazing.”
Johnson believes holding events like the CCHS Black History Month program hold great significance in the CCHS community.
“Having a celebration (at school) for Black History Month is super important,” Johnson said. “I think it’s really important to highlight events like these to just make sure that they’re happening and that we’re not forgetting that this is a very important piece of our world’s history.”
Story by Naomi Hendershot
Video by Colin Frick
Gallery by Luna Reichert
Package by Ireland McCage
