13 March 2013
TRADITION: It took a great deal of dedication from BSU members to bring the club’s annual assembly to the stage once again.
By Kira Roybal, Staff writer
A high school is its own community with its own traditions. Every year students look forward to attending homecoming, dancing the night away at prom and watching plays performed by their school’s theater department. Aside from these, Poly also has its own unique tradition: the annual BSU (Black Student Union) assembly held every February to celebrate Black History Month. However, little do students know that this year’s BSU assembly was almost canceled.
BSU is a club dedicated to educating its own members and the rest of Poly’s students on the relevance of African American culture in the United States and the contributions that African Americans have made to our society. This year, the assembly’s theme was “African Americans Who Have Contributed to Society” and included entertainers, politicians and inventors.
Makenna Lammons (12), the president of BSU, directed the production and wrote the accompanying script along with her board members. To begin preparing for the assembly, she first held a cast review, or audition. Based on the results, Lammons tailored the show’s characters to the performers; for example, if a female singer auditioned, then a famous African American singer, such as Alicia Keys, would be added as a character representing a historical and cultural figure who contributed to society. The assembly’s “African Americans Who Have Contributed to Society” theme mirrored Poly’s participating students; the production was based not only on the characters, but also on students’ talents.
Next came one of the most difficult parts of putting together the assembly: rehearsals. During the week of performance night, daily rehearsals were scheduled from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., but these did not always go as planned. “Some rehearsal days we wanted to do a full run-through, but we couldn’t because every other act was missing,” Lammons said.
This lack of commitment, which is a problem every year, threatened the continuation of the BSU assembly. “Every year I say, ‘I’m gonna cancel this!’” Ms. Mubashshir, who supervises and helps guide the club in its activities, said.
However, Lammons, considering that she is the BSU president and that this is her senior year, could not allow one of Poly’s most memorable events to simply pass by. “I didn’t want to end the tradition. It would be a let-down if it [didn’t] happen each year,” she said. To prevent this, Lammons and some of the other club members got together over winter break at a local Starbucks and planned out all the details of the 2013 BSU assembly.
Keeping the assembly alive is not only important for sentimental reasons but also for educational and entertainment values. “It’s all about enlightening our audience,” Lammons said. “I didn’t realize previously that people do look forward to [the assembly]. It’s part of the community at Poly.”
Though the purpose of the BSU assembly is to highlight the achievements made by African Americans, the legacies left by these contributors are meant to resonate with every person regardless of race, religion, political view, etc. The African American figures portrayed in the production were not limited to being played only by African American students. Non-African American students participated to be a part of the tradition at Poly and to act out some of their favorite historical figures; in this assembly, the character of Denzel Washington was white rather than black. “The message becomes universal; the role models are universal,” Mubashshir said.
With no major mishaps backstage, the performance of the 2013 BSU assembly ran smoothly. “I thought we went out with a bang,” Lammons said.