Word: kuumba
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...easy to notice, even if you’re not looking for us. For many of us, it is our first experience with underrepresentation; it is the first time we stick out in the crowd. We are white and we are part of the Kuumba Singers of Harvard College, Harvard’s one and only choir celebrating black spirituality and creativity. For once, we are the minority, and for once, we question if we truly belong...
Michael Vinson ’07, President of Kuumba, stresses the importance of a mutual respect between cultural organization and member. “People join Kuumba to sing and have fun, and that’s all well and good, but their reasoning must be deeper than that,” he says. “Kuumba is not just singing. It’s for people who want to learn more about black culture and music. You have to ask yourself, am I doing what I can to add to this community on campus...
...cultureless” have a duty to respect the organization of which we want to be a part. We must acknowledge that there is a difference between using these groups only to have fun and honoring the rich traditions many of them are based upon. For Kuumba alumni in particular, seeing non-black faces on stage is a shock, and one that must be soothed by observing the profound reverence even the non-black members have for black creativity and spirituality...
...this cultural orphan has found her home on the Harvard campus. There are moments of feeling out of place, but it is crucial to realize that being out of place does not mean being unwelcome. When Kuumba sings, the individual is lost as one voice resounds. I am not black, but I am a part of that voice. And truthfully, it just feels so…right...
...close of the night, the Harvard Kuumba singers’ wrap-up of the program, with powerful renditions of “Hold On” and “Power of Love,” inspired the entire theatre to clap along with their soulful, moving beats...