Word: kuumba
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...Gutmann. Faust said that Morrison asked if she could also read during the inauguration festivities. “And I said, ‘Are you kidding?’” Faust exclaimed. The evening’s concert in Sanders featured a performance by the Kuumba Singers as well as individual acts by alumni. Pianist Robert D. Levin ’68 wowed the audience with a celebratory improvisation, in which he assigned specific letters of the alphabet to the keys on the piano and composed a song using only the keys that corresponded with the letters...
...Harvard is not an entirely welcoming or friendly place, neither for minorities nor for the rest of us. Along with the academic and social pressures that come with being a student here, there is the additional pressure of presenting a certain façade. In Kuumba, we didn’t have to pretend to be perfect or unburdened. We sang out our frustrations and stresses, and we asked for emotional and spiritual support in closing circle at the end of every rehearsal. By singing and praying together, we tried to heal each other and ourselves...
...recent events prove, Harvard desperately needs an organization like Kuumba. I’d like to think that if everyone spent a semester in the choir, things like the “Quad incident,” in which the police were inappropriately summoned to a Black Men’s Forum and Association of Black Harvard Women event a few weeks ago, wouldn’t happen. Being in Kuumba means confronting our differences. And despite these differences, we always manage to find common ground in the music we sing...
...They certainly sing true for me, even if they weren’t written for or by me. Kuumba alumni sang “Hold On” when they were in the choir, and future members will sing it, too. I hope they find as much strength...
...Andrew C. Esensten ’07, a former Crimson columnist, is a literature and African American studies concentrator in Adams House. He was vice president of the Kuumba Singers...