Area students learn about Black History

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Sixth-graders from a number of area schools got a Black History Month musical lesson during the “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (LEVAS) program presented Friday morning at the Niswonger Performing Arts Center of Northwest Ohio.

LEVAS Producer-Director Karrie Lester and her troupe of performers, which included Jaimie Lewis, Jaired Birks, Clarence Zanders, and Josh Gooding, with piano accompaniment by Hope Wells, took students from Van Wert, St. Mary’s, Crestview, Lincolnview, Grover Hill, and Payne elementary schools on a musical journey of African American history.

The program began with African history and music; progressed through the spirituals that gave slaves hope of freedom through their code phrases, as well as consolation in their time of trouble; the African American church experience; and into the creation of jazz, Motown, and music written about the African American experience by white composers, including George Gershwin’s Porgy & Bessopera.

Students — and even a teacher — also got a chance to strut their hip-hop dance moves during the “Soul Train Line” portion of the production.

Interspersed with the music were important moments in African American history, such as Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad that brought slaves from the South to freedom in the North, Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, and Marian Anderson’s historic 1940s performance in Washington, D.C.

Also prominently featured was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

“February is Black History Month, which we feel is an opportunity to honor the achievements, cultures, and contributions that African Americans have made to our society, both past and present,” said YWCA of Van Wert County Advocacy Coordinator Kelly Houg.

The YWCA was responsible for bringing the LEVAS program to the NPAC, and Houg noted that the program fit perfectly into the YWCA’s mission to empower women and eliminate racism.

“The YWCA of Van Wert County wanted to bring Lift Every Voice and Sing to local students to give them the opportunity to learn more about African American history in a new and exciting way,” Houg noted. “We believe that you have to be willing to look back in order to move forward, and so it’s our hope that, by offering programs like this, we can continue the conversations that will help us all grow in the future.”

Houg also thanked the Niswonger staff, which partnered with the YWCA to bring the program to Van Wert, and the schools for allowing their students to participate.