Black Cultural Center's Cultural Arts Festival on Friday (Dec. 5); BCC will celebrate Kwanzaa on Sunday (Dec. 7)
December 2, 2014
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The Black Cultural Arts Center's Cultural Arts Festival on Friday (Dec. 5) will include Moko Jumbie, an authentic African masquerade mounted on sticks 10-12 feet high. The Moko Jumbie is a majestic ancestral spirit that towers above the community with the height to look back to where his people have come from and the perspective to see into the future. The stilt walkers' costume consists of a brightly colored skirt or pants, jacket and elaborate hat. (Photo provided by Black Cultural Center) |
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Purdue University Black Cultural Center at 7 p.m. on Friday (Dec. 5) will present the annual Cultural Arts Festival in Stewart Center's Loeb Playhouse.
At 4 p.m. Sunday (Dec. 7), the BCC also will celebrate the Kwanzaa holiday in the Purdue Memorial Union East and West Faculty lounges.
Tickets for the 7 p.m. cultural arts show, titled "Peepin' Calypso It's Carnival Time!," are $5 for students and $7 for the public, and are available at Loeb Box office in Stewart Center (765-494-3933).
The BCC's Performing Arts Ensembles will celebrate the folk traditions of Trinidad and Carnival, the theme of the center's Fall Cultural Arts Series. The show was developed from research acquired during the fall semester, which included a tour of Trinidad.
"The show is designed to provide a scholarly and artistic exploration of the Carnival tradition," said Renee Thomas, BCC director. "Audience members will be exposed to the richness and aesthetic beauty of the folk traditions of Trinidad."
For a short preview of the show, watch this video.
The Performing Arts Ensembles include Black Thought Collective, Haraka Writers, New Directional Players, Black Voices of Inspiration and the Jahari Dance Troupe.
Tony Gass, BCC's program manager, said Sunday's Kwanzaa celebration will consist of lighting the seven candles on the Kinara and reciting the seven principles of the Nguzo Saba. Also, Gass, members of the Black Thought Collective and several black campus organizations, including the Black Graduate Student Association and the Black Student Union, will present information to help attendees learn more about the holiday. A sampling of soul food entrees will be available.
"Those who come will be entertained and enlightened through artistic expression," Gass said. "We also will pay tribute to those people of African descent that we lost this year."
Writer: Greg McClure, 765-496-9711, gmcclure@purdue.edu
Sources: Renee Thomas, Purdue Black Cultural Center director, 765-494-3091, rathomas@purdue.edu
William P. Caise, Black Cultural Center assistant director, 765-494-4630, wcaise@purdue.edu
