FIRST ANNUAL BLACK EXCELLENCE SHOWCASE

After enough delays, it finally happened.

Queens Preparatory Academy and the other schools in our Springfield campus building came together and put on what many claim to be the greatest show ever seen in the history of our school building.

Although the postponement of the initial celebration of Black History month—a February event—made a lot of people lose interest and hope, the late celebration on Thursday, March 7 was well worth the wait.

The show was comprised of several performances from  all four schools in the building: Excelsior Preparatory Academy, Preparatory Academy for Writers, George Washington Carver and our Queens Preparatory Academy. They each brought something special to the celebration, making sure the audience was always at the edge of their seats.

Though the show was made possible due to the contributions of all four academies, the Preparatory Academy for Writers (PAW) noticeably took up the most slots, and there’s no doubt some of their performances stole the show.

“It was collaborative, that’s the excitement,” said Mr. Charles Anderson,  principal of PAW. In his opinion, it was the combined efforts of all our schools that made this event so fun to watch. However, he admitted, “It was disappointing that the show didn’t happen in February as planned.”

With all the number of acts on that day, the modal amount of performances came from Writers. Principal Anderson made a conjecture, saying, “My guess is that my students were mostly involved.” He believes the possible reason behind this is the fact that one of the organizers was from his school, so it made sense to plan the show using students they were familiar with.

All of PAW’s routines were no doubt exceptional, but the one that stood out was their performance of “Strange Fruit” sung by Christianna Cummings. The song Strange Fruit was originally sung by Laura Duncan. but written as a poem by Abel Meeropol. The more popular version of the song was made famous by American jazz singer Billie Holiday. The poem was written to protest the lynching of Black people which was rampant in the 1930’s. It remains a pivotal piece in the history and art of Black Americans as the song that declared “the beginning of the civil rights movement.”

Another performance that noticeably stole the show, was from our QPA.

At the end of the show, QPA’s Brotherhood performed a very intense routine of stomps and dances. “The performance was broken down into two parts, the old school and new school,” Mr. Hargrove, director of the group explained. “Initially we wanted to end it all with one big number, but we decided to separate the older members and the newer members and have them collaborate at the very end.”

Apparently, their performance actually had a surprising hidden intent. “That’s what the show was about. We wanted to preview our graduation stomp,” he said. He allowed the members of the Brotherhood to plan the choreography and implement it. “The piece with the piano was to demonstrate our discipline, and the piece with the barrel roll was to demonstrate our strength.”

QPA’s principal Avionne Gumbs said, “Because the four of us collaborated, the show was trickled down to the staff and students.” She unfortunately couldn’t see the full show due to her work, but she made sure to stick around long enough to pick a favorite. “I liked Aziza, the student president of Excelsior prep who narrated about Black history,” she said. “I also enjoyed our QPA band, the Brotherhood, and the performance of ‘Can you stand the rain?’ ”

All in all, the showcase was a first collaborative experience for everyone in the Springfield gardens community and it’s bound to certainly not be the last. Maybe in the future we’ll be lucky enough to see our entire community coming together more often to celebrate more national holidays.