Association of black students hosts "Poetry Under the Stars"
Elyse Hendrickson
Issue date: 3/3/05 Section: Features
- Page 1 of 1
Many students have heard about the Poetry Under the Stars program, which is a reoccuring program on this campus, though the general UMR student does not have much of an interest in poetry. Poetry Under the Stars is put on by the Association for Black Students, and the event this past Thursday was held at the Baptist Student Union.
There were, and apparently have also been in the past, several very good performances of not only poetry, but also singing, rapping and other musical interests. The performances were open to all students for free, and were certainly worth the time to check out. It's always interesting to see the awesome talents of UMR students, and even more so when the talents are not just focused in science and engineering!
The organization that put this on, The Association for Black Students, is an organization that is in several ways unique to the UMR campus. It is not like some organizations which are chapters of nation wide programs, such as many of the professional societies. ABS was started on the UMR campus in the late 1960's. According to the ABS website "Frank Winfield and Greg McClain, both black football players and members of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., approached Marvin Cain, the chair of the Social Sciences Department, about adding a black history class to the university curriculum." After discussing this, and also noticing the lack of a cultural organization to promote the interests of black students in Rolla in general, the idea for the Association for Black Students was formed. In its start ABS was helped in large part by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
The Association for Black Students, in addition to putting on the Poetry Under the Stars series, has also put on a Thanksgiving dinner in the past. Also very popular was their Third Annual Victory Step Show, which was held this past November. The step show is always extremely well attended and is a way to "meld folk traditions with popular culture," as well to display "different organizations through synchronized percussive movement, singing, speaking, chanting and drama." More recently, ABS organized the Dinner to Jazz program,which was held last Saturday in the Havener Center St. Pat's Ballroom.
For more information on ABS, go check out their website at http://web.umr.edu/~abs.
There were, and apparently have also been in the past, several very good performances of not only poetry, but also singing, rapping and other musical interests. The performances were open to all students for free, and were certainly worth the time to check out. It's always interesting to see the awesome talents of UMR students, and even more so when the talents are not just focused in science and engineering!
The organization that put this on, The Association for Black Students, is an organization that is in several ways unique to the UMR campus. It is not like some organizations which are chapters of nation wide programs, such as many of the professional societies. ABS was started on the UMR campus in the late 1960's. According to the ABS website "Frank Winfield and Greg McClain, both black football players and members of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., approached Marvin Cain, the chair of the Social Sciences Department, about adding a black history class to the university curriculum." After discussing this, and also noticing the lack of a cultural organization to promote the interests of black students in Rolla in general, the idea for the Association for Black Students was formed. In its start ABS was helped in large part by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
The Association for Black Students, in addition to putting on the Poetry Under the Stars series, has also put on a Thanksgiving dinner in the past. Also very popular was their Third Annual Victory Step Show, which was held this past November. The step show is always extremely well attended and is a way to "meld folk traditions with popular culture," as well to display "different organizations through synchronized percussive movement, singing, speaking, chanting and drama." More recently, ABS organized the Dinner to Jazz program,which was held last Saturday in the Havener Center St. Pat's Ballroom.
For more information on ABS, go check out their website at http://web.umr.edu/~abs.