History In The Making At Radford

A creative infusion of historic and present culture met in the form of Radford’s first-ever Harlem Renaissance.

The event kicked off Thursday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. in Muse Hall with approximately 100 people in attendance. Food and a live Jazz band were available to all. The two hosts opened the event reminding the audience that the NAACP is not an organization for blacks only but one that represents diversity. 

Artists and speakers performed on a stage with a projection screen that ran a slide show of influential African Americans.  The slides included people like Zora Neal Hurston, Billie Holiday, Marcus Garvey and James Van Der Zee along with many more.

Radford’s dance team AreUHype paid tribute to the Renaissance by dancing to the “I Got Rhythm” song.  They then transitioned into a modern day hip hop routine that drove the crowd to applause. A performance by the Deliverance Gospel Choir received mass applause after a soloist sung “Amazing Grace.”

Afterwards, audience members were quizzed about their black history knowledge.  The crowd participated in identifying famous African Americans by descriptions.

Vernon “Nestle” Anderson, a graduate student at Radford who received his first master’s from Virginia Tech, took advantage of the open mic portion of the show. On the spur of the moment, Anderson decided to recite a poem he had written and posted on the internet.  He read his poem off his facebook page with the aid of his cell phone.

Anderson said he would like to have seen a more diverse crowd to make the event “more inclusive” but he still enjoyed the event.      

Before the venue began raffle tickets were given free of charge.  Some members of the audience won gift cards to Red Lobster, Buffalo Wild Wings, Mi Puerto and Outback Steakhouse.  One of the top prizes was a $45 gift card to Outback Steakhouse.  Other winners received NAACP t-shirts.

Even though this was a Radford event, there were a couple of Virginia Tech students in the crowd.  One of those students, Brenton Milazzo, a junior, even won a door prize which was a Red Lobster gift certificate for $5.

Marcus Robertson, freshman chairman of the NAACP’s fundraising committee at Radford, said the show exceeded his expectations and he expects the program to continue next year.