NSBE Cultural Festival

The NSBE Cultural Festival displayed both African and African-American customs and traditions in a fun and enriching celebration of culture and history. The festivities facilitated cultural celebration and blending through sharing traditional foods, performances, and dancing. The evening began with NSBE hosts providing attendees with foods such as moinmoin, efo, jollof rice, beans, chopped barbeque pork, and beef and chicken turned in Nigerian stew. While eating their fill and admiring the decorations, the audience was treated to a performance by a four-member, soulful jazz band by the name of JoFoke aNem. After the band, the NSBE brought slam poets Mahogany and Niyah from Slam Nuba to the stage to recite some powerful poetry ranging in topic from discussions of slam poetry and what it meant to each of the poets, to stories about life and personal struggles, to culture appropriation, to the bonds of family and humanity in general. Afterwords, the Ujamaa Dance Collective finished the night with a high-energy return to music through their performance with African drums. They quickly got the audience up on its feet and easily encouraged attendees to learn and participate in some traditional African dances. The night culminated with everyone in the audience participating in a follow-the-leader type of dance. The Cultural Festival was an entertaining and educational way to present and celebrate African and African-American customs to the audience at Mines.