On Friday, February 7, 2020, Fort Zumwalt West High’s “Cultures In Action” diversity club hosted their 3rd Annual Black History Month Celebration. Mrs. Adriana Meder, a Spanish teacher and sponsor for the diversity club at West High, helped coordinate the event with seniors Vanessa Onuoha and Ryan Staples, who directed the show.

The purpose of the event was to bring students from West High together, not only to recognize and celebrate Black History, but to recognize and celebrate other cultures represented by staff and students in the school. Hosted by seniors Vanessa Onuoha and Ryan Staples, and MC’d by senior Mya Bozeman, students, faculty, and staff performed through music, choreographed dance, and spoken word.

Over the last few weeks, students worked hard on preparing their performances. On the night of the event, we had the opportunity to watch performances like Vanessa Onuoha’s choreographed African dance, come to life as students performed on stage together. Ashlyne Hunt’s singing of Andra Day’s “Rise Up” moved the audience. Kamille Johnson and Joseph Bartholomew swooned the crowd to their own version of Daniel Caesar’s “Best Part” with Jalen Thompson and Allan Stacy by their sides on instrument. These were just a few of amazing performances that night.

The event was highlighted by staff members from West High who made contributions to the evening. Mr. Ed Crenshaw, a Hall Monitor, spoke about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech. Mr. John Cunningham, a Social Studies teacher, presented an educational piece called “Underrated History” as he shared the importance of recognizing the unrecognized people and moments in black history. Mrs. Sylvia Moore, a Custodian, shared the history of slavery in her family with “Uncle Cal Wyatt”, and introduced us to Cal Wyatt’s granddaughters on stage.

At the closing of the event, junior Isaiah Raml, who was the DJ for the event, finished it off with more music as the entire cast and crew formed a soul train line and reminded us all how much joy comes from coming together as a community.

To say that we are proud of this group of students for their passion to foster an environment and community of acceptance and inclusion would be an understatement.

We are in the process of putting together a highlight video from the event, so make sure you’re subscribed to our FZiAm YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/c/FZIAM, so that you’ll know when the video is published. A few videos from that evening are also available on our YouTube channel, so make sure you check those out as well.

We want to thank Mr. Thomas Stanley, West High’s Auditorium Manager, for being the creative behind the lighting in the show and for making the program flow smoothly between performances. We also want to thank everyone who came to celebrate with us and we can’t wait to share this evening with everyone again next year as this event becomes a district wide celebration.

Here are a few photos from the celebration: