BAME NETWORK HOSTS FIRST BAME CREATIVE SHOWCASE

BY KATIE PRESTON (SHE/HER)

OCCURING ON 12 February, the BAME Network successfully held its first Creative Showcase, celebrating the talents of York’s Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic students.

A first for the Network, the evening included performances of singing, dancing, poetry and music, as well as displaying student-made art.

Taking place at 7.30pm in Central Hall, the BAME Creative Showcase also promoted Emilia’s other project, the Minority-Ethnic Student Handbook, a guide for BAME students on cultural foods in York, scholarship opportunities and more.

Beginning with the first of many comedy sets by Activities Officer Rohan, the showcase kicked off with Rohan’s discussion of anglicising names, ‘ethnic banter’, and his conspiracy that James is actually an anglicised Indian name.

Hosting the entire showcase, Rohan’s comedy explored his family history with Bollywood dancing and being the only BAME person in the room prior to enrolling at York, with Rohan declaring that this is the “first BAME creative showcase, and [the acts] have gone and done some really difficult musical things on stage, and smashed it!”

The showcase’s first performance was from Neha, who sang Indian classical music Raag Jog. Having completed Visharad in this, a bachelors equivalent qualification, Neha’s beautiful performance, despite the slight malfunction of the electronic device emulating a traditional band, elicited thunderous applause from the audience.

Vani was the showcase’s next act, expertly blending Bollywood and musical theatre through her two-song performance. Singing ‘When I look at You’, the song choice was very personal to Vani, having sung it for her Grade Eight qualification whilst working towards her diploma.

Neo was another standout performer, playing a saxophone free improvisation over the fa- mous spiritual ‘Go Down Moses’ ‘ alongside an excerpt from Frederick Douglass displayed on screen. Expressing music as a call to action, Neo’s deliberate distortion of the saxophone created a brilliant yet unsettling narrative performance.

The third singing performance of the showcase was from Shirin, again demonstrating the blending of musical theatre and BAME. Singing ‘The Voice Within’ by Christina Aguilera. Mixing Bollywood and Gollywood, singing songs in English and Indian languages like Hindi and Tamil , the audience clapped along with thunderous applause.

The penultimate performance, Phillipa sang ‘Rise Up’ by Andra Day followed by an incredible rendition of ‘Tell Me You Love Me’ from the musical Dreamgirls, a performance she hoped “to do justice as many vocal legends have performed it before”.

BAME Creative Showcase’s last performance was a Bollywood dance performed by Parin, Ananya, Ninad, and Abhishek. Full of energy, the crowd whistled and clapped along, with some students singing alone.

At the end of the performance, Rohan promoted York Marrow, a volunteering group who had attended, and spoke of the importance of ethnic diversity to sign up due to difficulties in finding doners for BAME individuals.

Speaking to Vision, the BAME Network stated that:

“We are really passionate about this event as we understand that BAME students are less likely to get involved with creative societies and activities whilst at university.

“We want to highlight the talents of our diverse student body and encourage higher levels of participation by BAME students within creative societies.”

Emilia, the out-going BAME Part-Time Officer, exclusively spoke to Vision about the importance of the event:

“The BAME student showcase is going to be the most ambitious event held by the BAME Network this year. I’m so grateful for Anna (the BAME Network’s Events

Officer) for coming to the committee with the event last term and for doing lots of behind the scenes organising, and for Rohan, who has supported us so much throughout!

“It’s really exciting that this is the first time an event like this has been organised at the University, and I would absolutely love it if it became a yearly tradition the Network put on. There’s so much talent amongst York’s BAME students and if this event showcases just a little bit of it then it will have been a complete success!”

YUSU’s out-going Activities Officer Rohan Ashar said prior to the event:

“The inaugural YUSU BAME Creative Showcase is a new project aiming to actively demonstrate and celebrate the various cultures and talents of our BAME community through performances and art, an area of activities in which there is a real lack of racial/ ethnic diversity yet a lot of potential for this to change.

“I’m really excited to participate myself as host, and more importantly support our acts who are taking to the stage!

“This should be a fun as well as meaningful occasion which signifies the start of better representation for BAME students here at York, particularly in the creative societies.

“I hope that the event gets support from lots of people, including those who don’t identify as BAME, because it constitutes a unique chance to bridge gaps and make connections, which only works to its full potential when everyone contributes. We simply want to break down barriers and improve opportunities, together!”