By Marion Smallwood
The animate clatter of high heels, small talk and salsa steps, in company with the decor of red and gold balloons, face masks and cultural anecdotes, enveloped the unassuming atmosphere of the Bodek Lounge this Halloween– painting the setting of Calabash 2009, Our Legends: Unmasked.
The programs placed at each table shared the night’s line-up as well as a brief history of the origin of the event’s name: “‘Calabash’ is a bottle-shaped gourd, transformed by craftsmen into intricately decorated containers, aesthetic smoking pipes and unique musical instruments.” These items are created in both the Caribbean and Africa, and the link between the cultures has inspired a lasting Penn tradition.
Calabash has been the highlight of first semester at Penn for students celebrating the African diasporic culture for roughly ten years. Each year it is hosted by CASA, DHSA, Grupo Quisqueyano and PASA and is catered by Caribbean and African restaurants from the surrounding West Philadelphia community.
The scent of cultural foods incited eager, rumbling stomaches and tested the patience of many attendees—a nod to Calabash’s continued legacy of great food. Members of these organizations, other supporting groups like BSL and UMC, Calabash performers, and everyone in between, gave Beverly Sithole and Matthew Sylvester, presidents of PASA and CASA, their full attention as they began this year’s annual celebration.
Particularly evocative to DHSA members, although still meaningful for students of other cultures, was the first performance of the night. Carvens Lissaint, professional performance poet and Excelano Project representative, spit a poem entitled “Haiti”. Lissaint says the poem “is about the mental, emotional and painful struggles the [Haitian community goes through on a daily basis and how I relate and don’t relate to their struggles.” The first line, “Have you ever seen the apocalypse, in the eyes of a human,” was a poignant nod to the continued conflict in Haiti as well as an introspective way to jump-start the night.
Following Lissaint was dinner, which I for one, thoroughly enjoyed: jerk chicken, plantains, four different types of rice, lamb and macaroni and cheese (to name a few) made mouths water and legs skip. The food was indeed a tough act to follow, but African Rhythms left no one disappointed.
According to the website: “As a student-run African Drum and Dance Troupe at the University of Pennsylvania, African Rhythms, affectionately known as “AR”, represents the strength and beauty of African culture.” AR takes part in Calabash every year, joining the banquet each fall and last week, starting the night as the first cultural dance group.
Equally hype were dances by Onda Latina and Destination Hip Hop.
Onda Latina means “Latin Wave” and is the only dance group of its kind at Penn. Their presence at Calabash was fun and added a unique flavor to the nights events. Onda dancers Hallie Cope and Lori Le were dressed as a nurse and doctor, respectively, while doing the salsa, merging their reggaeton performance with the traditions of the day it fell on–Halloween.
The final performance of the night was by Penn’s only hip hop dance troupe, Destination Hip-hop, widely known as DH2. Dancers wore brightly colored t-shirts with flags hanging from their pockets to match, all the while performing difficult dance moves to the rhythms of reggae and soca. D’Andre Carr, last year’s Mr. Calabash and veteran DH2 dancer, joined the dance as dramatically as the steps, exploding from the closed doors of the Bodek Lounge with choreographed moves that led to the middle of the dance floor.
The evening ended with the Mr. and Mrs. Calabash dance competition, dubbing Penn senior Sheri Abdel Rahman as Mrs. Calabash. The competition was significant of Calabash’s ability to gather people of all cultural backgrounds; this year’s Mrs. Calabash is neither of African nor Caribbean descent, but Palestinian—and her title was well-deserved, the girl can move!
The sound of salsa steps and Reggaeton sounded until the very end of the event, when I left the Bodek Lounge this Halloween. If you weren’t in attendance, you missed out; it was truly a night to celebrate our shared histories and commemorate our legends.
