This past friday, february twenty-seventh, Worthington Kilbourne’s Black student association teamed up with Thomas Worthington’s Diversity club to put on one of the best performances Kilbourne has seen. However, there were some issues a long the way. The Ravine got to talk to shows leaders, advisors, and participants to get some insider thoughts on how they got through it all.
The Ravine got the opportunity to speak to Kiara Kelso advisor of Black Student Association, “I came from Westerville city schools, and we had a Black History Month show every yearn and that had been going on for decades. And so I was shocked to hear that there was no show here at Kilbourne, and I’m like, why? And how do we change that immediately?” Mrs. Kelso made immediate change and thats how the Black History Month show came about.
Practices were stressful and hard to work professionally with friends. The Ravine also got to speak to Treasurer of BSA Ama Ampem, and she says, “With full honesty it was fun but stressful to work with friends because when you’re working to execute something perfectly and professionally you have to put your feelings aside.” They had to work hard to stay on task and away from distractions at every practice.
Working with Thomas Worthington, instead of against Thomas is different then what we usually see. Kelso talks a little about how the black community in Worthington isn’t as big as other districts but it is sizeable, she then continues to say “I thought that in regards to the black community, this would be the perfect time to show unity, you know, this would be the perfect time to come together and be united in something. When being asked if she enjoys working with Thomas she said, “Yeah, I love Kathy Sparks. She’s absolutely incredible. She’s been the diversity club advisor over at Thomas for many years so getting to learn from her was valuable.”
Something none of the participants could have imagined was the emergency fire curtain falling down in transition from the first assembly to the second. Due to the construction our school has been through there was a mishap, and the system failed in one way or another. Kelso says “We were just grateful at the end of the day, even though we couldn’t put on the second part of the show, we were grateful that the curtain didn’t fall on anyone, because it could have came down at any point in time.” There were a lot of emotions going on during this moment. Ama explains “When the curtains went down I was beyond lost. I was confused. Because one moment I’m getting ready to help everyone walk on stage, and walk myself on stage, and then all of the sudden the curtain falls.” None of the performers were even remotely prepared to for this. Ama continues to say “All I know is that i was a construction error and we’re just glad nobody was actually on the stage when this happened, but we live and we learn.” They got over this hiccup quickly and showed out during the night show
After BSA’s biggest event of the year they don’t just stop there, they represent themselves in various other ways, at culture day, there celebration cookout and most importantly, graduation.
