Category: Creativity

This year I decided to do Culturama again, and I was torn between auditioning for USA and Trinidad & Tobago. I decided on auditioning for USA because I felt it would push me out of my comfort zone, with this year’s dance heavily based on broadway and swing. I don’t really have a dance background – my cousin taught me at home, so apart from hip-hop dance, I’m not exactly the most elegant. However, I decided to put myself in an uncomfortable situation as I felt it would challenge my mindset and interpersonal skills.

 

I was then given the chance to show my hip-hop talents as well which I felt was almost a reward for trying so hard with broadway. I was asked to write a rap regarding US culture over the Where They From (WTF) – Missy Elliot beat. It was a bit difficult at first because I’m not American and I didn’t want it to be too stereotypical but rather to try and encapsulate the diversity and influence of American culture on the world today.

 

I touched down in the United States

See New York, my Empire State

I had a dream, that my entire race

Would be soon equal, no time to waste

Land of the free

Home of the braves

9/11 still couldn’t kill our faith

Cause East to the west, there’s no better place

Rep New York city gotta Harlem shake

Cause it’s the place where you can be what you wanna be

The dawn’s early light, oh say can you see

American idol or the American dream

The whole world cold when America sneeze

Jookin, jerkin, never cause beef

Charleston step, better step to the beat

Show California love, cause the beach where it at

Teach me how to dougie, then I teach em how to dab

Tasha, Quinn, show em how we do things

Broadway all day, the jive, the swing, I’m king

 

Please wake me when I am free

For I cannot bear this captivity

But my inner eye can see

A race

Who reigned as kings in another place

The green of trees were rich and full

Men and women together as equals

But please wake me when I am free

I cannot bear captivity

For I would rather be stricken blind

Than to live without the expression of my mind

At times, I often wonder

Could I ever see my neighbour as my Brother

Love tore us apart; love for the self and love for our kin

My teacher told me was slaves, my mama told me was kings

During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people.

Our nationalities divide us

Yet we created borders and gave them names

We created nations, and yet we allow them to control us

In this respect, we are all slaves

I have fought against white domination

And I have fought against black domination

But for all my troubles, I have witnessed no change happen

Every journey starts with a step, and Nelson said, it’s a long walk to freedom

I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony

To be free

It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve.

But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

You see, Martin tried, 2Pac died, Nina cried

And Bersama roared

Power

Bersama this semester has been very busy. We performed at UWC day and at the MUN conference  In both performances, I was able to perform solo pieces that differed in topic, style and delivery.

 

The performance at UWC day was a celebratory piece of the school and what we try to embody in the UWC movement. For the performance, we sang the UWC school song, written by Hannah Jones and Molly Stirrat. They asked me to write a short rap that would become part of the song. I was ecstatic when they asked me but I was also nervous because this is something that would probably last a while. The knowledge that the song would probably be performed after I had left the school was the hardest part; the challenge was to write something that would remain true for years to come as well as something that could be understood and appreciated by all, not just high school students. I came up with this:

It’s my squad, it’s my team it’s my crew

And when we stick together ain’t nothing we can’t do

Cause on my own I’m alone, but I still feel at home

When I walk through these halls, I feel in my zone

In this United – World – College,

Opening my mind through the learning of this knowledge

As I open up my heart and I open up my eyes

I see a sustainable future, a force to unite

Save the turtles

 

Then we performed at the MUN conference. This one was special because I also performed an original piece, a song that I call “We Are Free”. The song is about peer pressure, and being free from it which I think is a timely message in today’s trend-driven age. Below are the lyrics for the song:

 

Here we are today

And we’ve found a way

Cause we’ve escaped

From this place of pain

We’re no longer slaves

We don’t have to change

In this present day

We can now say…

We are free, we are free

There’s no stopping us

(We are free, we are free)

We don’t have to follow

(We are free, we are free)

We are not held by sorrow

(We are free, we are free)

We have a better tomorrow

(We are free, we are free)

We can now say

(We are free, we are free)

I tell the truth and I make the devil shame

Nowadays I leave enemies in my wake

Cause I’m no longer afraid

And I’m no longer a slave

To other people

No longer needing their approval

I’m finally free, and fresh out of jail

Locked up for putting my person up for sale

But I’ve never known freedom

Killing my self I’ve been charged with treason

I put the king in kingdom

I didn’t need a reason

To stop me being a victim

Only God could judge me, so I’m full of all his wisdom

But hierarchy is arbitrary , always been a visionary

My way or the highway, now i move when I say

Word to Uzi, I do what I want

Now I’ve got the backing so no need for me to front

I’m being blunt

Alpha, riding on my own terms

I went to the mountains, and here’s what I learnt

Here we are today

And we’ve found a way

Cause we’ve escaped

From this place of pain

We’re no longer slaves

We don’t have to change

Today

We will now say…

 

We are free, we are free

There’s no stopping us

(We are free, we are free)

We don’t have to follow

(We are free, we are free)

We are not held by sorrow

(We are free, we are free)

We have a better tomorrow

(We are free, we are free)

We can now say

(We are free, we are free)

 

Wave your hands if you know that you’re free

Always be yourself, not the one you pretend to be

I’m breaking new grounds, but they told me I was wrong

I longed to be myself, so I never could belong

And I’m out

You know what I’m about

Finally free, so I scream and I shout

But it’s my power of will, I finally feel

That we are free, just hope I’m bringing you along with me

 

We don’t have to follow

(We are free, we are free)

We are not held by sorrow

(We are free, we are free)

We have a better tomorrow

(We are free, we are free)

We can now say

(We are free, we are free)

We are free, we are free, yeah

[I’m breaking new grounds, but they told me I was wrong]

He is free, she is free, yeah

[I longed to be myself, so I never could belong]

They are free, I am free, yeah

[We are free, we are free, we are free, we are free]

We are free.

This season I think I really got a chance to come out of my shell and show my development in singing. Apart from From All Corners, the other performance that stands out is when we performed at the Grade 12 Assembly. This stood out for me because we sang One Day More, from the film Les Miserables. The song is quite vocal, and so I had to really challenge myself to hit some of the notes. What was also notable about this performance was the fact that I had rapped the day before in front of the entire high school and so throughout this performance, people (they told me after) were expecting me to break out a rap verse. This didn’t happen but it gave me added pressure because I felt like people were surprised to see me sing and not rap or dance.

 

 

As mentioned in my last reflection regarding our gymnastics service, I’m not very good at gymnastics. Thus, it makes it even harder to coach it, because it’ll be quite awkward, not to mention embarrassing, if one of the 4/5 year olds ask me to demonstrate what I’m trying to teach. However, I realised that I can learnt, at the very least, how to protect them from hurting themselves since they’re our responsibility. One day, Mr Dunn, our service supervisor was absent, and representing him were two gymnastic coaches: Coach Amy and Coach Tiffany. They were really friendly and offered us really good advice in terms of how to coach and control the kids. After the service session, they told us about their training sessions that they have everyday after school in which we could come and help out and learn from them.

 

I thought it was a good idea, and decided to go before I had basketball training, on Mondays and Wednesdays for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. It was a bit awkward at first because I was the only one from my service that went, and I was the only secondary school boy in the gymnasium. However, I’m really glad I did go for these “help” sessions as it gave me a chance to focus on keeping children safe, helped me get to know some of the younger kids that I still say hi to today. Also and most importantly, my learning paid off and our service benefited from it, even if they won’t admit it.

This is much harder than I thought. I’m someone who learns by repetition. Like when I have to learn a musical piece, I don’t remember every note, instead I remember the flow; I remember what came before and what comes after. However, that doesn’t seem to be working in this situation. Perhaps, I haven’t done it enough but it feels like my confusion stems from my lack of understanding of the actual play. In all honesty, I think – keyword being “think” – the play revolves around a love triangle set in Egypt and Nubia, and a lot of people end up dying.

 

I am enjoying it though. I know some of the cast members from other activities and performances that I’ve been a part of, although, the whole cast has been really welcoming, leading me to make many new friends. Everything hasn’t been all rosy though. The student that I had to replace due to his leaving, ended up coming back to school and back into the musical. I wasn’t against his coming back, however, it did cause me to feel as though I would then be deemed as surplus to requirement, though I was later comforted by Mrs Stirrat that I wouldn’t be asked to leave and that they would figure out equal parts for both of us. Regardless, I still decided to just focus on what I was being asked to do and not worry about the politics of everything else.

 

All in all, participating in Aida really helped me grow as a person. I underwent challenges that I had never faced before, and through it all, I just tried to keep being myself, and keep giving my best. William Golding’s Lord of The Flies sends the message that given the right situation, even the purest of us can become savages. However, in this situation, I focused on the following: Don’t let your situation define you. The situation lasts only for a time but the impact it has on you lasts forever.

I was initially asked to audition for AIDA, however, I had already signed up for football at the time. Because of my football commitments – 3 days a week: Monday, Wednesday & Friday after school – I had to decline the opportunity to audition. It was quite a back and forth process because I knew that this was a big opportunity; the school musical only happens once every two years, so me being in Grade 11 means I won’t have another opportunity to do this.

 

It’s quite interesting how we get second opportunities in life, most of the time, when we explicitly and deliberately rejected the first opportunity. I was approached by Mrs Stirrat in late November and was asked whether I could step in to feel in for a student who had left school unexpectedly. At the time, I was participating in the Basketball team, so I was still quite busy, however, I’m particularly close with Mrs Stirrat and I couldn’t say no to her, especially when I could see that she was very stressed about the situation. So I said yes. Being thrust into a completely new environment, my main goal was not to steal the spotlight, but to work hard to understand the story of the play, understand who my character (Egyptian soldier) was, and to be a good team player.

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All my life I’ve had a love for music. Listening to it, dancing to it, singing/rapping along. Talent wise, I can play the piano, rap and I enjoy dancing. One thing that I struggle to do, however, is sing. This is a source of annoyance for me because my uncles sing, my mum sings, my cousins sing, and my younger sister sings, so I feel as though I was left out in the singing blessings. For this reason, I wasn’t really that excited when my music teacher invited me to the a capella group, Bersama. Initially, I was asked to audition for Aida, but I had CultuRama during this time and so I didn’t want to sign up for too many things or else I wouldn’t be able to do well in school. Then, my teacher asked me to come for Bersama, and I couldn’t really get out of it since I didn’t have a valid excuse to not show up, and so, I went.

Don’t get me wrong, in my room, with my headphones on, I can sing like Mariah Carey but when I have to sing in front of other people, that confidence and ability vanishes. With that being said, I decided to take the same approach to Bersama as I did for Piano Masterclass; having a humble attitude and being willing to learn and take something positive away from the activity. I came to understand that singing in a group has been one of the best things for me, musically, as it has helped me train my ear for music as well as appreciate other styles that I wouldn’t readily listen to. I’ve also been asked to write a rap verse for a song that we’re performing at the end of the semester and so I’m able to not only learn from others, but show what I can contribute to the group.

Personally, I feel that learning how to sing – I don’t have to be great, just decent – will help me with my performances, that for the most part, are just me rapping and dancing. I usually interact with the crowd a lot but I feel as though sometimes my performances are a bit monotonous in the sense that people, when they see my name on the list of performers, already have an idea of what to expect. Learning to sing, however, will help me diversify my performances and allow me to perform my songs that I like, but am currently unable to sing.

 

One of my highlights this year was Wavelengths, it was our only performance for Bersama of the semester. Not only did I rap my own song during this performance, but we did a cover of Adele’s Rolling In the Deep in which I wrote a rap verse for. This was the first time I had ever been asked to write a rap verse, and I felt a bit of pressure for it to be really good, however ,I was excited at the prospect. It was an interesting process; I did research into the song, considered different ‘flows’ and tried to really communicate through what I was saying.

 

My verse went like this:

Roll deep, never lonely,

Cause I got the whole team, with me,

And you know this, hoping that your absence,

Will be noticed, thinking you’ll be so missed, so wrong

So I’m coming at you, I’m a savage animal

Discovery channel what I’m ’bout to show y’all

Thought it was skyfall, by the writing’s on the wall

I was running through the Six, you’ll be rolling in your woes