Cultural Rhythms 2010: An Evening with Wyclef Jean

Kevin Liu, class of 2011
Eliot House

I step on stage with my co-director Elizabeth Eze, and we can feel the adrenaline rush as we introduce the 25th Annual Cultural Rhythms Festival to a crowd of 1200 students, faculty and community members.

My name is Kevin Liu, and I am an intern at the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations. Every year, the interns organize a day-long celebration consisting of a food festival, two student performance shows, and an awards ceremony for the honored Artist of the Year. This year, the festival provided a stage for diverse, multicultural, artistic expression from 26 different student performance groups. In addition, the Harvard Foundation selected an artist who embodies the spirit of Cultural Rhythms: the unity of artistic contribution, promotion of diversity and active humanitarian efforts.

Our 2010 Artist of the Year, Mr. Wyclef Jean, has had a longstanding and noteworthy career both as member of the Fugees and as a solo artist. However, most impressive are his contributions through his organization, the Yéle Haiti Foundation, which aims to support the people of Haiti by promoting sports and the arts. In addition, the organization distributes food to communities in need throughout Haiti and mobilizes emergency disaster relief, including its current efforts in response to the January 2010 earthquake.

When Wyclef Jean steps on stage, the crowd goes wild. He opens the show with a multi-lingual free-style rap and the festivities begin. Through the plethora of groups, everyone is impressed by the amount of talent and diversity of Harvard students—from the fan-dance from Asian American Dance Troupe to the traditional Indian Classical Dance to the modern break-dancing from the Harvard Breakers. The precision and synchronization of the Ballet Folklorico de Atzlan and the Irish Dancers amaze the audience. We clap along to the playful Appalachian music from Bluegrass and are touched by the soulful songs of Kuumba Singers.

Whether we are in the audience, backstage, or performing, for a short time, the show brings us together as one community in a shared experience. For me, this simple connection is the most rewarding moment of the entire show. In that moment, we engage in cross-cultural understanding and embrace the true meaning of unity by celebrating our diversity together.

Kevin Liu and classmate Katie Gunn will be emceeing Pre-frosh Palooza this Sunday evening, an event inspired by Cultural Rhythms and exclusively for the Class of 2014. Acts performing at Prefrosh-Palooza will include the Harvard Breakers, the Harvard Ballet Company, the Callbacks, Mariachi Veritas, the Pan-African Dance and Music Ensemble, and many others. Don’t miss it—Sunday April 25, 9-11pm in Sanders Theatre!

Opera at Harvard

Francesca Reindel, Class of 2011,

Eliot House, Neurobiology Concentrator

The first night of pre-frosh weekend is thrilling, but also somewhat daunting.  Finding your way to Agassiz House to pick up your t-shirt, the calendar listing the hundreds of events, and your host’s information, and then appearing at your host’s doorstep with your sleeping bag—it’s exciting but slightly unnerving.  Some pre-frosh may not arrive until the next day, and it is normal to feel a little lost.

I was lucky enough to be, quite literally, rescued by a group of undergraduate members of the Lowell House Opera (the details of this rescue could rival any fairytale).  It was my good fortune that a friend-of-a-friend was involved in this incredible organization and invited me to come watch a video of the opera Othello with them, an opera we would eventually produce in full  and perform in the Lowell House Dining Hall in 2009!

As an opera singer, the last thing I would have expected at pre-frosh weekend was to find myself immersed in a group of opera lovers.  Most of my friends from music school had moved on to conservatories or universities with large opera performance programs in order to fulfill their dreams of one day singing at the Met.  I was more interested in broadening my horizons and attending a liberal arts college, while also pursuing opera.

Harvard has a myriad of performing opportunities and a strong, active, and welcoming community of people who love to sing, direct, produce, and listen to opera.  We have FOUR companies which annually mount full scale productions!  I performed in my first full opera this February in the Dunster House Opera (DHO)’s production of Albert Herring.  Each year DHO’s undergraduate cast and orchestra energetically perform an opera in English.  With the Lowell House Opera, which performs larger-scale works in their original language, I’ve had the opportunity to work on many of the behind-the-scenes aspects of opera, and LHO’s unique community of students and semi-professionals from around the Boston area is very exciting.  If you prefer early music, check out the Harvard Early Music Society (HEMS), or for quick-paced English operetta, explore the Harvard Gilbert and Sullivan Players (HRGSP).

Photo: Francesca Reindel in a Master Class with Renée Fleming at Harvard

There are also opportunities to learn from experts in the field through the Harvard Music Department and the Office for the Arts.  I recently had the opera-tunity (pun intended) to sing in a master class for international opera star and three-time Grammy award winner Renée Fleming!

At Harvard, even novice singers can get involved!  There are also programs, such as the Lowell House Opera Scenes concerts, which allow singers and directors to develop their craft in smaller-scale productions.  Most productions have a chorus as well, which is a great way to begin learning about opera!

We’d love to have you share your fresh ideas and talent with us! Join us at the Opera Aria Concert at Lowell House on Saturday, April 24^th at 1 PM to hear undergraduate opera singers and learn more about our incredible organizations!

Harvard Queer Students and Allies (QSA)

Antonio Iglesias, class of 2010
Adams House, Earth and Planetary Sciences Concentrator

There are few things in life better than becoming comfortable with yourself.  As a gay, male student who once struggled with his sexual identity, the Harvard community, particularly, the Harvard Queer Students and Allies (QSA), aided in my personal transition from questioning and confused to confident and comfortable, and has become my second family.  The QSA creates a supportive community through celebrations of queer culture such as an annual drag night, dance/mixers, and guest speakers and discussion panels on the intersectionality between sexual orientation and other social constructions.

My transformation happened during freshman year.  Now a senior, I have been the treasurer of the QSA for the past two years.  As much as I have grown since my first year, more so have I seen the organization grow.  The main development I have seen is acknowledgment of the real need for inclusivity. In a society concerned with queer rights, the needs of gay and lesbian individuals tend to dominate the conversation, yet we know that there are also many other individuals who are questioning their sexual identities and seeking the comfort that I gained a few years ago   Thus, whether you identify as transgender, intersexual, bisexual, gender queer, (and the list goes on and on), the QSA strives to offer all of these different identities the resources and confidence to live happy, secure lives.

All in all, what I’ve enjoyed most about being a member of the QSA and Harvard in general is that I have never been a part of a more accepting community. This is not just limited to acceptance of another’s sexual identity, but acceptance of every individual for every facet of their identity.  Such an open environment truly promotes a healthy dialogue between students from astoundingly different backgrounds and encourages us to mature and become wiser people than we were when we first set foot on campus.