By Cailyn Burr

The annual African American Heritage Festival held a poetry showcase  based around the theme of “Unity and Rap!” 

The “Hip-Hop Harmony” event was held on Feb. 28 at the WOSU The two-hour-long show featured lyrical performances by students at Ohio State as they sang, rapped, and expressed original spoken word pieces. 

Bria Spaulding, locally known as DJ BriTheBull, said she wanted to emcee this showcase because she felt that it was important for everyone to know how hip-hop, R&B, and poetry intertwined with one another.

“It is important for folks to know that poetry has a lot of souls, a lot of emotion, and just because it doesn’t have music all the time, it still has those key emotions, those keynotes: unity, community, and strength,” Spaulding said. 

With a wide variety of performances, Renee McKnight, poetry showcase chairman, said she hoped that the audience had a good time and walked away feeling uplifted and empowered. 

McKnight said that she wanted everyone to know that their voice and their talents matter. She said she wanted to send the message that everyone can do anything they put their mind to. 

For next year, McKnight said that she wants to carry on “all the creativity. Your vision—nobody is going to do it like you do it.” 

Following the event, McKnight said she is excited to brainstorm ideas with the committee for next year’s showcase and can’t wait for people to build off her ideas to create something amazing. 

The performances left the audience cheering all night and begging for more. This event highlighted emotional stories from students of all different backgrounds, reflecting the Festival’s theme of “unity.” 

Caelyn Boyd, a fourth-year in psychology and strategic communication, said she enjoyed supporting the African American Heritage Festival.

“I think unity was my primary takeaway from this event, but more importantly tonight was about opening up and being able to really hear other people’s stories and putting yourself in their shoes,” Boyd said.