February is the month to celebrate African Americans and their history, to remember and to show the accomplishments of the community. From poetry to dance, our school came together to celebrate Black culture and talent.
On Feb. 7, 2025, Black Student Union (B.S.U.) and the Performing Arts magnet came together to put on a show in the Donna Hubbard Auditorium. Band, Rhythm Lab, Congo Square, Choir and Dance Company each put together a performance to celebrate Black history. Dance performed two pieces, one of which was fully choreographed by Freshman Inaya Loox.
“My experience during the Black History Month show was amazing,” said Loox. “It was my first Black History Month Show and it blew my expectations out of the water. This year I choreographed a piece for the Dance Company and performing it on stage was very exciting.”
Choir, the Vanaires and Luminaries, performed three songs, “Total Praise”, “City Called Heaven” and “Melodies from Heaven”. There were also double the amount of solo performances and even a
quartet.
Seniors Madison Braybon, Emily Chavez, Xavier Martin-Porter and Junior Dilan Patton performed “Precious Lord” and “Stand Up”.
Martin-Porter was honored to be able to do the show with such a great impact.
“Participating in the Black History Month Concert is always a great way to celebrate and honor Black culture,” said Martin-Porter. “The quartet made up of upperclassmen, including myself, wanted to leave a lasting impact on the audience and took it upon ourselves to work collaboratively to put together the two songs.”
A huge part of Black music and culture is jazz. The majority of the concert revolved around the jazz genre which required heavy Saxophone influence and senior Lizeth Gallardo was the talented Saxophonist that helped do the jazz music justice.
Gallardo has been in band for her whole high school career but her first time in the Black History Month show.
“I was really excited and a little nervous doing the Black History Month Show because it was going to be my first time participating in all of my four years of being in a band,” said Gallardo. “It was honestly so amazing being in many acts including the Drum Circle, Second Line Band and Rhythm Lab. I was really honored to have moments of solos and make my family in the audience proud.”
The show had a great audience turn out and made an influence. Audience member Freshmen Betty Tallman shares her experience watching the Black History Show for the first time here at Van Nuys.
“I thought the show was very powerful,” said Tallman. “The piece choreographed by Inaya Loox was so amazing and the lighting done by Kayla Balikyan-Davis fit the show very well. I really enjoyed it all!”
