Welcome Back Week

An Evening of Music, Poetry, and More

By Kira Ward

Bowie State University's welcome week entailed many activities to welcome students back to a new academic year. NightLife Entertainment was an evening planned to showcase an array of talent among a vast selection of artists. To get students ready to be entertained, the hottest music was played before hand and students had the chance to dance a little to get them warmed up for the night ahead. BSU students of all classifications came out to support and be apart of this evening of entertainment.

 Queen Aisha, a comedian from New Jersey, opened the show with an impromptu commentary that sent the crowd into an uproar. This icebreaker was the preface to a line up about Africa in which she discussed the vast difference between the two cultures including topics such as intense heat and her experiences with the male species. Her rendition of the typical African accent was received well by entertained students. In addition part of her piece was discussion on Obama, and the fact that there is an African- American family in the White House, a topic that always promotes response. She asked many rhetorical questions about how America is dealing with black love and soul food in DC. She ended her performance by inviting a random male student up and becoming his very own private dancer.

Following that unique set, comedian Marshall Brandon had students begging for more with his original material on every subject matter you could imagine. He began talking about HBCUs and how those young men who pretend to be hardcore need to wake up and realize that you cannot be a scholar and a thug at the same time. He talked about the troubles of young African American students trying to survive while in school with jokes such as how black students dread the daily mail as oppose to white students who know the mail brings them something good. He touched on the very popular issue of today's rappers and Hip Hop and how the genre has in fact, gone down hill.

Marshall also explored the topic of various phone services and the dilemmas that come with them. He pointed out Sprint as having terrible signals and T-mobile as being for those with bad credit. He touched on many other topics before he closed including reggae and its exhausting dance moves and sexual tension in relationships.

Following the talented comedians performing artist, writer, and musician Abyss graced the stage with his own original pieces accompanied by an acoustic guitar. His show consisted of elaborate poetry that seemed to heighten the emotion of the crowd and keep them attentive. Ultimately, he would switch back and forth between spoken word and song. He offered something for everyone, no matter what your particular interest may be.

After a smooth medley of music and poetry, rapper and singer Phil Ade switched up the mood by getting the crowd moving. A young artist, he identified with the students of BSU and was able to close out the show with a bang.