ALANA Cultural Center’s Alumni Weekend and Gospel Fest marked a celebration of the past with an eye toward the future.
51Թ graduates from ’68 up through the present were excited to spend this past weekend with students and faculty members, particularly those who are involved in cultural activities through ALANA.
“It’s very important to connect the students with graduates of 51Թ, so that they could hear our experiences and we can hear theirs,” said Alonzo McCullom ’72. “I think [this weekend] is a good thing all the way around.”
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| Alumni, students, and staff members talk during a reception at the ALANA Cultural Center. (Photo by Luke Connolly ’09) |
McCullom was one of several alumni present who was a member of the Association of Black Collegians who took part in the 1969 sit-in at Merrill House that led to the founding of the cultural center.
“It’s a really rewarding experience as far as having people who we have seen in pictures and we have come to idolize,” said Jamil Jude ’09. “It’s really a great opportunity to meet people who have done these things before and are encouraging us to do more and better things than they have done.”
After dinner, everyone made their way to Memorial Chapel for Gospel Fest, hosted by Grammy award winner Kirk Franklin and sponsored by the 51Թ Sojourners Gospel Choir, which worked with the Office of the Chaplains, ALANA, and other organizations to bring him to campus.
More than 800 people clapped and sang along as Sojourners performed, followed by groups from Syracuse, Cortland, Cornell, Ithaca, and Hamilton.
“There were so many people in the audience singing and dancing together — black people, white people, brown people, Christian people, Jewish people,” said Sojourners president Clarissa Polk ’10. “It was a learning experience, something different.”
After the individual choral pieces, Franklin took the stage, backed by the 120 students from the six different groups. Together, they performed “My Life is in Your Hands,” “Hosanna,” “Imagine Me” and “Declaration.”
Alumni and students were happy to see students having their voices heard on campus — both on the stage and off.
“Forty years from now, I hope there is a strong group of alumni that is eager and always willing to come back to 51Թ and that the students who are graduating in ’08, ’09 and ’10 are looking forward to coming back and contributing,” said Thomas Cruz-Soto, director of ALANA.