Students were able to enjoy and share their artistic talents with their peers at the Carleton Cultural Showcase on March 20.
The event was hosted by the Student Experience Office and the Campus Activity Board (CAB).
The evening had students participate in a variety of activities such as calligraphy, button making, musical performances, and spoken word group, Spoke N’ Heard.
Nancy Asante, CAB director of arts and culture, said the planning process was long but rewarding.
“My goal for tonight was for people to be creative. I feel like it’s just so important for people to be a part of a creative atmosphere,” she explained. “I’ve been planning for about a month and a half now and it’s a lot that comes together, but I’m happy with how everything turned out.”
Asante said it was important for Carleton students to work together artistically but the evening wouldn’t have been such a success without the performance of the headlining group.
“I really pushed to get Spoke N’ Heard here because they are the best,” she said. “They are so good with performing . . . last time we had over 90 people at an event we put on. This time, there’s over 100 people.”
The Toronto-based group, who travelled with four of their members to the capital, put on a performance featuring spoken word poetry on the subjects of racism, mental illness, feminism and love.
Before performing, founder of Spoke N’ Heard, Jordon Viera, gave an introduction of the group.
According to Viera, Spoke ‘n’ Heard is about equity and discussing issues that affect communities.
“Spoke ‘n’ Heard is trying to expand to include artists from all over and talk about unifying experiences of oppression, experiences of love—things that unify us so that we can connect with other people.”
Deviana Monroe, one of the members of Spoke N’ Heard, said she hoped Carleton students were able to take something away from the performance.
“I hope that something that anyone of us had said connected to the person and their personal experience . . . For me, my process in growing as a person has really come from hearing the stories of other people that were similar to mine,” she said.
Spoke ‘n’ Heard acknowledges the importance of telling other peoples’ stories, Monroe added.
“We live in a society where people are afraid to be themselves. Spoke N’ Heard is also motivated by people who don’t have the courage to share their own stories,” she said. “These are the stories that are overlooked.”
For Gwenaelle Salaun, a third-year marketing and human resources student, her experience was just that.
“It was amazing. I feel so much emotion and now I feel like crying,” she said. “I had no real expectations but I was completely amazed. During the first spoken word performance, I was just shaking and my friend sitting beside me, she was just the same.”
Although not an arts student herself, Salaun said the evening was memorable not only in the way that she connected with the performers, but with the other audience members too.
“I am interested in the arts, but there was this feeling of community—we were all sharing these feelings at the same time just because of words and spoken words,” she said. “Seeing other people and other students performing is realizing that other people, like you and I, can produce something beautiful.”
