THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 21, 1997 TAG: 9702210814
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENISE WATSON, staff writer
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 75 lines
Lakeshia Moton finally got a taste of what her great-grandmother used to call ``those good ol' days for black folks.''
Moton, 16, strolled Thursday along Ruffner Middle School's version of 1920s Lenox Avenue, a recreation of the heyday of the Harlem Renaissance.
She had just missed the children selling paper fish and newspapers outside the Renaissance Casino and Ballroom.
Moton tapped her toes in the ``Home of the Happy Feet,'' a science room transformed into the Savoy Ballroom, before passing a group of young boys shooting marbles outside The Cotton Club.
``My great-grandmother grew up in New York and always said it was a wonderful place,'' said Moton, who lives in Norfolk.
``The spirit of the time and the people, you know. If this is what it was like, the music, the way people are having fun here, it must've been a wonderful time.''
Thursday night wasn't bad, either.
More than 1,000 people packed the middle school for its unique African-American Fine Arts Festival.
It was a commemoration of African-American history month taken to another level. And then another. And then another.
There was dance: students stomping to the swell of gospel chords and moving to the beat of drums.
There was music: a lip-syncing, middle-school version of Josephine Baker, and a chorus-version of R. Kelly's current pop/R & B hit, ``I Believe I Can Fly.''
There was food: parents and guests ate African dishes like Congo chicken and Ethiopian-styled vegetables while cruising through black history notes on the Internet.
``I'm really impressed,'' said Stephanie Hazell, a local preschool director visiting the Dark Tower, a Harlem hangout for the likes of Langston Hughes and other artists.
``I couldn't believe that these were middle-school students. I had to ask someone and they said, `Yeah, sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders are doing this.'
``They put a lot of work into this.''
The work began almost two months ago, when assistant principal Cathy Lassiter revisited an old idea for a fine arts festival.
``I had the idea last year, but we didn't do it,'' Lassiter said. ``But I was so impressed with the students here I thought we should do it. They are so talented.''
Lassiter developed a committee of more than 30 people, who began assigning themes to classrooms and scouring the Internet and cookbooks for African recipes for the reception. Teachers dug out flapper costumes, felt hats and old movies like the Marx Brothers' ``A Day at the Races'' to show the students how to do the dance the Lindy Hop.
Students made posters and cardboard buildings for Lenox Avenue and Central Park, and in the process, learned more about black history.
``This is probably the best thing I've ever done,'' said 11-year-old Jennifer Sabasavage, sitting behind an information booth in the Dark Tower.
Sabasavage sat behind a table piled with history books and passed out information on A'Lelia Walker, who founded the infamous hotspot.
``She's so interesting to learn about,'' the sixth-grader said. ``Her mother was Madame C.J. Walker, one of the first black millionaires, who gave A'Lelia some money and she built the Dark Tower . . .
``(A'Lelia) wanted proof she could do it. And she did. It was great to learn about things like that.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by RICHARD L. DUNSTON/The Virginian-Pilot
Sharon Evans, 11, poses as a singer and Levon Epps, 12, as a piano
player in a mock Dark Tower club Thursday. As part of Black History
Month, the sixth-grade classroom at Ruffner Middle School was one of
several exhibits to recreate the Harlem Renaissance, a time of
cultural and social reawakening in the 1920s.
KEYWORDS: BLACK HISTORY MONTH