Members of the Krump dance team celebrate Christ through dance. Arthur Daniels Jr./THE CHIMES

The Black Student Association (BSA) at Biola sponsored a special event celebrating Black History Month called “The Kingdom Through OUR Eyes” on Thursday, Feb. 17. The event featured African-American soul food dishes in the Caf, followed by live entertainment, praise and worship, and fellowship in the Caf Banquet Room nearby.

Overall the event was exciting and it was great to see it at Biola, there were some noticeable highlights I would like to share. I was particularly impressed with the beautiful and well-coordinated efforts of the B.E.A.T. praise dance team, as they danced in harmonious unity to the sounds of Israel Houghton’s “Every Prayer.” The audience exploded with exuberant applause as they finished their performance before a mostly packed banquet room. My only concern was that they did not seem to have enough room to perform as freely as they could have in a larger venue.

Worship through rap, dance

Up next was the dynamic and powerful Gospel rap sounds of the Kenosis, a local Christian group and a subsidiary of Joshua Generation Ministries, based out of Compton, Calif. They rocked the room with several powerful, Scripture-filled selections, but my personal favorite was “Empty me,” and the specific line, “But there was a King who became a servant, veiled himself in flesh so he could save me from the serpent.” Again the audience erupted in applause at the conclusion of the performance.

Then there was the highly energetic and improvisational dance moves of the Christian Krump dance team. This extraordinary group of about six to eight men and women performed in the “Krump,” aggressive, energetic and powerful dance style that captivated the audience and caused spontaneous reactions of approval and excitement from the crowd.

Not to be outdone, the husband and wife team of Phillip and Nina Wallace gave a speech on the historical background of African-American worship tradition, and then Phillip’s wife took us to the heights of heaven with her soulful rendition of “Amazing Grace.” To say that she brought down the house would be an understatement, as the crowd began to applaud with excitement and approval even before she finished singing. She then ushered us into God’s presence as we all sang “Holy, Holy, Holy” to the one God who saved us all and brought us together from all ethnic backgrounds for this special event.

Keynote speaker weaves personal experiences with history

The featured speaker of the night, Robert Farrar, adjunct professor of history at Biola, brought humor and serious spiritual and academic reflection to the table, as he literally used the numbers of his life (birth year, number of brothers and sisters, etc.) to tell us his story and recount African-American history. His topic was “Using Literature to Comprehend the Historic and Modern Enslavement and Oppression of Black People.” Using a PowerPoint display and holding up various books relevant to the topic, Farrar did an excellent job of encouraging the audience to become literate in the historical facts surrounding African-American history and race relations. One of the most interesting points made by Dr. Farrar was when he introduced the book “Slavery Time: When I was Chillun” by Belinda Hurmence. Part of his point was to demonstrate that even in slavery times, the slaves developed a slang culture similar to ours today, and to show the “propensity [of black folks] to develop despite the hardships that they were faced with.”

Food and promotion areas of concern

While there were some concerns that the soul food dinner, which featured fried chicken, corn on the cob and cornbread, may have been too stereotypical and could have been of better quality, I believe that this controversy was overshadowed by the main emphasis of the evening. Overall, the event was a great success, although I feel it should have been promoted more overtly throughout the school so that more people could have known about it and attended. The only reason I found out about the event myself is because I knew one of the participants who gave me the details. I then let others know, but by then it was “last minute” and many could not make it out to participate.

This event was a great blessing to me especially, and also to the entire Biola community. I hope we can do it again next year, or even before next year’s Black History Month, and do it up so big that we can fill Calvary Chapel with multitudes sharing in our distinctive talents, gifts and testimonies to the glory of God – bringing the African-American community and all nations together for his ultimate glory on this campus.