The crowd in Paine Hall was transfixed as Masi Osseo-Asare '00 and Teddy Maynard '00 finished singing "His Eye on the Sparrow." After a silent pause--when the hum of the piano stopped reverberating through the hall--the audience jumped out of its seats, clapping and cheering.

The performance brought the house down, but it wasn't the first time students were on their feet applauding this weekend.

Ushering in Black History Month, Harvard's first Black Arts Festival celebrated past and present artistic voices, drawing enthusiastic, hall-filling crowds to all four of its main events.

Event participants said they felt strong personal connections to their work, and exhibited pride and anger, joy and resolve in their performances.

Maynard, also a lead actor in Friday night's musical "Songs We Can't Sing," said the themes of the show resonated with his personal experience. The Currier House sophomore moved from Puerto Rico to Boston as a child, following the death of this mother.

"It hurts me, as it did my character, to feel that I am not embraced by my people," said Maynard. "My life, like Kwame and Kweku [the musical's main characters], is a constant striving to become closer to God because in that relationship do I find my home."

Friday night's audience witnessed Ashong's interpretation of modern themes in the show's script and choreography. Scenes depicting police brutality, black self-deprecation, the place of religion and the immigrant experience were punctuated by ballet, soliloquy and fast-moving dance segments.

Messages of social change resonated through Lowell Lecture Hall, as cast members chanted lyrics such as "You're chained until you change your perception /Enslaved by lives of lethal inflection..." inone of the show's rap songs.

Adding an academic component to the weekend'sfestivities, the guest speakers at Saturday's ArtsPanel debated the aesthetic merit and politicalsignificance of hip-hop music.

Visual artist Alonzo Adams decried theprevalence of remixing by black musicians inpopular music. "It bothers me," he said. "With allthe gifts laid before us, why do we have to keepreaching back and doing it over and over and overagain?"

Instead, Adams urged the music industry to"build upon past gifts," taking the success ofgreats such as Marvin Gaye and John Coltrane to "ahigher level."

Panelist Conrad Muhammad, spokesperson for theNation of Islam and popularly known as "theHip-Hop minister," said he sees a potential forhip-hop to permeate the political arena.

"Clearly we have been loud," he said. "But whathave we been saying?"

The discussion moved to a historical look atthe African-American contribution to arts in thiscountry. When Muhammad hears blacks being told tomove back to Africa, he responds "we'd have totake so much of America with us that Americanwouldn't be the same."

Saturday night's "Celebration of the BlackArtistic Experience" incorporated many of theartistic contributions to which Muhammad alluded.

Gumboot Dancers began the performance, stormingthe stage with a rendition of dances created bySouth African mine workers.