Goff also began his spiritual journey duringhigh school. While as late as ninth grade he canremember "asking if he could help someone" whobelieved in God, in 11th grade, he began dating a"deeply spiritual" girl who he says slowly taughthim to value the "good over the right." In hisefforts to understand her (aka do the rightthing), Goff says, he tended to order herreactions into binary categories, which he nowsees as a very 'male' strategy, which, over thetwo years they dated, slowly denied her her ownvoice (not realizing the good). After theirbreak-up and during their subsequentreconciliation, Goff says he realized thatreligion could bring unconditional love, which henow sees as an important step towards self andinter-racial healing.

Black Boston?

Music, and black music in particular, have beenimportant to Goff since he was very young. Beforejoining Kuumba, Goff was a member of the Din andTonics, a mostly white world-touring a cappellaensemble. During his time in the Dins, and throughfriends' experiences with Harvard-RadcliffeDramatic Club, Goff says he realized that thepredominantly white groups had a higher level ofinstitutional knowledge about tapping into Harvardresources.

Goff founded the Black Arts Counsel last May,an effort to set up a variety of black groups withfunding and programming offered by the University,particularly the Office for the Arts (OFA).

Myra Mayman, director of the OFA, says newconnections have been forged in the past year,particularly following a December meeting in whichabout a dozen OFA staff members met with a groupof black student leaders and outlined theresources available from the office.

But Goff more likely will be remembered not forhis logistical savvy but rather for bringingtogether black voices for all to hear.

Goff's legacy to Harvard and Boston is theBoston Black Arts Festival, the only suchcelebration in the area.

The Boston Black Arts Festival, celebrated thisyear for the second time, was founded by Goff, andis the only such celebration in the area.

"Boston culturally can be unapologeticallywhite--if you go to [see the] Alvin Ailey [DanceCompany] you've done your thing for a year," saysDuBois Institute administrator April Garrett, whoworked with Goff on the festival. "The projectisn't to say that we are doing this for blackpeople only, but it is to say that there is ablack tradition of music that needs to be examinedon a yearly basis, and you need to beknowledgeable about it," she says.

For Goff it is the power of the music itselfthat keeps him hooked. Although he was alsotrained in classical music, he says he loves jazzbecause of the freedom to interact with theaudience.

Goff recalls a Brothers concert from last yearwhere the singing of "Strange Fruit," a BillieHolliday song about lynching, brought a poignantreaction from the crowd.

"As we were performing, I saw the people in thefirst two rows quietly exit. I didn't know whathappened, until I went out into the lobby and justsaw people sobbing and holding each other. I feltlike we had created personal relationships withthose people."

A Small Liberal Arts College

After spurning the hard sciences, Goff's firstcollege academic interest was internationalrelations, stemming from his high school work inModel United Nations.

But as Goff became increasingly knowledgeableabout the field, he became increasinglypessimistic about the ability to effect changewithin it.