Harvaid: A Katrina Benefit Concert
Location: Sanders Theatre
DATE: October 15
Presented By: The Kuumba Singers of Harvard College and the Office of the Arts at Harvard



Hundreds of parents and students were in attendance at the HarvAid concert at Sanders Theater on Saturday, filling the lower levels of the venue and even spilling into the balcony level upstairs. As the lights dimmed and jazzy strains of music filled the air as the show began, the night’s production seemed to assume a solemn tone in line with the seriousness of its mission to benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

HarvAid, presented by the Kuumba Singers of Harvard College and the Office for the Arts at Harvard, presented performances by various Harvard student groups, with all proceeds from ticket sales to be donated to the Red Cross.

Steven K. Ridgill ’06 set the tone for the night with a reading by Louis Armstrong, after which the Harvard Jazz Quintet kicked off the show’s performances with their own rendition of John Coltrane’s “Moment’s Notice.”

Poems by renowned authors Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Margaret Walker, and Frances E. W. Harper were interspersed throughout the musical program, including a memorable rendition of Hughes’s “I Dream a World,” whose theme of insidious racism addressed timely concerns brought to light since Hurricane Katrina. Unfortunately, juxtaposed against the skillful and creative musical, song, and dance performances by the various student groups, the individually performed, heavily rehearsed, and stylized poetry fell somewhat flat.

Still, the performing readers carried out their dramatic purpose, wearing subdued black outfits and starkly contrasting red wrist ribbons to symbolize HarvAid’s purpose. In fact, the Concert’s finale featured the sizable Harvard Kuumba choir dressed identically in these outfits, singing thrillingly and fittingly, “Power of Love.”

Also during the program, the Harvard Krokodiloes offered the crowd the classic Scottish ballad of broken young lovers, “Sally Gardens,” with a solo sung by senior Matthew L. Christian ’06. Providing a contrast in style, the Harvard-Radcliffe Veritones performed the more lighthearted lustful love song “Breathless” by The Corrs, with a solo by Andrea M. Ellwood ’06. Other a cappella groups performing during the two-hour evening concert included the Fallen Angels and Harvard LowKeys.

At the close of the night, the Harvard Kuumba singers’ wrap-up of the program, with powerful renditions of “Hold On” and “Power of Love,” inspired the entire theatre to clap along with their soulful, moving beats.

Throughout, the line-up seemed designed to bring attention to the program of contrasting and diverse set of acts unified by a common charitable mission. Early in the night, the Asian American Dance Troupe performed a lithe and whimsical dance choreographed by Mindy Hsu ’05.

Later, the HarvAid Steppers brought down the house with their energizing sequence of call-and-response stepping. They performed with an invigorating urban energy, wearing white tank tops and Harvard Department of Athletics sweatpants and garnering rapturous applause from the audience.

In many ways the steppers embodied the spirit of the event. The group was organized by ’08 Steppers veterans Weijie Huang ’08 and Aisha J. Dennis ’08, but in rehearsing and executing their performance, they welcomed students from all classes, even those who had no previous experience with step. The presentation also paid homage to the culture of the South. “We tried to cater to the tastes down there, and for the whole show we went with a band theme, sort of like the marching bands down South,” said Huang in an interview.

In addition to the Steppers, more than a dozen of Harvard’s student groups contributed to the conception and production of HarvAid as a benefit for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Despite some lulls in the program, Saturday’s concert stood as a rare and glittering opportunity for students to catch Harvard’s most prominent performing student groups in a single production.