A combination of music and energy got audience members on their feet Monday night at a West African ensemble's performance at Pruis Hall.
JATA entertained an audience of about 200 students. The groups' name comes from the suffix for Sunjata - the founder of the Mali empire in West Africa in 1235 A.D. Their performance was part of this year's Freshmen Connections series.
The event began with traditional West African music played by the musicians of the ensemble, while dancers walked up and down aisles, asking students to join them on stage.
Melinda Messineo, director of Freshmen Connections, said that participation from the audience exceeded her expectations.
"It was so exciting to see the students up there [on stage]," Messineo said. "They were engaged and participating and just having a great time."
Omowale-Ketu Oladuwa, a member of the JATA ensemble, said he thought it was easy for his group to play for the audience.
"I think it was really warm and heartfelt, and the students were engaged to the dance and spoken word," he said.
Oladuwa stood up at the middle of the performance and asked the audience to "break hierarchy" and gather onstage around the musicians. He then invited everyone on stage to dance to the ensemble's music.
Sophomore music education major Catie Melemed said she liked listening to music she had not heard often.
"The music definitely had a beat, and it speaks to people," Melemed said. "I think it's neat to hear different people play different stuff. It's definitely a good cultural experience and people don't know much about [this music], but it's a great opportunity to learn something new."
Toward the end of the event, Oladuwa read the poem "For My People" by Margaret Walker Alexander. He said he included the poem in their performance because it is an important part of the African-American experience.
"From the late 1700s, the African resistance movement in America was moved by poetry," he said. "It is important people understand that spoken word is critical to any people's life. Word has the ability to shape reality."
Oladuwa said he thought it is beneficial for the ensemble to play to a student audience because many students had limited knowledge of African culture.
"The information that they have of Africa is distorted, it is created by the media." he said. "What we are able to present is a more realistic feeling of what Africa's people are about."
Messineo said she was pleased with the performance and the cultural education students received.
"One of the things that we really liked was that [the ensemble] represented a number of areas of Africa," she said. "One of our goals this semester was to give students some exposure with several parts of the African culture, and they represented a lot of areas."
Messineo said this year's Freshmen Connections series has had a good turnout so far, with more students participating than in previous years.
"Students have been really positive and responsive to the book, and they are really excited to meet the author," she said. "It really seems like this class is really wanting to get the most out of their fist-year experience, and it's really exiting."
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