Over 150 students piled into the Miron Student Center (MSC) Little Theatre on the night of Tuesday, November 18, 2015, for The Haitian Student Association’s (HSA) Apollo Soiree—a talent show of sorts filled with spoken word poetry, dance and musical acts.

Even though hosted by HSA, other student organizations such as Pan-African Student Union (PASU), West Indian Culture Club (WICC) and Iota Phi Theta, a national fraternity with strong roots in African-American brotherhood, also sponsored the event. These specialized groups coming together helped represent something truly beautiful on a diverse college campus: love, honor and respect of one’s heritage.

The opening act was one of music and poetry by Shawn Lawson. The first of his two original pieces was an intense and chilling spoken word poem about the life of an African-American male. Using the letters of the phrase “b-l-a-c-k m-a-n,” he assigned each letter a segment of words and rhymes that define men of color. More examples of culturally-fueled poetry were pieces by Rikkii “Rochelle” Rachel Orange, Charles Curtis III, Rijkard Herard and Mackenzy Samedi.

“My culture will always be beautiful,” said Herard in his poem entitled A New Generation of Slaves.

When Samedi took the stage, decked in colors of red, white, and blue—the colors of the Haitian flag—his words echoed not only off the walls of the theater but in the hearts of everyone present. Samedi began writing poetry when he entered a Mr. and Mrs. Haiti pageant in 2008.

“Lakay Se Lakay!” Samedi exclaimed continuously throughout his poem Home Will Always Be Home, which is featured in his published book of poetry The Legacy of My Poems: The Psalms of A King. Voices of audience members chimed in over his reading with the popular Haitian phrase, bringing them back to days at home with their family reminding them that home will always be home. Samedi’s book is written entirely in English and Haitian Creole.

Other musical and dance performances included hip-hop duo 1804, singer Conrad McCutcheon, the electrifying and intense dancing of Tyisha Cummings-Norman, amongst many others. Finally, the contestants took to the stage for one last time and the audience used their roars of approval to choose Cummings-Norman as the winner of Apollo Soiree.

Cummings-Norman received two $25 gift cards to Barnes & Noble bookstores. “I just wanted to dance and express myself,” she said after being announced winner.

President of HSA Jonathan Medor said that the night went perfectly and was pleased with the student turnout. Hostesses and HSA- executive board members Alisha Dupont and Naina Mehrotra finally took deep breaths of relief when all was said and done with the event they had been looking forward to since the summer. In the end, the night was filled with appreciation and love of campus diversity all thanks to the talented students of Kean University.