Nabenhauer Hall was glowing with excitement Oct. 6, when Black Artists United hosted “An Evening of Jazz” where 14 performances by BIPOC student singers were spotlighted amid a cocktail attire night of food and fun. BAU is an organization at Ithaca College that aims to showcase the talent of the BIPOC community on campus by hosting events and performances, such as their annual cabaret fundraiser.
Attendees were able to dress up and listen to jazz performances by students of the BIPOC community while enjoying mocktails inspired by two jazz songs. The event had a live band backing the singers who chose to take advantage of it. Senior Jasmine Williams, co-president of BAU, said she came up with the idea of hosting a jazz night fundraiser over the summer.
“There’s no way I could’ve imagined what it could have been with a whole team of students who are excited to do it,” Williams said. “It’s surpassing my expectations so much and I’m just so happy.”
By buying a ticket to BAU’s Evening of Jazz, attendees are supporting the cost of BAU hosting more events.
Williams said BAU chose to showcase jazz music at this event because of its ability to invite diverse types of artistic talent through its representation of freedom.
“Jazz represents freedom for a lot of people,” Williams said. “And especially during the Harlem Renaissance when it was on the rise and people were going there to seek solace, to seek freedom, to seek creative freedom. We wanted to do jazz because not only is Black culture so deeply steeped in it but it would give classical singers, it would give [musical theater] singers, it would give people who aren’t trained … one night to explore that other side of their creativity.”
Sophomore Abigail Monteagudo, a musical theater major, sang “Unforgettable” by Nat King Cole at the event, but she said she does not consider herself a jazz singer.
“I’m really lucky that I get to perform with these amazing talented people,” Monteagudo said. “I’m usually a musical theater song kind of girl. This is stepping out of my comfort zone.”
Junior Jayna Simeon, community liaison for BAU and a vocal music education major, said the most important thing to her when it comes to making a performance successful is channeling the emotion behind the music.
“The way the performer connects to a piece in their own way is very important and you can definitely tell when a performer is just singing versus when they’re understanding the song and they’re sharing their emotions through the piece,” Simeon said. “I know that deep down I can’t just sing the notes on the page, I have to feel the music or else it’s just nothing to me.”
Monteagudo said that feeling the emotions behind the song allows her to shed some of her performance nerves.
“When you settle into the song, or when you feel the music and you just sort of let go of those nerves, when you stand there it’s nerve wracking, even when you’re a performer,” Monteagudo said. “But when you kind of let go and feel the emotions and feel what you’re saying, that’s when it’s successful.”
Each performer added their own spunk and personality to each song that shone through their voice. It got the audience laughing at the funny bits of an expressive song, smiling and humming with satisfaction when they hit a note, even crying.
Destiny Carrion, president and founder of a capella group Nuvo, said she was super excited for the group to have their debut performance at the fundraiser.
“The BIPOC community on campus has been really excited about [Nuvo] and has been really supportive and I just know it would be a really great space to launch our work,” Carrion said. “It feels like a safe space.”
Nuvo sang “Daydreaming” by Aretha Franklin at the event, and Carrion said it was a challenging five-point harmony song.
“It’s always better to not take the easy way out, like we could have sang something boring but it was worth the hard work,” Carrion said.
Williams spoke about how much it mattered to have a safe space for people of color to share their artistry on campus.
“If you paint, if you write short stories, if you do nails — whatever your artistry is — we are a safe space for you to explore that,” Williams said. “I think sometimes artists think when you make your art your career it’s no longer fun for you, and so BAU is also meant to be a space where you can go and breathe.”
When Williams first joined BAU as its president when she was a sophomore, she said they had two to three people showing up to their events. Williams said that they had upwards of 60 tickets sold for this evening.
“It makes my heart so happy and so big because I got to watch this club grow,” Williams said. “We have more white people coming to this jazz night than Black people and I think that’s so exciting.”
Before the show had even begun, Sydney Wilson, co-president of BAU, made an announcement to reuse the cocktail cups because they had already run out. Shortly after, more people flooded in and the performers stood backstage instead of sitting in the back two rows. Not too long after that, seats were squished together and they stopped accepting people at the door.
Senior acting major Bella Woody, said before the event started that she was good friends with many of the performers and she knew it was going to be a great show. At the end of the show, Woody said how proud she was of the work they had all done.
“People here are so talented,” Woody said. “I cried so many times.”
Williams emphasized that while the organization’s goal first and foremost was to show the artistry of students of color on the college’s campus, it is great to create space for dialogue and community between all students.
“Our focus first is students of color, but we are so much more focused on community,”
Williams said. “Yes the community is us, BIPOC students, but [there is] beauty of having non-BIPOC students also wanna be a part of our community, and also wanna support us, and also wanna listen to us and we wanna listen to them.”
