It all started with a theme. This year’s is Africa’s Got Talent. It’s exactly what it sounds like. A moment for Africans across Northwestern’s campus to showcase their talent. From spoken word poetry, to singing to dancing, this year’s Afropollo hosted by Northwestern’s African Students Association or ASA will be a night of community and celebration.
Weinberg fourth-year Abby Melaku and ASA Programming Director gave me a brief behind the scenes look into the planning for Afropollo this year. From choosing a theme to booking the McCormick auditorium to rounding up contestants, a lot goes into making the night memorable for all those who attend. This is all part of ASA’s goal which she says is “[…] to create like a home away from home for African students and students of African descent at Northwestern because all of us have traditions at home that we’re you know used to doing and being apart of that we’re not able to do in college so I think our goal is just to try and represent as many people as possible and create a space for people to come share their culture as well.”
Medill first-year Gloria Owolabi plans to perform spoken word poetry because she feels it connects her most with her culture.
“Poetry has been one of the primary ways for me to explore my Nigerian-American identity and I thought that for an event like this, being able to perform poetry again would be a cool opportunity. Also, as I’ve settled in as a first-year student, I realized I really wanted to take the time, my time here at Northwestern to become more confident, more sociable, and to put myself out there and I believe that Afropollo is one of the ways I can hopefully do that,” she says.
Yoruba is one of the many languages spoken in Nigeria, and Owolabi is still working toward fluency.
She says, “I’ve incorporated Yoruba into some of my poetry as a means of learning the language for myself, learning it in context, learning the pronunciations, but also just identifying my own unique experiences here in America from that world view.”
ASA Marketing director Erinma Nwoke is also Nigerian and joined ASA to get that sense of home although miles away. When it comes to spreading the word about Afropollo, she’s been working with other ASA executive board members to create a marketing strategy that will not only reach Africans on campus but also anyone interested in learning more about African culture.
Nwoke explains, “I’ve been working very closely with two other associates in order to create, edit, and post flyers on our Instagram account and create reels, IG reels and TikTok’s and we’ve basically been on a posting schedule and I’ve added them to a calendar in order to also communicate through GroupMe. We also use an app called Doorlist, it’s kind of like Partiful and it allows people who are attending our events to RSVP and receive communications through text. And yeah, we’ve been consistently posting on TikTok and Instagram and we’ve been reaching students all over campus and we also put up flyers in school buildings and residential halls that allows us to kind of reach everyone we as interested in attending, and it allows people who also aren’t on social media to see and hear about our events.”
Afropollo isn’t just about getting people through the door though. For Melaku, the night reflects something much bigger, a value that shapes how she shows up for the people around her.
Melaku shares, “I’m Ethiopian and so for me, I think my culture, the main thing I associate with my culture is just community and being there for people. I feel like a lot of people can relate to this. I think like our society now is a lot more individualistic than my cultural background is so I think the way that I try and pass my culture down and share it with other people is just by trying to be there for people and caring for people in a way that reflects like what I’ve seen my grandma do and what I’ve seen my mom do and just what I’ve seen a lot of my family members do for each other in a way where you’re not expecting something back I guess. So I’m just trying to follow that example for the people I care about.”
Afropollo takes place next Saturday, November 7th, at 6:30 PM in the McCormick Auditorium. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased through the Norris Box Office at n-b-o dot university tickets dot com. That’s n-b-o dot university tickets dot com. And you can stay up to date with all ASA programming through their Instagram @asanorthwestern.
