Bob Marley Festival celebrates with good food, entertainment
By Lisa Wakeland, Staff Writer
February 19, 2007 | 6:41 p.m.
Lively reggae beats filled the air in Baker Center Ballroom, creating an island atmosphere for Bob Marley Day. Friday’s festival invited students, professors and residents to participate in a Caribbean experience while enjoying food, dance and more.
Winsome Chunnu, who developed the idea for Bob Marley Day, said she thought the event went really well and attendance increased from last year.
“Everybody loved it; people seemed to really enjoy themselves,” she said. “It’s different from what is normally on campus.”
Sponsored by Multicultural Programs and Lindley Cultural Center, the program included everything from reggae music to poetry and dance. Venders sold African jewelry and clothes, and Chunnu prepared samples of Caribbean food.
“This is a wonderful multicultural group,” said Dr. Francine Childs, professor of African-American Studies at Ohio University, one of many who attended Bob Marley Day. “It was nice to see so many families and students here.”
Senior Kevin Fletcher, a member of the OU Capoeira group that performed during Bob Marley Day, enjoyed everything the festival offered.
“I liked the music and the venders were really cool,” he said. “I also liked the poetry and the food was good.”
The night began with a Bob Marley concert playing on a large video screen. “No Woman, No Cry,” “One Love,” “Stir It Up” and other Marley songs provided a soundtrack while people attending the event experienced the interesting flavors of Caribbean food. The menu of spicy jerk chicken wings, the sweet barbecue taste of brownstone chicken wings, fried plantains (tastes like a banana with the texture of a potato) and Caribbean punch delighted many attendees’ taste buds.
Cleveland-based reggae band Nuhu soon replaced the concert footage with live renditions of popular Marley songs including “Get Up, Stand Up,” “Three Little Birds,” and “Jamming.” Nuhu has been around for 10 years and opened for Bob Marley’s son, Ziggy Marley, and his former band mate, Peter Tosh. Max, the band’s singer, opened for Bob Marley before his death in 1981.
Nuhu played a soft, reggae beat in the background as Kahlia Wright gave a tribute to Marley. Her speech included important information about his life, his career as a musician and activist, and his posthumous legacy. Discussing the importance of Bob Marley’s music and his influence, Wright mentions that Time Magazine chose “Exodus” as the most important album of the century and “One Love” as the most important song. While Marley is known for his music, his activism did not go unrecognized, Wright said. Bob Marley was honored with a Third World Peace Medal in 1978.
“I think it’s great that they’re coming together to celebrate him as a leader,” said Suleman Wadur, a sophomore at Hocking College. “It’s really cool that they’re doing this.”
As the night continued, Bob Marley’s life and legacy were celebrated with various forms of entertainment.
Akil Houston, an instructor with the Department African-American Studies, gave a poetic spoken-word performance dashed with hip-hop finesse that reflected on freedom, struggle and world issues. Later, Erika Robinson delivered her interpretation of Langston Hughes’ “Negro Mother” with intense passion and emotion, conveying the resounding message of the poem.
The OU Capoeira group performed their unique dance style for the enthusiastic crowd. The dance resembled an artistic martial arts battle and a gymnastic break dance circle with the performers seamlessly transitioning in and out of the center.
Capoeira was not the only dance performance of the night. The Athens Black Contemporary Dancers, a group of three girls, presented a rousing style of dance that was part tribal, part ballet.
People danced and sang along with Nuhu as they performed throughout the night and eventually took song requests from the audience.
“It was a very nice program,” Dr. Childs said. “Everyone looked like they were enjoying themselves.”
OU freshmen Alanna Geoghegan, Laura Woolf and Abby Wood all agreed that Bob Marley Day was a fun event.
“I liked it. We had a lot of fun,” Woolf said.
Winsome Chunnu was pleased with the turnout for the second year of Bob Marley Day.
“It was a little bigger than last year. All the chairs were full, but there were still people standing on the sides,” she said.
While the event celebrated Bob Marley’s life, it also raised money for Kenyan children with AIDS and the St. Patrick’s Foundation, an organization that provides programs for inner-city children in Jamaica.
“At last count, we raised about $230 for the St. Patrick’s Foundation,” Chunnu said. “That is about $12,000 - $15,000 in their money.