Music, dance and applause erupted at The Hive as Columbia’s Black Student Union hosted their Talent Show, welcoming performances of all genres from the Columbia community.
Over 50 attendees filled the third floor of the 618 S. Michigan Ave. building to show support for their peers as they braved the stage on Wednesday, Sept. 23.
BSU Vice President Lacresha White said the event was created to give creatives the floor to display their skills while building a more supportive community within BSU.
“Even if people didn’t want to get up and show their talent, they would be able to see other people and maybe feel encouraged for other meetings,” said White, a graduate student in the entrepreneurship for creatives program. “We love to see everybody come out and express their different talents or get a chance to goof off.”
This is the second annual talent show BSU has hosted.
One of the opening acts was a newly-formed band named “Next Week,” performing the song “Sex, Drugs, Etc.” by Beach Weather as their debut.
The band consists of four first-year students: Naomi Espinoza and Hannah Kavanagh, both music production majors, and Brandon Taylor and Mareeon Walker, both acting for stage and screen majors.
“Next Week” came together through an advertisement put out by Espinoza, hoping to start a band out of boredom and the desire to expand her songwriting and performance abilities.
“I put out posters for band applications, and Brandon was the one who filled it out,” Espinoza said.
Taylor and Walker had already been working together on music, so they decided to join the band together. Their name came from a joke amongst the group about not being able to come up with one.
“When we were thinking of what our name should be, we didn’t have all of our members,” Taylor said, “so we just said, ‘let’s wait until next week.’”
They later introduced Kavanagh into the band.
The band plans on performing original songs in the future after this first big step for them as performers. As for their current song in the making, Walker says they’ll have a name for it “next week.”
Jas Baugh, a first-year entrepreneurship and innovation major, also made her debut performance, rapping an original song.
“Rapping comes as a second nature,” Baugh said. “Not only is it a gift from God, but it’s something that actually flows through me.”
For Baugh, performing is a form of therapy, allowing her to express her emotions through art rather than materializing into negativity.
“I’d rather put my emotions, my pain, confusion or the things that I’m seeking to get understanding about within my music,” Baugh said. “Hearing my lyrics is like me speaking to myself and healing myself in a way.”
This expression is what sparked her stage name “Spazzz the Ball.”
“I’d rather spaz on the beat than spaz in life,” Baugh said.
Aspen Stenson, a sophomore film and television major, returned to the BSU stage performing the clarinet after previously performing a dance number at last year’s BSU’s Got Talent.
“I love putting myself out there, showing what I can do, making mistakes and just having fun,” Stenson said.
Stenson has been playing clarinet since she was in the fifth grade, continuing a family legacy of players. Stenson performed “Fly” by BVNDIT, a different sound than she’s used to playing as a former marching band member.
“I mostly know pop and marching band songs, so I wanted to play more of a slow instrumental,” Stenson said.
Naomi Hill-Caldwell, sophomore performance and songwriting major, was destined to be a singer after falling into it at a very early age.
“My dad would tell me, the moment I was born I had my hands behind my ears because I was listening to the angels sing,” Caldwell said.
Caldwell is another returning act from BSU’s Got Talent from last year, but this fall, she performed an original song called “You See it,” which is a part of her upcoming mixtape titled “Bloom.”
Caldwell said the Talent Show felt like “the perfect opportunity for me to get my music out there.”
Copy edited by Camila Verzino
