Once again, the community room at Marlborough Elementary School was filled with students engaged, moving and smiling — all while learning about a different culture.
On Monday, March 31, the theme was Africa and five performers from NIA Arts of New York City exploded with rhythm, beat and color. The entire MES student body and their teachers participated from the floor or bleachers with clapping, swaying, and punctual response to the caller’s words.
The students learned some language, geography and African values, such as how important it is to respect your elders. The group brought a variety of drums and percussion instruments that many of the children had a chance to play up in front of their enthusiastic audience. The students learned that some drums were covered with goat skin while other stronger drums needed cow skin because of the strong beating. You can make a variety of sounds on one individual drum.
The dancers were powerful and exhilarating! Quite a few adults and children volunteered to dance with them. As the classes prepared for dismissal, one class performed a conga line to keep the momentum going.
This multicultural assembly was sponsored by the Marlborough Parent Teacher Organization, Inc. and CoDE, as part of a collaboration that enables two assemblies per year to highlight different global cultures.
CoDE extends its deep appreciation to The Hochberg Committee for Holocaust and Human Rights Education at Temple Bnai Israel for their generous funding, which made this assembly possible.
