BROOKHAVEN — Mississippi School of the Arts Students gathered in Enoch Hall to share, celebrate and appreciate Black history and culture Friday afternoon. MSA held a Black history production and art exhibit for students and will open to the public from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. with a production at 7 p.m. Friday evening. 

The production featured a choir singing a song, a quartet, dancers performing a piece dedicated to Darrell Moultrie, a video with interviews, MSA Feud and poetry reading. Gabrielle Robinson played one of the contestants in MSA Feud while Shakeera Brent took the spotlight. 

“I was Steve Harvey for Halloween and when we decided to do an MSA feud I got to be Steve,” Brent said. 

Robinson said the theater department decided to entertain the crowd and found a way to intertwine black history and culture into a fun show. 

“We took it and added our own twist to it,” Robinson said. “It was mostly improv. Our class here is mostly black so we wanted to highlight our history.”

She is a native of Hazlehurst and Brent is from Crystal Springs. Senior Jordan Brown is also from Hazlehurst and she shared poetry with the class. She said she started writing in fourth grade and likes how poetry gives her a voice. 

The poems students shared were written by the students. Poets drew inspiration from art pieces their teacher assigned to them. Brown said she took into account what the art was. 

“I built a story around the picture. For my second poem I really wrote about what I felt about it,” Brown said. “I like how poetry is very non-linear. I don’t have to have a beginning, middle or end. I like to put together words and express myself. It is a celebratory thing. I can share with others and I like to share my poems with people and make people think about things.” 

She will graduate this year from MSA and plans to go to college where she can add to her experiences. This will then allow her to have more inspiration for poems. 

“I want to keep writing poetry. I also like slam poetry and hope to do some in college,” Brown said. 

The public is invited to enjoy this free event at MSA. The art gallery/exhibit is open from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. followed by the production at 7 p.m. Friday evening in Enoch Hall.