Springfest 2016 Lit

Southern University hosted its highly anticipated Springfest celebration last week, bringing the spring 2016 semester festivities to an end with a bang before finals.
The theme of this year’s Springfest was “Fresh since 1880!”
The festivities began with The Divine “Kickback”, hosted by Southern University’s Greek organizations. The event was on Tuesday, April 19th, in the Royal Cotillion Ballroom and was designed to give students insight on the past, the present, and the future of Greek life not only here on Southern University’s campus but nationwide as well.
Presentations were given by the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporation, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc., Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc., Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated. Freshman Criminal Justice major, Keyarias Pegues of Mansfield, Louisiana stated that she enjoyed the event because she got the chance to learn something new.
“I didn’t know that Aretha Franklin was a Delta,” stated Pegues.
The event ended when the active NPHC Fraternities and Sororities on campus participated in a Unity stroll.
On Wednesday, April 20, the Springfest celebration continued during the Student Choice Awards and fashion show held in the F G Clark Activity Center at 7 PM.
The show included the work of 8 designers and their clothing lines along with 7 performances as a part of the talent show.
Some of the talents that performed were gospel rapper Love N Pain, the SOS Dance Crew, rapper Frank White and Tre Mason, who performed as a singer.
Students were nominated by their peers for awards such as Who’s Who SU17, best sorority, most influential female, outstanding male leader, favorite SU police officer, and several others.
Featured designer and creator of the “Love is War” line, 22-year-old LSU senior and Apparel Designer, Ronlonda Robinson, spoke of how she has always loved fashion which motivated her to begin sewing and reconstructing her own clothes.
“Love is War,” had a military theme, which used army paraphernalia to create the image collection. “My life is like war. I’m constantly fighting battles everyday between school, work and my family. It’s a lot going on so I use my life as inspiration.” said Robinson.
Continuing the week of festivities, SU students were able to attend the Springfest Comedy Show, on Thursday, in the F.G. Clark Activity Center.
Guest Comedians; Blame the Comic, Hot Topic, Coca Brown and Benji Brown could not be denied their comical talent as students laughed their worries away.
Sharing a joke, in which students could relate, Hot Topic described his Popeyes experience. “It’s always the big husky chick, standing 5’ 2”, 280 pounds looking like a husky ninja turtle,” said Hot Topic. He continues with, “I drove off and realized I was missing a biscuit so I swung around through the drive thru.” As he described how he pulled up to address the angry worker, Hot Topic ended his joke with the worker’s reply by saying, “Do it look like I ate your biscuit?”
Coca Brown’s four football references in regards to mending relationships led to large amounts of laughter. Benji Brown’s reference to a jealous boyfriend had students quoting him. When describing controlling male partners, Brown said, “Why you talking to him like you know him? We got ketchup at the house”.
Freshman Psychology major, KuQuita Dodson of Baton Rouge, says, “I really enjoyed the show. My favorite part was when Cocoa Brown performed and she explained how freshmen girls were easy prey if they stayed on campus.”
When asked the same question, freshman Criminal Justice major, Drakkar Broussard of Rayne, Louisiana said, “My favorite part from the comedy show was Cocoa Brown’s performance. Her jokes were hilarious and not only that, she spoke about what happens in everyday life, real life situations making it funny all together but at the same time it sent a message to us all.”
Continuing the celebration into Friday night, the Springfest Greek Show sponsored by the National Pan Hellenic Counicl was held on Friday April 27th in the F.G Clark Activity Center at 7:30 P.M.
The agenda for the evening included performances from Greek Fraternities and Sororities as well as Residential life’s Step Team. Members of the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc performed skits and step routines to help kick off Springfest weekend. Some fan favorites included a performance from the local Kappa League.
The most anticipated event of Springfest week was the concert headlining rap recording artist Future, R&B singer Jacquees and rapper Tory Lanez on Saturday, April 23, in the F.G. Clark Activity Center.
Tory Lanez took the stage first and gave a memorable performance due to his high energy and crowd surfing. His performance of his platinum hit “Say it”, turned into a sing along with everyone in the in the activity center.
“Man, its awesome to be here, it’s my first time being here at Southern University,” said Lanez during his interview after the show.
Jacquees, second to grace the stage, definitely serenaded the ladies with his vocals through the microphone.
The 22-year old singer spoke of how he wanted to leave behind a legacy of feel good music. “I want everybody to remember the times that they shared with my music. I want everybody to be able to play my music and be able to think of a great memory,” said Jacquees.
The singer also spoke of how it was a dream come true to sign with the record label, Cash Money Records.
“I used to always ask God to let me land on the biggest platform for music and Cash Money is the biggest platform for music no matter how people want to look at it. I feel like I couldn’t be with a better label. That’s my home,” finished Jacquees.
Georgia native, and concert headliner Future though unable to give a quote, ended the concert with a bang with performances of some of his greatest hits like “Stick Talk”, “I’m the Plug”, “Where Ya At” and “Wicked”.

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Kayla Foster

Springfest 2016 Lit