Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
My youngest kids’ elementary school recently had a big Black History Month celebration. You know, an assembly-style gathering with African dancing, kids reciting poems and performances. To bring it to a close, they had a Divine 9 showcase where a bunch of kids represented the nine National Pan-Hellenic Council organizations — Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi, Delta Sigma Theta, Phi Beta Sigma, Zeta Phi Beta, Sigma Gamma Rho and Iota Phi Theta — lead by parents, of course, who were members of each organization. And because it’s Black History Month, the whole shebang ended with Beyoncé’s rendition of the classic Maze featuring Frankie Beverly record, “Before I Let Go.”
I don’t know how exactly I ended up in the mix on this one — no pun intended — but I was tapped to put together the music for the D9 showcase, which required me to put together a musical playlist of sorts with songs set to certain cues and running for a certain amount of time. It took a bit of time to put the music together. But then I was asked to put together the music for the rest of the program. Now, I’m no professional DJ. But I know how to use a DJ controller and Serato (the most common DJ software used; the artist formerly known as Kanye West famously questioned why there was no Yeezy in a DJ’s serato on “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”). So I took to putting the music together and setting it up so I could run the music based on the requested snippets, etc.
On one of the practice days, I went to the school to do it all in real time, and as soon as I took my DJ controller out of the carrying case and set it up, I became famous within those walls. My own kid wouldn’t leave my side without prodding as I…
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