Kuumba Singers

DUNSTER HOUSE found its soul last Sunday. The Kuumba Singers, a group of fifty black Harvard and Radcliffe students, brought to an SRO crowd in the dining hall a unique Afro-American vitality that has rarely been seen in these parts.

Kuumba is Swahili for creativity. If Sunday's performance is indicative, the group certainly takes its name seriously. Beginning with a rich, solid rendition of the old Negro National Anthem ("Lift Every Voice and Sing") the group escorted the audience on an exciting, innovative two hour trip into black spirituality. The concert format touched on four themes central to the cultural corpus of the Afro-American experience: Spirituality, Love, Struggle, and Joy. Of the four, the least impressive was Struggle, perhaps because the theme lends itself less easily to a celebrative situation.

Kathy Gatson's spirited arrangement of "Wonderful is the Lord" exemplifies the emotional freedom possible within this art form. Gordon Lewis brought the House down with his improvisational "Harmonica Blues." Had you closed your eyes you could have imagined yourself in a black church in Detroit, Birmingham, New Orleans or any black community. Anywhere but Harvard. The concert was a beautifully transplanted slice of a deep-rooted cultural genre which seldom gets public play in Cambridge.

The Kuumba Singers do need polish. Occasionally I could detect a note held too long or missed altogether. But the miracle is that the choir works so well given its amateur character and the demands of academia. More kuumba is certainly in order.