Hosted by the Black Student Union, La Salle’s Black History Month Assembly welcomed arts organization leader Kimberly Howard Wade and dancers from Hip Hop Soulsation Academy to help students celebrate Black excellence in the arts.

Wade, the executive director of the youth arts organization Caldera, served as keynote speaker, sharing her life story in three acts. She began by describing her goals and anxieties as a new graduate from Columbia University's MFA theater program. With an emphasis in acting, she went on to teach undergraduate students in Walla Walla, Washington, where she found herself pushing against the status quo as an artist.

“There needs to be room for creative inquiry,” Wade said, “and at that moment in time, there was a student production team who believed, with me as well, that we had our creative right to ask hard questions, that creativity gave us agency and it gave us voice.”

This was one of Wade’s first experiences being what she called a “disruptor,” something for which she faced consequences when she was asked to step away from her position as a professor.  It was this that inspired her to continue thinking against the grain and working to create spaces for disruptive thinkers like herself to thrive in the arts. This eventually led her to her position at Caldera. 

“Our mission is to inspire and support young people from underserved rural and urban communities by awakening their creative voice,” she explained. “So here I am, non-analytical. I'm not creative. I'm somewhere in between … I'm expansive in my mind.”

It is this expansive mindset which Wade aims to pass down to the youth she serves, and to the students of La Salle, encouraging them to remember “all the experiences that led to the beauty that is black culture. And may the echo of this story that resonates deep inside of each of you, whether you are African American or not.”

The assembly continued with a performance by local dancers from Hip Hop Soulsation Academy. Beginning with a lesson about the history of hip hop, founder Cykhyia Johnson and her dancers demonstrated break dancing, popping, and krumping, inviting students to join them on the dance floor. Finally, the group performed a variety of connected routines, showcasing their own skills in and passion for hip hop.

Once the main celebration concluded, the Black Student Union had the opportunity to further engage with Wade during a lunchtime Q&A session. After a variety of questions, Wade took the opportunity to thank the group for welcoming her.

“It is always such a joy to look out on a room of young black and brown faces,” she told them. “Thank you for having me.”