UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 26, Page 4
April 8, 1993
Black Arts Festival begins April 10 to May 1

     The University's annual Black Arts Festival, scheduled from April
10-May 1 on the Newark campus, will feature an array of events designed to
appeal to all ages.
     The festival opens on Saturday, April 10, with the University's annual
Step Show. "Stepping" is an intricately choreographed dance or march,
sometimes accompanied by a chant. This program is sponsored by the National
Pan Hellenic Council.
     Scheduled in the Delaware Field House, the step show will begin at 5
p.m., and doors will open at 4 p.m. Tickets are $7 in advance and $8 at the
door,
     A comedy night is scheduled at 8 p.m., Tuesday, April 13, in the
Rodney Room of the Perkins Student Center. Featured will be some of the
area's newest comedians: Lamont Ferrell, Romont Harris and Rocky Wilson.
Hosting the show will be Taquan Stewart, a 1991 Delaware alumnus. Admission
to this show is $3.
     On Saturday, April 17, the festival's annual variety show, "Love's
Taking Over," will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of Newark Hall.
Admission is $3.
     On Friday, April 23, the Black Student Theatre will present Realizing
and Living the Equation for Africentricity at 7 p.m. in the Bacchus Theatre
of the Perkins Student Center. The performance will be repeated on
Saturday, April 24, at 1 p.m. for high school students and at 7 p.m. for
the general public. A special question-and-answer session will follow the 1
p.m. performance.
     On Sunday, April 25, the University's Gospel Choir and the
Wilmington/Chester Mass Choir will perform in the 13th annual Gospelrama,
"Spreading the Word Through Song." The concert begins at 5 p.m. in Mitchell
Hall auditorium.
     The Wilmington/Chester Mass Choir, which has been in existence since
1978, has performed before hundreds of thousands of people throughout the
United States and overseas. The group's album He's Preparing Me, on Atlanta
International Records, spent more than 70 weeks on Billboard Magazine's 
spiritual charts. Another album, Victory Shall Be Mine, spent more than 30
weeks on the Billboard  charts.
     The group was named "Traditional Choir of the Year" and winner in the
"Song of the Year" category at the eighth annual Stellar Awards, a
nationally televised awards ceremony.
     Advance tickets for the April 25 concert are now on sale and cost $8
for the general public and $5 for students with I.D. Tickets are available
from the University's Center for Black Culture and from B&B Tickettown in
Wilmington. At the door, tickets will be $10 for the general public and $7
for students with I.D. The concert is sponsored by the University's Gospel
Choir.
     The Black Arts Festival concludes on Saturday, May 1, with an event
for children scheduled from 2-4 p.m. in the Bacchus Theatre. Storytellers
The Stuart Sisters will present "An Afro-American Journey."
     In the program, the Stuart Sisters combine music, dance, drama and
song to recount the achievements and contributions of ancient Africa and
the slave experience in America, concluding with the struggles and triumphs
of the contemporary Afro-American. The focus of the performance is on the
engendering spirit, strength and power of the family.
     The Black Arts Festival, which is open to the public, is sponsored by
the Black Arts Festival Committee, the Cultural Programming Advisory Board
and the Center for Black Culture.
     For more information, contact the Center for Black Culture at
831-2991.