Though none of my friend accompanied me to the Gospel Show, I simply made some new ones while I was there. The show was phenomenal. It started off a little rough with a few off beat praise dancers, but then the Howard Gospel Choir (HGC) came on the stage and brought the whole audience to its feet. I especially loved the guest performance, former HGC director, Clifton Ross III who retired this June. His voice is one of a kind and I was very excited to hear it firsthand. I have to admit I was a little upset with how the seating was set up. So many seats were reserved, even getting to the show really early only allowed me to sit somewhere near the middle where I could barely take in the presence of the performers as much as I wanted to. What made it slightly worse is that everyone performed fantastically. At the end, Shirley Caesar made me stand on my feet watching her and her group's performance s enthusiastically that I almost went up there to sing when she asked Howard students to do just that. About 1500 people attended this event, and this was just the beginning.
For the most part, the week was a regular week with tests, quizzes and papers all normally scheduled. Once it hit Thursday, however, anyone could tell that D.C., let alone HU, was no longer the same. Yardfest was on everyone's mind (mostly because it was free) and the facebook pages were blasted with people selling for the homecoming game, the R&B show, and the stepshow. At the most, I've only ever seen about a thousand people on the yard at once. That was during freshman week when some of the main events were going on at the yard and most of the freshman class was participating so they wouldn't be bored. This time, the entire school was privy to coming and also the community, alumni, media, and distinguished guests were also coming. Though I'm upset I had an appointment to go to a museum right in the middle of Yardfest's activities, I still managed to see the size of the crowd of people that attended. I must say it was insane.
Thousands upon thousands of people were present. From children to adults, greeks, students and locals, walking through the yard was nearly impossible. I really wanted to find some high ground somewhere and just take a look at the yard from a distance and watch in amazement the real HU's homecoming activities. Followed by the stepshow and the R&B show, the weekend was something to remember. The thing is it wasn't all fun and joy. Plenty of fights broke out and many people were just acting stupidly for stupidity's sake. In my first year of HowardU's homecoming, I at least learned that everything is affected by it, people and businesses alike, specifically the metro. I cannot wait for next year's homecoming, where I will actually go to the game and make sure I go to yardfest and really enjoy everything I can take from Howard's Homecoming.
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