The culminating event for Black History Month was the African American Read-In at the Carroll Arts Center. This year, Gateway had four representatives who performed at this event. 
Students from both Gateway and Crossroads were among the many performers: Aaliyah Carmony, Thomas Matthews, Cailey Young, and Cainan Stutts (the only middle school performer).
Aaliyah showed her talent in an acapella performance of “Goodbye Song” from the movie “Harriet.” She chose to sing this song because, “I like Harriet Tubman a lot, because she is a strong, independent woman” and because “the movie “Harriet” is one of my favorite movies.” Aaliyah’s performance was outstanding.
Thomas Mathews chose to perform “I, Too” by Langston Hughes, a spoken piece because he wanted, “to represent black African Americans.”
Cailey Young performed “It Comes Unadorned” by Toni Morrison, also a spoken piece. She chose this piece because, “I have mixed sisters and Mr. Jones asked me to participate in it, and I was more than welcome to because of that.”
Cainan Stutts, the middle school student, did an amazing job representing Crossroads by performing “Address Me by My Namen” by James Baldwin. He said, “Black History Month is one of the most important holidays in the world,” and thought that this was a perfect piece to demonstrate that point.
It wasn’t easy to prepare for this event, and all of the students had to put in a lot of one thing: practice. Thomas said, “I practiced and practiced and practiced.” Breathing exercises also helped Aaliyah. “I sang in front of my mom at first and then I would do breathing exercises to calm my nerves,” she recalled.
Even with all the practice, performing is still scary to most people. “It was nerve-racking. I was shaking when I went up on stage,” Aaliyah said. Thomas shared a similar experience saying, “It was terrifying, but also cool.” Even though it was anxiety-inducing, overall participants had good things to say about the experience. Cainan stated, “I was kind of nervous, but it was pretty fun.”
Everyone did an amazing job representing Gateway/Crossroads. Please show your support and congratulate them if you see them. Hopefully we will see these talented young people next year at the 10th annual African American Read-In.
