On the evening of November 14, the Trent African and Caribbean Student Union (TACSU) presented ‘Afrobana: Heritage Vortex.’

Staged at Market Hall on Charlotte Street, the event celebrated African and Caribbean Culture, with traditional and modern pieces of spoken word, dance, and song.

The Heritage Vortex took us through African and Caribbean culture, with an adapted version of Back to the Future, interspersed with performances along the way.

The storyline follows Hassani, who is set to begin his studies at Trent, and Toussaint, his friend who is a scientist.

Toussaint has developed a time machine, which also turns out to be a teleportation device, and invites Hassani to travel through time with him.

Like the original film, Hassani’s travels through time manage to get in the way of his parents getting together. Hassani’s travels are interspersed with performances, representative of various stages in African and Caribbean history.

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Performances were captivating at Afrobana[/caption]

At one stage, Hassani witnesses his Dad’s rather lame attempts chat up Hassani’s mother, while the pair are still at Trent together.

Having returned to the future to see his parents not together, Hassani must help his father, Femi, come up with a more effective way of wooing Hassani’s mother, Sanaa, if they are to be together when Hassani returns to the future (Hassani successfully manages this task).

All the while that this story continued, we were mesmerized and roused by artistic performances and spoken word.

The energy of the dances spread to the audience. For example, the tribal Ethiopian dances, a celebration of what’s gone before and hopes for the future, were stirring and enlivening, rousing the crowd to clicks and claps and ‘woos’ of approval.

It was exciting to be exposed to the diversity of the community in such a way, being engaged with such passion and artistic flair.

TACSU, the event organiser, functions to “promote, preserve, and protect African and Caribbean culture,” citing artistic expression as the essence of the group.

The audience experience highlighted that the society does a whole lot more than that.

Editors Note: If you’re a fan of Samantha’s photos, you can visit Moss Works Photography on Facebook to check out more of her photos.

There are more photos of Afrobana you can check out, as well as these same ones in high definition!

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A choir performs at Afrobana[/caption]