“You should always be fierce,” Bienen senior Cameron Jones advised his models during their rehearsal Saturday. “But be extra fierce for the evening show.” Jones is co-producer and assistant stylist for the fashion segment of the African Students Association’s 10th annual Culture Show, ReArranging Marriage.
“This is a chance to present fashion and culture in many different media through whatever topic we find interesting,” said ASA co-president Maryam Kazeem. “This year our theme has been gender in our lectures and discussions. We wanted to take something specific like marriage and evaluate how it’s perceived.”
ReArranging Marriage will take place at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 21 in the Louis Room of Norris. Kazeem said the culture show is ASA’s biggest event. Audience members can enjoy the entertainment and refreshments for free.
The fashion show will feature designs by Chicago-based home business Temi Ade. Sisters Temi and Molade Adejuyigbe, who worked on ASA’s Culture Show the previous year, designed traditional fashions with a modern twist for the runway segment of ReArranging Marriage.
“If you’ve ever seen traditional African clothing, it tends to be stark,” Molade Adejuyigbe said. “We tried to design an alternative with a variety of fabrics. It’s an African modern fusion.”
The models, who are students at Northwestern, will have fierce outfits to match their attitudes with bright colors, intricate patterns and unusual cuts. The clothing represents the crossover of traditional and westernized fashion.
The fashion show is only one sequence of many in ReArranging Marriage. ASA will also show a film they created with interviews about polygamy, put on entertaining and thought-provoking skits and have African dance performances. One of these dances will be a traditional Ghanaian ceremonial dance called Odowa.
Kazeem said that in the skits, the performers will deal with different ideas of brides and phases of marriage. “Something interesting we’re doing for the skits is using the form of storytelling,” she said. “Through that, there’s going to be a lot of audience engagement.”
Special guests from the UIA, an Igbo cultural association in Chicago, as well as a dancer from Urban Bush Women, a dance company based in Brooklyn, will be performing.
At 6 p.m., traditional African food will be served in the Lake Room, so that audience members can get a taste of the culture before the show. After the show, dessert will also be served.