Tuesday, November 19, 2013

BritishBlackMusic.com: 'Mayoress Awulah Serwah, a Ghanaian born barrister' brings inclusivenes to Harrow Mayoress' Ball of 2013

Harrow Mayoress Ball 2013 MC and 

Quizmaster Kwaku & 
Harrow Mayoress Awula Serwah
Kwaku, Editor of BritishBlackMusic.com, writes: 

greetings
hope this is of use
kwaku
Press Release

Immediate Release
Nov 18 2013

Harrow Mayoress’ Ball With A Difference

The Harrow Mayoress’ Ball of 2013, which took place last weekend at Harrow Arts Centre, will certainly be remembered for the changes it brought to the long-established event.

Mayoress Awula Serwah, a Ghanaian born barrister, in keeping with Mayor Cllr Nana Asante’s wishes of making her mayoralty accessible to a wider community, made the ticket prices attractive, which resulted in a wider constituency attending the ball than usual.

In addition to elected representatives from Harrow and beyond, there were representatives of community groups, including the Mayor’s charities Flash Musicals Theatre and Harrow Community Choir, and businesses, including two Barclays Bank staff, who matched the over £600 raised from sale of raffle tickets.
"Good venue, food and music," said Mission Dine Club charity founder Dame Betty Asafu-Adjaye. "Thanks to the  youth who volunteered."

Each table was assigned a name and background information of a country in Africa or the African diaspora. Countries included Nigeria, Senegal, Malawi, Brazil, Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica and Haiti. The meal reflected an African touch with West African jollof rice and kelewele (fried plantain) and Caribbean jerk chicken on the menu.

In addition to introducing the audience to Ghanaian highlife music by ET Mensah, DJ Marky J provided a wide range of music, which allowed the ballroom dancers to show off their moves, and worked through rock n roll of the 1950s, and popular music of the subsequent decades, including disco, and rounded off with the Candy Dance line dance, which had many guests out of their seats.

“It was a delightful atmosphere, enjoyable evening and food,” opined deputy Mayor Cllr Camilla Bath. “The dancing was great – it was for all ages, and my favourite, the Twist, was included. A big thank you to the Mayoress for a great evening.”

“What a wonderful evening, good company, good food, and lovely music,” added Barnet deputy Mayor Cllr Bridget Perry.

“We had the most amazing time. Len said it was the best night out we had since we got married, and the food was excellent,” said Catherine Miller-Baldwin.

As part of Harrow’s on-going African History Season, MC and quizmaster Kwaku kept the guests informed by asking questions on countries represented on the tables. “What I learnt from this fantastic event where Africans, Asians and Europeans were interacting and having a good time, is to keep our prejudices in check. Because I assumed some of the people would not know some of the more contemporary and disco-ey music, and was surprised to see some of them not just dancing but singing the songs.”

The Mayor, a member of Harrow BHM Group, will be extending BHM Season by hosting Xtra History & Reasoning Sessions, an intimate, semi-monthly gathering for discussing history in her Parlour in the Civic Centre. The first event, Global Africa Quiz, starts December 23. This will be preceded by a thank-you reception for the Mayoress’ Committee, who organised the ball, the support staff and helpers, including the young people who volunteered to serve at the Ball.

“I learnt that serving is very, very important and crucial,” said one of the young people, 18 year old Reshaun Forrest. “I met a lot of lovely, lovely people including the Mayoress herself, who is a fantastic lady.”

ENDS

Kwaku
editor@BritishBlackMusic.com
Photo by peter hill

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