J-DHS Kente Cloth Ceremony Celebrates Unity

From left to right, back row -- Da'Vaya Hunter, Faith Annan, Marcus Payne, Timothy Beshers, Amari Wilson-Rice, Elbethel Berhane, Ms. Candace Johnson (Kente Club Advisor); front row -- Tenaya Hunter, Ka'Lynn Lewis, Amarisse Rodriguez, Mrs. Sabrina Scott (Club Umoja Advisor)

The Jamesville-DeWitt High School Kente Club displayed both unity and achievement year’s Kente Senior Celebration, hosted by Club Umoja on Sunday, June 13.

Kente was originally worn by Asante royalty and was limited to special or sacred functions. Kente proceeds to be limited to association with higher wealth and high social status. The J-DHS Kente Club saw an opportunity to represent its minority students and took it. Students from a range of cultural backgrounds wore their gowns at graduation as a celebration and sign of high social status. These gowns showed their graduation and excellence with multicolored cloth; the yellow symbolizes fertility, the red symbolizes passion, the gold symbolizes status and serenity, the blue symbolizes harmony, and the black on the cloth represents union with ancestors. This further showed the club’s focus on togetherness and relationship building.

Sankofa Community Service Awards: Da’Vaya Hunter and Tenaya Hunter

Umoja Awards: Tenaya Hunter, Timothy Beshers, and Da’Vaya Hunter

Gold Royalty Awards: The 2021 Kente Club Graduates

Theresa Grosso, '22
Hi I'm Theresa, a staff writer at Jamesville-Dewitt. After school I run indoor track in the winter, and play lacrosse all year long. In school my favorite subject is Spanish. Some topics I'm interested in writing about are current events and sports.