CAPRON
Capron Elementary School celebrated black history month in a unique way on Thursday evening with a black history wax museum, followed by Capron’s own version of “Showtime at the Apollo.” The events were held from 6 to 8 p.m. in the school’s hallways and auditorium.

To create the wax museum, each fourth and fifth grade student prepared a display on a famous African-American and dressed up as the person. The displays were equipped with a pushable “button” to make each person come alive and give a brief presentation about his or her life.

Following the conclusion of the wax museum presentations, students relocated to the school’s auditorium, where they watched their fellow classmates perform five theatrical acts, intended to emulate the style of the original “Showtime at the Apollo” show hosted by Steve Harvey in the 1990s.

Performers included a recitation of “We’re all Beautiful” by Capron’s Pre-K students; a recitation of Langston Hughes’ poem, “Words Like Freedom,” read by Jordan Rawlings; a choreographed routine to “Popcorn Love” by New Edition, performed by Sean Artis, Azavian Mabry, Justin Preau, Jalen Willoughby and Jaleel Woodley; “Amazing Grace,” performed by Joey Sickelton; and a praise dance to John Legend and Ft. Julian Whitehead’s “Glory,” performed by Annabelle Barnes, Destiny Mack, Breanna Mattox, Mariah Smith and Lily Stenger. The performance concluded with the KIPP High Pride Performance Band, a high school band from Gaston, North Carolina under the direction of Kenneth Woodley, who performed Jazz tunes throughout the evening and during the finale.

Capron Elementary second grade teacher Sandra Ivey was thrilled with both events, but particularly the amount of effort students put into the wax museum.

“We’re a small school. Sometimes people forget about us because we’re all the way out here, but now it’s time for us to put our place on the map,” Ivey said. “They [the students] took their time and put a lot of work into creating their posters, plus a lot of research went into it.”

The students reprised their wax museum exhibit Friday morning at The Village at Woods Edge.