Behind the Scenes at Ramahchella
A new event took center stage on Saturday night at AJA High School’s annual Ramah Shabbaton—Ramahchella. Complete with flashing lights, blasting music, and a raucous crowd, this playful merger of the Ramah Shabbaton’s atmosphere and that of a music festival like Coachella featured live performances from AJA’s own musical artists AY2K (sophomore Ami Korn) and Mr. G (Mr. Joshua Grant, high school English teacher and learning specialist), as well as DJing from DJ Liav (sophomore Liav Cohen) and MCing from Supersmashgodmikeywilson (senior Mikey Wilson). In the week leading up to Ramah, the event received special attention in the form of flyers all over the school, and even though it only occupied half an hour of Shabbaton programming, Ramahchella stood out for its novelty and distinctive AJA qualities.
Ramahchella began in an offer by Mr. Grant to perform his music for the student body. He has been trying “to find a way to be a teacher and be a music artist,” and he came with the idea of a performance first to Mr. Rojek and then to STUCO. When STUCO heard the idea, they soon realized the potential of a musical performance as an event at Ramah. STUCO President Elisha Feit Mann remembers the group thinking moments later, “What if we had a Coachella type performance where there are multiple artists?” So, Ramahchella was born.
STUCO reached out to Ami, Liav, and Mikey and assembled a lineup. From there, they began to advertise and organize, posting flyers, encouraging students to bring neon clothing, and purchasing glow face paint, glow bracelets, flashing sunglasses, and flashing bunny ears to distribute at the event.
Performers also prepared. Ami selected his most popular released songs, “Mind Games” and “Confidence,” for his setlist. He practiced them each once before the performance, but he didn’t feel he needed a lot of preparation. “I wrote them, so I know them,” he explained.
Mr. Grant’s setlist consisted of two previously released and one new song. He sang the already released “Toolbox” because it’s the most well known among students and “Brighter Days” because he thinks its message of positivity is important for people to hear. “If you can move in that affirmation or that mantra, I think that that’s a great set of words to live your life by,” he said of the song’s encouraging lyrics. The new song he prepared for Ramahchella was a rap remix of the popular Shabbos Dancing song “Ain’t Gonna Work on Saturday,” which he made by reworking the lyrics and placing them over the beat to another song of his. “Ain’t Gonna Work on Saturday” is his favorite Shabbos Dancing song, and one he finds meaningful, so Mr. Grant was happy to do something creative with it.
“When we can uplift students who have great talents, it makes for really exciting programming,” Elisha Feit Mann said.
Liav prepared a DJ set, but unfortunately technical difficulties prevented him from playing it at Ramah. Instead, he performed at Purim Night Live.
As MC, Mikey was asked to prepare introductions for all of the performers and ways to stall for time in case of technical difficulties. His preparation was needed.
Before the concert was set to begin, STUCO discovered problems with the sound system intended for Ramahchella. Stalling for time, Mikey entertained the gathered students with a long winded joke about a moth visiting a psychiatrist, while STUCO members worked with Moreh Amir Dan and Mr. Scott Forbus to fix the sound system. Improvising, STUCO Cabinet Member Hila Ben-Yaacov connected her I-phone via bluetooth to the sound system and played the night’s music from there. Disaster averted, the concert began.
Teachers in sunglasses acting as bouncers let rushing students into Ramah’s main activity room, which they found transformed by speakers, flashing lights, and a stage into a musical venue. There, they donned available flashing and glow-in-the-dark gear to add to their neon outfits, and they danced, moshed, and sang in front of the stage. Ami and Mr. Grant performed full set lists, each culminating in crowd surfs.
Performers, of course, weren’t the only ones having a good time. Junior Avigail Gadilov, who spent all of Ramahchella at the front of the crowd near the stage described the event as “hilarious in a very fun way” and felt that it “brought all of us together.” She said, “Not everyone gets to go to a concert or Coachella. It was definitely a once in a lifetime kind of experience to do with the people that you grew up with.”
For Elisha, Ramahchella represented the best kind of student programming. “When we can uplift students who have great talents, it makes for really exciting programming that is specific to the student body,” he said. In his mind, it was Ramahchella’s unique AJA’ness that made it work.
Comments are closed.