The lights dimmed on Timothy Wilkin as he stood on the stage in front of about 200 people Friday evening. Microphone in hand, Wilkin resembled Eminem as the "8 Mile" theme song boomed through the speakers.
Aiming to prove he had the most talent, Wilkin, a liberal arts freshman, rapped to his own original lyrics.
"Get your horns up. If you're a pimp, everybody get your horns up."
The African Students Association hosted its 10th annual talent show "Back to the Future," which started an hour late due to technical difficulties.
As part of the association's banquet week, in which the group holds events dedicated to linking UT African and non-African students to issues in Africa, different performers and groups gathered in the University Teaching Center auditorium to showcase their talent in hopes of winning cash prizes.
Acts included singers, dancers and rappers of all different backgrounds.
"They were judged on routine, originality, precision, appearance and overall performance," said guest judge Prince Azom, an engineering graduate student.
Though the talent show provided entertainment for students and staff, Edu Medua, the
association's co-chair and natural sciences senior, said the show's theme had an important underlying message.
"It's called 'Back to the Future' because we're concerned about the future of Africa," she said. "Like the movie, the character Marty went to the past and didn't like what he saw, so he went back in time to change the future. We want to go back in time to see what went wrong and change
Africa's future."
In between the different musical and dancing acts, members of the association read facts to the audience about problems in Africa, including AIDS, malaria and genocide in Darfur.
The association collected donations at the door for the African Medical and Research Foundation, which aims to improve the health of disadvantaged Africans.
"We're trying to improve Africa's situation right now," said Soluto Uba, an economics sophomore and the association's vice president. "We've raised about $7,000."
The money also helped fund the venue for the association's banquet Saturday at the Doubletree Hotel, where the winners of the talent show were announced.
The $150 first-place prize winner was the Indian dance group Nritya Sangam. The rap trio Tunesquad took second.
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