Reflective Essay: Rhyme Factory and the Jeonya Festival

The Jeonya Festival

10b1 김홍순

           There are three major in-school parties in KMLA: the Freshmen Welcoming Party, the Minjok Festival, and the Christmas Party. Of these, the Minjok Festival is arguably the most significant, as it is continued for two days and almost everybody in the school participates. The Minjok Festival is actually divided into two parts, the Jeonya Festival and the Minjok Festival. The Jeonya Festival, held the night before the Minjok Festival, involves musical shows and concerts from several music clubs and individual participants. It always is a night of much excitement and enjoyment.

           As a member of the school hip hop club, Rhyme Factory, I was both looking forward to and worried about the festival. The Jeonya Festival was to be the debut stage of my wave, the 16^th wave. Our club, consisting of three rappers, one DJ, and six dancers, had become members of Rhyme Factory several months prior to the festival, but this was the first occasion for us to stand onstage. It was, no doubt, an opportunity for us to show our skills and passion to the entire school, but was also an event that would require a lot of effort and preparation; if our performance was not up to scratch, it would disappoint the crowd, our seniors of Rhyme Factory, and, most importantly, ourselves.

           A few of our members had had previous experience of performing onstage. I myself had rapped on stage twice prior to the Jeonya Festival: once in the Freshmen Welcoming Party, and once during the KMLA Korean Debate Competition. However, the Jeonya Festival would be the first time the 10 of us would have to cooperate as a group. We would have to yield to each other and make certain sacrifices.

           Of our members, I was the one with the most skills and experience in terms of audio editing, a crucial factor in a hip hop performance. Also, I was one of the most actively participating and among the first members in our wave to be admitted into the club so I was the de facto manager of the entire project. I had to be the middleman in disputes, and it wasn’t easy.

           The performance time for the entire Rhyme Factory was limited to 20 minutes, each division of the club, of course, had ambitions to maximize its impression to the watchers. Additionally, each individual member had his or her personal musical or artistic inclinations. Because of such reasons, disagreements and disputes were commonplace during the preparation process. Everybody had different rapping or dancing styles or preferences; sometimes members would simply refuse to comply with another member’s suggestion because of differences in taste. Deciding upon the performance sequences was delayed and delayed, and other events such as the mid-term exams only complicated things further. The members’ squabbling concerned me, and I probably wasn’t the only one who was worried about our show.

           Eventually, however, everyone seemed to gradually decide to cooperate and yield. We all knew that we had gathered to act as a team to express our passions. We realized that we had to make certain sacrifices and learn to work together for the success of our performance. The members set aside their differences and reached conclusions that required the efforts of everyone, and began practicing with all their might. All 10 of us practiced up to the last minute, and when we finally went up to the stage, we knew that we were there not to individually impress the crowd with personal showing off, but to work as a team to present our club to everyone.

           I cannot judge how exciting or impressive our show was. We certainly did make mistakes and some of our members may think that we could have done better. However, what I do know is that regardless of how the audience or other members perceived our show, I myself am very proud. We cooperated to create our first ever onstage project, and we showed it before everybody. We did have some troubles along the way, but we certainly did have fun. With these emotions and insight, Rhyme Factory, and myself personally, will be ready for any future events and will be prepared to move the crowd.