Homecoming Hallways Master Music Madness

Alessandra Ashford, Opinions Editor| October 21, 2022

  • GSA Secretary Wednesday Kolledge ’23 tapes decorations to the GSA homecoming decoration. Kolledge provided all the streamers for the homecoming hall. “I think that my favorite part of the experience was being able to work together with the other members of the club to create something new,” said Kolledge. “And add[ing] some color to the plain halls of Westwood.”

    Alessandra Ashford
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  • National Spanish Honor Society (Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica, or SHH) took second place in the Homcoming Hall decoration contest. Their theme was Encanto.

    Lily Dooley
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  • Drama Club took third place in the Homecoming hallway decoration contest. Their theme was “Spongebob the Musical.”

    Alessandra Ashford
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  • Paying close attention, NAHS member Benjamin Li ’25 paints a scene from Aladdin. For their Disney-themed decorations, NAHS painted scenes from Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and The Lion King.

    Alessandra Ashford
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  • GSA’s finished homecoming hall decorations. GSA chose the theme of LGBTQA+ Artists Through The Years, highlighting Lil Nas X, Elton John, and Janelle Monae. The club’s decorations won first place in the hallway decor contest.

    Courtesy of GSA Club
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  • GSA President Claire Lawrence ’23 adds decorations to GSA’s Homecoming hall. Lawrence came up with the theme and design themselves. “This was my first time working on a big decoration for a club,” said Lawrence. “So it was really cool seeing it develop.”

    Alessandra Ashford
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  • Elena Francis ’25 focuses on her painting of Aladdin for NAHS’s homecoming hallway decoration. NAHS theme was Disney music. “I really enjoy participating in club events with my friends, and I liked how everyone gets to work together,” said Francis.

    Alessandra Ashford
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On Friday, Oct. 14, from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. club members from various organizations got together to decorate for the Homecoming hallway contest. Adhering to the theme “Music Madness”, participating clubs got to choose the focus of their designs and decorations.

Gender and Sexuality Club (GSA), who won first place in the contest, chose to focus their decorations on LGBTQA+ Artists Throughout The Years. Their design featured rainbow and transgender pride flag colored streamers, stars with Spotify codes to songs with LGBTQA+ themes or by LGBTQA+ artists, and posters of famous LGBTQA+ artists including Lil Nas X and Elton John. The posters were hand-drawn by GSA’s president, Claire Lawrence ‘23.

“I wanted to highlight multiple different artists and songs from the LGBT+ community,” said Lawrence. “Just choosing one felt wrong. To my knowledge, GSA hasn’t participated in [homecoming] for a good couple of years. I wanted to bring [GSA Club] back into the school’s eye, and the music theme was perfect, especially since music is a big part of gay culture.”

Another club that decorated for the competition was National Art Honor Society (NAHS). NAHS’s theme was Disney music, represented by painted scenes from Disney movies like Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and The Lion King.

“A lot of us like to watch Disney movies and the soundtracks are always really good so we thought that would be a cool design to put out,” NAHS Co-Vice President Aaliyah Khan ‘23 said. “My favorite part was definitely the painting because we got to see how with just simple acrylic paint we could create beautiful pieces to hang on the wall.”

Organized by Student Council, the hallway decoration contest entries were judged by a panel of judges on Monday, Oct. 17 before school. Winners were then announced on Friday, Oct. 21.

“Winning was honestly such a cool experience,” said Lawrence. “I was so excited that the judges [liked] my idea to make it interactive since I thought it was a great way to highlight more LGBT artists than just the four [we] had time to make portraits of. GSA is honestly one of Westwood’s smaller clubs, but we really worked hard, and winning was so fun.”

Other clubs that placed included Drama Club, whose Spongebob the Musical-themed decorations placed third, and National Spanish Honor Society (Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica, or SHH), whose decorations were inspired by Encanto, placed second.