A capella group comes to life at FAMU

Golden Hour Acapella logo.
Photo courtesy Golden Hour Co-President Joel Williams.

A new organization is taking center stage at Florida A&M University, and it is one of a
kind on campus. Golden Hour A capella is FAMU’s first and only a capella group, and it
has been stirring up interest in the Rattler community.

Amaya Howard, a third year elementary education major and member of Voices Poetry
Group, is excited to see a new type of creative organization on campus and can’t wait to
see what it will bring to FAMU.

“The more the merrier. I personally feel like other people in my organization feel the
same. We enjoy working with other creatives so now that there are more out there on
campus, I’m looking forward to seeing what they do. As a fan of ‘Pitch Perfect’ I feel like
an acapella group wouldn’t be too bad. The girls that I have seen perform were
phenomenal and I feel like they will offer something different to the campus,” she said.

As the buzz around the acapella group grows members are eager to show the campus
what Golden Hour is truly about.

Viergenie Geneus, a second year theater performance student and member of Golden
Hour, said she loves the environment that the group has created and is excited to show
off her talents.

“I did a lot of a cappella stuff in high school so when I finally got that in college I jumped
at the opportunity. It is so much fun; they are so open and friendly,” she said. “We plan
to go out and do a lot of like bonding situations, so it’s like you’re not going to feel
excluded because it’s a bunch of music majors. It’s just going to feel like a fun club for
any person that is a music lover.”

Fall auditions wrapped up last week and Golden Hour is gearing up to show the Rattler
community that they are here for the long run.

Joel Williams, a third year business administration student with a minor in music
industry, is the founder and co-president of Golden Hour. He is thrilled about all the
attention the organization has been receiving.

“I was really excited to start something like that at FAMU especially knowing that there
weren’t many other HBCU acapella groups. So, I wanted to make sure that I created an
avenue for people who also kind of have that same experience like me in high school to
find a place where they can be comfortable,” he said. “This summer we went from 30 or
40 followers to over 120 and that definitely changed because we had 28 people audition
for us this year and that blew our numbers from last year out the water. I was sitting in auditions hearing them try out and my heart was warm because this is something I’ve been thinking about since I got here on campus.”

Golden Hour Acapella is finding its groove on campus and is introducing the student
body to something they have never seen before. Williams gave some insight into what’s
next for one of Florida A&M’s newest organizations.

“Coming up soon we have Mykal Kilgore who is a Grammy award winning and
Broadway artist coming to FSU on Oct. 5 , but he is coming to FAMU on Oct. 6 and
Golden Hour is actually hosting him. So wer’e going to take him around campus and
show him the No. 1 public HBCU. After that we plan on doing a showcase with the FSU
acapella groups later this fall. Then in February we are looking to go to the International
Collegiate Competition for Acapella and we are seeing if we can qualify for the
semifinals,” he said. “We have a lot of stuff on the horizon and since we are a new
group we are looking at as many possibilities as possible. That’s the exciting part.”

Golden Hour Acapella has captured the hearts of a few rattlers already so we will just
have to wait and see how group leaves it mark on ours.