We Are Stanford: A Festival of Reflection and Renewalmarks the return of the full Stanford community to campus, offering a diverse range of ritual, artistic, commemorative and celebratory programs to express and hold all that we have been through, individually and collectively, over the last 18 months. And in case the songs aren't funny, Fleet Street strives to create a multimedia experience for audiences with original sketch comedy and short films during its shows. The group is known for performing an incredible number of songs entirely written by members of the group. The Stanford Fleet Street Singers, or simply 'Fleet Street,' was founded in 1981 with barbershop roots. Please note masks are required to attend this indoor event. This event is free and only open to the Stanford community and affiliates. Please join us at the Sankofa World Music Concert, the closing ceremony of We Are Stanford: A Festival of Reflection and Renewal. We are forging a future that respects the past but carves something new. We must go forward, but we also must honor what we have experienced in the past 19 months and counting. Now more than ever, we need to honor the past while mustering our resilience beyond self-determination to renew our community in healing and life-giving ways. We also cherish how far we have come so that we can begin healing the immediate wounds and start reimagining how to rebuild a more just and resilient global society. All this ignited a shared urgency and renewed commitment to transformation.

The events of the recent year and a half –– starting with Covid-19, continuing with the renewed energy for racial justice in the wake of the deaths of many Black men and women at the hands of police and the spike in anti-Asian violence, and extending through the tumultuous events surrounding the election and presidential transition –– have shaken the Stanford Community and global community alike. Sankofa also is a way to heal and renew will forging forward with resilience. Sankofa is a word in the Twii language of Ghana, and it literally means to “go back and fetch it.” Sankofa also implies an active forward hope in the face of remembrance and history.

Cranes in the sky acapella