Happy Black History Month. Knowledge is power, something black people from Frederick Douglass to Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks to Kamala Harris have never taken for granted. If white people would kill a black person for teaching someone to read, not to mention knowing how to read—enough said! The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), Dr. Carter G. Woodson’s organization, has chosen the theme: “Crisis in Education” for 2017.
Happy Birthday dear brother Fred Batin one of the best fathers I know, a man whose children Wilda and Wilfred are honored each February by the Mayor’s office in San Francisco for their academic excellence. Widya is the subject of a film and was honored by the National Council of Negro Women, Golden Gate Section, as a Youth Leader, for her work in developing the Buchanan Mall.
We will miss our dearly departed ones: Great Auntie Olivia Samaiyah Beyah-Bailey (12/1/1918-1/19/2017) and Lee Williams (9/2/1937-1/1/2017).
27th Annual Celebration of African American Poets and Their Poetry
Join us for the longest consecutive public program in the Oakland Public Library system: “A Celebration of African American Poets and Their Poetry,” Saturday, February 4, 1-4 p.m. We have adopted the ASALH theme: “Crisis in Black Education.” Perhaps James Weldon Johnson was thinking about educational access and equity when he was a high school principal at the segregated Stanton School in Jacksonville, Florida? In 1900, “Johnson wrote a poem that would become the lyrics to music written by his brother, John Rosamond Johnson. ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ was first performed publicly at his school during a celebration for Abraham Lincoln’s birthday Feb. 12.” Only 37 years earlier, Lincoln ended slavery by signing the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. In 1919 the NAACP adopted “Lift Every Voice” as its official song. 1918 WWI ended, yet in 1919 nothing had changed for black Americans. That year saw increased racial violence in the United States documented by history professor and author David F. Krugler in his book, 1919, The Year of Racial Violence: How African Americans Fought Back.
The African American Poetry Celebration is at the West Oakland Branch Library, 1801 Adeline Street, in Oakland. It is free and open to all. We are looking for footage from the previous 26 years. If anyone bought copies from KTOP and can share these VHS tapes with us, for our archives, we would really appreciate it. The featured program which Wanda Sabir hosts, includes many renowned poets like Avotcja, Steve McCutchen, Paradise, Karen Mims, Charles Blackwell, Gene Howell, Jr., Halifu Osumare, Karla Brundage, Leroy Moore, Andre Wilson, Ayodele Nzinga, Darlene Roberts, Tyrice Deane, Nicia Delovely, Chris Harris. This year we will also honor the memory of Lee Williams (Sept. 2, 1937-Jan. 1, 2017).
There is an open mic at the end and refreshments throughout the program which is family friendly. For information or if you want to help at the program call (510) 238-7352 or info@wandaspicks.com
Maafa San Francisco Bay Area – February 25 National Libation for the Ancestors
We are asking everyone to pour libations Saturday, Feb. 25 for African Ancestors of the Middle Passage to coincide with NCOBRA or the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America’s “Reparations Awareness Day,” 2/25. We could pour at 9 a.m. Pacific Time for Umoja or Unity. In the East Bay, we will meet at Alameda beach: Grand and Shoreline at the water. Wear white.
21st Annual Maafa Commemoration San Francisco Bay Area
The 21st Annual Maafa Commemoration 2016 was really wonderful! As usual there was magic on the beach—we witnessed a reverse rainbow. As we looked up, the bow was translucent, the color below on our faces. Osumare was telling us that we were the blessing that morning. There were a lot of youth. King Theo brought some of his drummers from Oakland and the young men really made the ritual strong and powerful.
Sister Bisola’s ring shout was awesome as we surrounded the youth and anyone who needed special healing. Dr. Marcus had us touch each other’s shoulders as we did an ancestral meditation.
Visiting from Elmina, Ghana, Seesta Imahkus Okofu brought affirmation, poetry and greetings from One Africa, we then toasted flowers on the waters. The Doors of No Return situated behind the altar the view gave us a different angle and level of contemplation. The day had a sepia hue.
Several of us stayed and talked long into the afternoon with several young men who were from Richmond, California. One young man shared how he’d been shot recently in a drive by as he stood speaking with friends, some coworkers. Just out of high school, he was working and had the day off that afternoon. We spoke about getting together monthly to talk, perhaps participate in a recreational outing. So far, this has not happened, but we can talk about this and other items when we meet and share. It is to our collective interest to safeguard the well-being of our youth. The first words from my mouth were safety. The youth said he lived with his mom and that he did not feel safe, but had nowhere else to go.
I would like to have a gathering this month to share Maafa Commemoration experiences, photos and talk about plans for 2017. We could certainly have a film and discussion night, Ubuntu Council Night to share and resolve issues of concern, have skill building workshops, for harm reduction, trauma and trauma healing. We could go to cultural events as a group. “Native Son” at the Marin Theatre Company is one such show, as are Ubuntu Theater Project and the Lower Bottom Playaz performances.
All Power to the People: Black Panthers at 50
I have met at least three people since October—one sister had on a Commemoration button at the Black Panther Conference at the OM (smile). Don’t miss “All Power to the People:Black Panthers at 50” which closes Feb. 26 with a member event. I love David Huffman’s “Traumanauts,” Hank Williams’s “We the People” (constructed from prison inmate clothing) and “Black Righteous Place,” Artist Sadie Barnette’s excavation of her father, Rodney Barnette’s history through COINTELPRO documents is also touching as is Carrie Mae Weems location dislocation installation. Weems work is always provocative. Her soundtrack narrates the story unfolding on the screen then we get up and look at the black and white prints of the Assassination of Medgar, Malcolm and Martin (2008)— where once again Weems enters and interrupts an historic narrative. Curated by Rene Guzman, the marvelous exhibition also employs listening stations where patrons are treated to a revolutionary soundtrack and invited to get on the mic and speak their own truths. Actual pieces of buildings are in cases, evidence that there was something there, before it was no longer there—like a people, erased from collective memory. There is an exhibit which maps the Black Panther Party geographically.
From the opening gallery where we read the 10-Point Platform boldly printed on the wall, while the iconic peacock chair invites guests to sit and take a photo, to the thoughtful use of space –All Power to the People is an engaging walk through history which is interactive as well as informative. As patrons read the stories of powerful party women when youths juxtaposed with reflections captured in Bryan Shih’s portraits. Artifacts lie disturbed in display cases while footage rolls nearby with more of the story, like that explored visually in the photo and actual Klu Klux Klan capes worn by participants in a march in downtown Oakland. There are also dashikis and berets, posters, signs and of course lots of old newspapers with headlines ironically still appropriate today. There is a section on newspaper artists, Gayle Dixon’s work is highlighted, as is of course, Emory Douglas, Minister of Culture. The Oakland Museum of CA is located on 10th and Oak Street, across the street from Laney College and the Lake Merritt BART Station. Visit http://museumca.org/exhibit/all-power-people-black-panthers-50
Maafa Commemoration San Francisco Bay Area con’t.
I am so happy to have seen so many brothers and sisters whom I met at the ceremony last year October to now. One sister hopped out the car the other day when she saw me crossing the parking lot at a store we were both shopping at.
I walked the ritual circle and gave everyone a button. The buttons were for the 20th Anniversary but I forgot them at home in 2015, so throughout October 2015 until I ran out, I kept buttons in my purse, car and pockets. I ordered another one hundred for 2016. Let me know if you need one and I will bring several to Crab Cove beach in Alameda, Feb. 25, 9 a.m.
If you do not hear from me, leave me a message: 510-255-5579. I am thinking about a late February, early March get together. If anyone wants to host it, let me know that too. I was thinking about Keba Konte’s Red Bay Coffee, a lovely space in East Oakland near Fruitvale Avenue.
After Dark Every Thursday Night @ The Exploratorium in San Francisco Continues Its In-the-Balance Series with a Panel on Solitary Confinement
Thursday, February 16, 2017 • 6:00–10:00 p.m.
“In My Solitude”: The Detrimental Effects of Solitary Confinement on the Brain with David L. Faigman, Chancellor and Dean, and the John F. Digardi Distinguished Professor of Law, at the University of California Hastings College of the Law at 7:00 p.m., Fisher Bay Observatory Gallery, Pier 15 (Embarcadero at Green St), San Francisco, (415) 528-4444.
Panelists include: Dr. Robert H. King, Craig Haney, J.D., Ph.D., Jules Lobel, J.D., Michael Zigmond, Ph.D., and Brie Williams, M.D.
Theatre
Ubuntu Theater Project presents: Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller Fri 2/10 @ 8pm, Sat 2/11 @ 8pm through Sun 3/5 @ 7pm at the Brooklyn Preserve, 1433 12th Ave., Oakland. Ubuntu is theatre by and for the People. Visit ubuntutheaterproject.com Tickets are sold online for $15-35, and at the door each night on a pay-what-you-can basis so that no one will be turned away for a lack of funds.
This season Ubuntu explores the human side of significant political and cultural shifts across the globe: As numerous communities cry for mercy in the midst of suffering, how can we, in an increasingly polarized society, find the grace needed to hear—and respond to— the cries of others?
“Death of a Salesman” is an American classic that delves inside the soul of a middle-aged businessman who cannot come to terms with the reality of a changing America. Arthur Miller’s prescient masterwork is a dire warning of the hollowness at the heart of the American Dream. As suicide rates among middle-aged white men in the United States rise faster than among any other demographic; promises to reclaim an America of yesteryear found resonance among a large portion of American voters in November. We are once again at a moment when attention must be paid! But, how? To who? From whom?
Ubuntu frames this American classic as a fever dream of a dying salesman, revealing how Death of a Salesman is both a timeless myth speaking to the current crisis of American identity, and a radical call for compassion uniquely suited to the current moment.
On the Fly:
The Art of Living Black (TAOLB) At the Richmond Art Center, opens Jan. 10, and will
run until March 2. The reception and artist talks will be held on Sat. Feb. 4th,12 noon to 5 PM. RAC is at 2540 Barrett Ave. Richmond www.richmondartcenter.org A Call for Beauty, a 3.9 Art Exhibit is up through Feb. 28 at Root Division, 1131 Mission Street, San Francisco. Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 2pm to 6pm, 415.863.7668 / info@rootdivision.org. Second Sat. Reception, Feb. 11, 7-10 p.m. with the Broun Fellinis Live Jazz Event. Where is Here at the Museum of the African Diaspora. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts presents Clas/sick Hip Hop: A dance and music double bill featuring Amy O’ Neal’s Opposing Forces and UnderCover Presents: A Tribute to The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill February 16-18. V-Day at UC Berkeley! The Vagina Monologues, Thursday-Friday, February 9-10 7:20 PM – 10:00 PM and Sunday, February 12, 1:30 PM – 5:00 PM PST in the Pauley Ballroom, ASUC MLK Student Union, 2495 Bancroft Way at the Intersection of Telegraph and Bancroft, Berkeley. The Vagina Monologues is an episodic play written by Eve Ensler. It is performed in communities and on college campuses across the nation to raise awareness to issues that affect women. Proceeds from the event are donated to local organizations that support and provide resources for survivors of sexual violence and other forms of gendered violence. This year one of these organizations is California Coalition for Women Prisoners. The theme for this year’s UC Berkeley production of the Vagina Monologues is “Healing as Resistance: Stories of Radical Self-Love.” ADA accessible. For information: vagmonsucb@gmail.com Black Virgins Aren’t for Hipsters is back! Feb. 10 (8 p.m.), 11 (8 p.m.) & 19 (5 p.m.) at Tribe Oakland, 3303 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. Black Choreographers Festival Here and Now 2017 February 11-26 in Oakland and San Francisco features: Feb. 11 – 12 (Oakland @ the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice Street and in San Francisco at Dance Mission. Book Events: David Billings, author of “Deep Denial,” will be speaking at the North Berkeley Library at 2-4 p.m. on Sunday, February 19. (The library is being opened especially for this event.). He’s then speaking that evening, 6-9 p.m. at the Eric Quesada Center, 518 Valencia Street, San Francisco. Sunday February 12th, “Jazz in the Neighborhood presents: Eclectic Squeezebox Orchestra with AVOTCJA & SCHOOL OF THE ARTS LATIN BIG BAND led by Melecio Magdaluyo, at 5:30 p.m. – 9 p.m. at DOC’s LAB, 124 Columbus Ave, San Francisco, $10 Tickets: http://www.ticketfly.com/event/1410547-electric-squeezebox-orchestra-san-francisco/ Music of the Word at Cesar Chavez Library in Oakland, 3-5 p.m. Sat., Feb. 25, 3301 East 12th Street @ 33rd Avenue. Visit http://www.avotcja.org/upcoming-events.html Kahil El’Zabar & the New Ethnic Heritage Ensemble at EastSide Arts Sunday, Feb. 5, 6-8 p.m. 2277 International Blvd, Oakland, www.eastsideartsalliance.org Tomye: Living Artist presents: Artworks that include Goauche Paintings, Fused Glass/ Mixed Media, Photo Prints & Prints embracing humanity at the Laurel Bookstore, 1423 Broadway, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, Feb. 3, 5-8 p.m. is the reception. Oakland Museum’s All Power to the People:The Black Panthers at 50, closes Feb. 26. Don’t miss it or the special programs. Visit museumca.org
Can We Design Freedom? At Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Feb. 18, 2017
Can we design FREEDOM? As our nation enters a new political era, this question is more urgent than ever. Born from the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts 100 Summit, the bi-annual Public Square gathers our community’s collective imagination around a big question. In this case: Can we design FREEDOM? For several months, this question has been deeply investigated by a cohort of YBCA Fellows. On February 18th, their answers to this question will be revealed and offered up for community response. Join us for an afternoon designed to provoke societal change at a time when it’s most needed.
Art Exhibit
Fouladi Projects— Coming Clean San Francisco in collaboration with Lava Mae, On view January 10 – February 25, 2017
Coming Clean San Francisco, is a multi-media exhibition amplifying the intimate experience of homelessness through the artist’s lens. A cultural intervention and a first time collaboration between Fouladi Projects + Lava Mae based on a shared belief that art as a cultural tool has the capacity to elicit a visceral, almost cellular reaction in a way information cannot, challenging us to push beyond the stereotypes that frame our current perceptions. Coming Clean: SF will feature weekly evening programming at Fouladi Projects, 1803 Market Street @ Guerrero, San Francisco, 415.621.2535 gallery, 415.425.2091 cell. Gallery hours are: Tuesday – Saturday 12 – 6 p.m. Artists include: Amy Wilson Faville, Elizabeth Lo, Danielle Nelson Mourning, Ramekon O’Arwisters, Joel Daniel Phillips, Yon Sim, Kathryn Spence.
The Wattis Institute presents: Tongo Eisen-Martin
February 21, 2017
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David Hammons (artist) has spent a lot of time with poets over the years. Darius James, Steve Cannon, Ben Okri, the late John Farris, to name a few. San Francisco poet Tongo Eisen-Martin spends a lot of time with other poets. For this event, he brings together his community of peers for an evening poetry and performance. This event, Feb. 21, 7 p.m. at California College of the Arts Wattis Institute, 360 Kansas Street (between 16-17 Streets), in San Francisco, features performances by poets Josiah Alderete,Tongo Eisen-Martin, Raina Leon, and Andrea Murphy, and music by Lewis Jordan and Akinyele Sadiq.
This is the seventh event in CCA’s The Wattis Institute’s year-long season about and around the work of David Hammons.
Concert
From Oakland to Paris: Shola Adisa-Farar Returns for a CD Release
Shola Adisa-Farrar performs live in California for the first time since the release of her debut album, “Lost Myself.” She has two Bay Area dates: Wednesday, February 15 at the Black Cat, San Francisco, two sets, first at 9:30 p.m. Reservations to be made via website or by calling: 415-358-1999 http://www.blackcatsf.com/event/shola-adisa-farrar
The second show is Thursday, February 16 at the Soundroom, Oakland. The concert begins at 8pm. Doors open at 7 p.m. For tickets: http://m.bpt.me/event/2777325
The Mighty Ring Shout and Its Spirituals @ the West Oakland Branch Library,
1801 Adeline Street, Saturday, February 18, 2017 – 1:00pm – 3:30pm
This Friends of the Negro Spirituals (FNS) education program consists of a presentation on the amazingly exciting, often high energy, and almost forgotten Ring Shout, which includes African traditions of call and response, dance, storytelling, African spirituality, communicating in code, and honoring the ancestors.
With audience participation, Angela Thomas, FNS’ Education Co-Chair and Song Leader, will demonstrate singing the shout spirituals, handclapping, and beating the stick that takes place in the Ring Shout; there will be video clips of it also.
Come prepared to learn what the Ring Shout is. What are its origins and meanings? Was it a new song created by enslaved Africans and African Americans to replace older traditions outlawed by their captives?
African American Quilt Guild of Oakland’s Annual Demonstration
1801 Adeline Street, Saturday, February 25, 2017 – 1:00pm – 4:00pm
Celebrate African American History Month with the African American Quilt Guild of Oakland’s Annual Demonstration and Workshop. Supplies will be provided so that you can make your own quilt. For all levels and ages.
Star Trek: 50 Artists. 50 Years at Chabot Space and Science Center
On Friday, February 3, from 6 to 10pm as part of the $5 First Friday, Chabot presents a galactic night of exploration into the Cosmos and beyond, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Star Trek and the opening of 50 Artists. 50 Years. Visitors will participate in fun, interactive and family-oriented activities exploring the intersection of art and science throughout the Center. On Saturday, February 18, from 6 to 10pm, adult visitors will have their last chance to experience Star Trek: 50 Artists. 50 Years during a themed closing reception with space-inspired cocktails, a hands-on Theremin live musical performance and space music-making demonstration highlighting the evening. Visitors will also learn about the possibility of life on other planets from Berkeley SETI Research Center Chief Scientist and Star Trek fan Dan Werthimer among other activities sure to “engage” the most avid Star Trek fan. The February 18 event is ages 21+ only. Stay updated on additional event highlights soon to be announced at www.chabotspace.org
Oakland Symphony Essentials Preview Event Feb. 7 at Oakland Intertribal Friendship House
Music Director Michael Morgan and the Oakland Symphony continue their annual exploration of world orchestral music traditions this season with Notes from Native America, Friday, February 24, 2017, at 8 pm at the Paramount Theatre. The concert will feature music by award-winning composers Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate and John Wineglass plus Northern California’s own Su-Nu-Nu-Shinal Pomo Dancers. The Symphony will perform “Clans” and “Hymns” from Tate’s Lowak Shoppala’ (Fire and Light) with narrator and men’s chorus and Wineglass’ Big Sur” The Night Sun. Completing the program will be Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9. The Symphony’s Notes from . . . series has become a popular mainstay of the Bay Area music scene and annually explores symphonic music both new and traditional from cultures that may be less well known to audiences. Free lobby entertainment, no-host drinks and pre-concert talk begin at 7 pm. Tickets are priced $25-$80 and may be purchased at www.OaklandSymphony.org.
In addition to the concert, Oakland Symphony will present a special pre-concert Essentials event Tuesday, February 7, 6:30-8:30 pm. The free admission evening will feature talk and performances by flutist Emiliano Campobello, vocalist Kanyon Sayers-Roods, Vincent Medina, Michael Bellanger, All Nations Drum and Yvonne Marshall. Food will be provided by Wahpepah’s Kitchen Intertribal Friendship House is loated at 523 International Blvd in Oakland. The event is free but reservations are required at Oakland, CA 94606. The event is free but reservations are required at https://oaklandsymphonyessentials-notesofnativeamerica.eventbrite.com
Film:
I Am Not Your Negro, A Review
Raoul Peck, director, reflects on James Baldwin’s ability to articulate the cognitive dissonance he felt as a Diaspora man born in Haiti, who came of age in Patrice Lumumba’s Democratic Republic of Congo. Tossed abroad on waves of political uncertainly and unrest, young Peck (8) and Baldwin (24) both knew exile. Though he attended schools in the United States, France and Germany, the splayed root worker finds his voice in the work of Baldwin, a place where Peck says “he was not just a footnote [,] Baldwin . . . one of the few writers who was speaking of a world [the youngster] knew. [Baldwin] was telling stories, describing history, defining structure and human relationships which matched what Peck was seeing around [himself].” He says, “I could relate to [him].”
“I Am Not Your Negro,” which opens theatrically February 3, nationwide, presented an opportunity for the director to play it forward, to salute Baldwin at a time when no one but a James Baldwin would admit, the emperor has taken off his robes. Just this truth stated in Baldwin’s matter-of-fact tone or uttered similarly by Samuel Jackson (narrator) makes the film refreshing. Equally compelling is Baldwin’s voice reflecting aloud what it meant to lose his friend Martin, after losing Medgar and Malcolm. He says he is not going to weep at King’s funeral, then stumbles into Harry Belafonte’s arms.
A man of strong emotions, we feel the loss as Peck moves the lens from then to now, from Mississippi to Ferguson. Baldwin states: “The story of the Negro is the story of America,” as the activist’s voice collides with lyrics: “I am a black man in a white world. . .” while images of white youth holding bats face Martin Luther King and other freedom fighters ready to die for democracy—if this is what it would take.
This discovery of a text, a forgotten, unfinished, unpublished text of his hero is the stuff of fairytales and wishful thinking. Could Peck believe his good fortune? What spin would he put on the Baldwin’s words? How would he translate the work into a visual medium? For ten years, Peck has access to Baldwin’s writings and the blessings of Baldwin’s sister Gloria Karefa-Smart who after giving Peck keys to the treasure, shared a “pile of neatly (and partly crossed out) typewritten pages and letter,” with the director. This last bit of writing what just what Peck needed and forms the nexus of the work. These typed words open the film, give it context and history, the prelude the story of a nation, a nation built on a legacy of racism and white supremacy.
What house does Baldwin reference in his working manuscript title? He speaks often of houses in his work whether that is a solitary room in a house, a street that talks about houses and the people that live in them or the absence of many houses on mountain tops.
Death sets up a certain dilemma, art often a way to unpack the heaviness attached to grief and loss. In 1979 Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent about a new project, one where he would examine the lives of three men who were killed within five years of one another: Medger Evers (June 12, 1963), Malcolm X (February 21, 1965) and Martin King (April 4, 1968).
Not only does Peck give the 30—page manuscript a place to stretch, the film also hosts Baldwin as interlocutor along the thematic tightrope he has walked all his life. Peck’s film is perhaps a sequel to the powerful tribute to Baldwin: “The Price of the Ticket” (1989), dir. Karen Thorsen.
“Remember this House” stands as kindling is stacked against the barn next to the kerosene next to a box of matches. If Baldwin’s seminal essay collections, “The Fire Next Time” juxtaposed with “Notes of a Native Son” and the “The Price of the Ticket” serve as prelude, then what Peck has crafted here in Baldwin’s words against a backdrop of historic and contemporary images and music, is a call to action fueled by pertinent yet unanswered questions.
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The film is methodic and slow. It is as if we are on a train, perhaps a Mule Train, like the one assembled for the Poor People’s Campaign Settlement at the capital in Spring 1968— a trip Martin King missed, felled by an assassin’s bullet.
Baldwin is such an analytical thinker that “I Am Not Your Negro” requires a certain commitment to truth. Peck’s film and Baldwin’s words are an American history primer For DUMMYS ®—it is a civil rights march through a history papered by black bodies hanging, buried and butchered. Peck’s “I Am Not Your Negro” challenges audiences, a challenge significantly lightened by a charismatic Baldwin who appears often on screen in the film with his lovely laugh, humor and riveting eyes.
He has a way of laughing the initial sting away; however, the grandson of enslaved Africans does not forget or let anyone else forget what it feels like to be black and American then or now.
Theatre
Nambi E. Kelley’s “Native Son” at MTC
For those who don’t know author, Richard Wright, his seminal text “Native Son” looks at the made in America phenomena, the American Negro. Both Wright and Mary Shelley situate their tales in bleak, dark settings where the protagonists: Bigger Thomas and the creature (Adam) are pawns in creation mythologies authored by devils: the Daltons and Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Perhaps more native or indigenous because of its patent, the protagonist Bigger Thomas has issue with the psychic occupation he feels every day of his life. There is no slumber, no rest. He says, “They own the world,” as whiteness intrudes his waking dreams. Frankenstein’s creature agrees when he learns sadly that his master both fears and hates him.
Playwright Nambi E. Kelley’s adaptation of Wright’s novel (1940) for stage, under the direction of Seret Scott at the Marin Theatre Company with a cast handpicked for the synergy created in their portrayal of this iconic, historic character, resonates a century later at a time when black lives still do not matter. The world young Bigger (20) was being birthed into was not one he looked forward to. His mother Hannah recalls her boy’s reticence to enter a world meant to destroy him—if not his life, then his dreams. Her son did not want to leave the sanctity of the womb, a place where there was comfort, love and safety for a place he knew instinctively he would not find the same nurturing or support. Home for Bigger is a place where he is surrounded by enemies whom he was powerless to defend himself against—he could not even escape them in his dreams, as whiteness seemed to control everything his mind touched. Similar to other iconic black warriors castrated during puberty rites, like Malcolm Little and even the fictional Walter Lee II, Bigger doesn’t stand a chance.
When Bigger is offered a job by his slumlord apartment owners, he is not grateful; he takes the job because his mother all but forces him into it. Driving rich white people around does nothing for his ego – it’s not his car, and white people make the youth nervous, especially his boss’s daughter, Mary and her communist boyfriend, Jan: both drink too much and both want to be his friend.
As the two sandwich Bigger between then and offer him a drink from a decanter, he wishes they would stop intruding into spaces carefully designed to keep the races apart. He is well-rehearsed in his role and knows such familiarity can only lead to his destruction. His stage manager is The Black Rat, a clever creature whom Bigger knows intimately.
Bigger tries to kill or silence the rat who keeps showing up in his apartment, but the creature won’t die. Similar to a whiteness which colors his aspirations or life, Black Rat advises Bigger, rehearses his lines with him, like a catechism—“you are nothing, you will amount to nothing . . . . The two are connected at the hip, conjoined, inseparable—yet even here, Kelley and Wright’s Bigger is allowed agency. The murders he commits real, yet also symbolic.
Though Bigger knows his role well, there is a part of him that refuses to settle for such a dismal life—he remembers his father death. He went out with a blaze, like a comet. Yet, all the native son feels is fear. He is so frightened by a life shrouded in blackness.
Giulio Cesare Perrone’s set is stark, empty – the scaffolding suggests a psychic and material interior we do not see. There is nothing between Bigger and the world—no insulation, no walls, no heat, no love. He lives in the “between,” neither here nor there. His only solace is following the rules which Black Rat reminds him of. Bigger is subject to all the elements—freezing cold when we meet him and blazing heat when he gets the position at the Daltons.
The Daltons’s system of economic exclusion as property owners and developers incubate a reality which produces boys like Bigger Thomas. How can the black boy dream when he cannot see beyond the confines of the prison he and his family are entrapped? Yet, if not for himself, Bigger dreams for Buddy, his brother, who is smart. He dreams a legitimate life for his gifted sibling.
It is almost as if Mrs. Dalton, like Oedipus, blinds herself. However, the self-mutilation is not out of shame. She and Mr. Dalton are blind to their systemic acts of terrorism. Hannah, Bigger’s mother knows there are other more attractive apartments available, but Dalton Associates will not rent these flats to black people. Mr. Dalton’s gifts to the NAACP and to local recreation centers where Bigger plays pool have no impact on the trajectory Bigger and other Biggers find themselves tumbling into. Reminiscent of Illinois Poet Laureate, Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem, “We Real Cool” (1960), Wright’s nemesis is “real cool. He left school. Lurk(s) late. Strikes straight. Sing(s) sin. Thin(s) gin. Jazz(es) June. Die(s) (all too) soon.”
Actualized only by his criminal behavior, Bigger is anonymous until he is “wanted.” OJ Simpson suffers similar fate when he is accused of killing his white wife. Murder is his claim to fame. It is as if this monstrosity is central to black manhood. Even Jan, Mary Dalton’s communist friend, fails to own his part in the tragedy. Whiteness does not ask for self-reflection, so as Bigger and Black Rat reflect on circumstances and try to do a bit of damage control themselves and can’t, they realize that the world Bigger occupies means nothing but trouble for the black man.
That Mrs. Dalton so easily jokes with Bigger about her blindness and how easily it was for her to give it up, points philosophically to an innate callousness and carelessness of the system of white supremacy and racial hatred.
Bigger is beaten physically by the police when he tries to protect his mother, and psychologically by the world which only works for white people— There is no reward, so Bigger runs, chased by nightmares all too real. Even if he is the only one who can see and hear Black Rat, whom the family thinks is dead, until Black Rat reappears like a talisman. Black families on Chicago’s Southside know there is no poison strong enough to rid their lives of this pestilence. Black Rat’s reincarnation is guaranteed by societal circumstances then and now. It is what W.E.B Dubois calls double consciousness – the public and the interior self – The Rat vs. Bigger Thomas.
Bigger despises not just the white world, more so he despises his cowardliness, that is, until he musters nerve to slay the ghost which haunts him. Only then can he stand as a man, and stop running. Only then does the fear dissipate like the filament of a bad dream— Rat and Bigger struggle for life—however, Black Rat has to die for Bigger to live. Rat is an accomodationist, while Bigger wants to be a man. Rat would settle for being a Negro, a manufactured concoction no one respects, not even other Negroes, but given the duality, when Bigger disappears so does he.
From Chicago native, Jerod Haynes in title role and his alter-ego, William Hartfield’s “The Black Rat,” to Rosie Hallet as “Mary,” the rich girl who tips the cart over, she and her boyfriend “Jan” (Adam Magill) responsible for the immediate mess; to Ryan Nicole Austin’s “Bessie,” Bigger’s girl whose love for the “monster” gives her a hangover—then there is Dane Troy’s “Buddy,” Bigger’s kid brother who sees through Bigger’s bravado to his fears and C. Kelly Wright’s “Hannah,” Bigger’s mother who pushes her son and pushes her son until he backs into himself. The Bigger Thomas story situated in the rest of the world, the part that counts is occupied by other—others like Mary’s parents, the intentionally blinded Mrs. Dalton (actress Courtney Walsh) and her husband and the detective (actor Patrick Kelly Jones). There is no compassion for Bigger or his family or his community. In fact, some black people are angry and afraid Bigger’s criminal behavior will further reduce the size of the Negro world and make it harder for them to live in communities white America has allowed them access. They have gotten used to going without, not so Bigger who is a lot like his dad. Don’t miss this riveting production at Marin Theatre Company through Feb. 12 which put Nambi E. Kelley’s “Native Son” at the center of its 50th Anniversary Season. MTC is located at 397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley. Visit marintheatre.org or call (415) 388-5208.
Britney Frazier Stars in Cutting Ball’s Stunning Ibsen Classic
By Wanda Sabir
Britney Frazier is stunning as “Hedda Gabler,” in Cutting Ball Theatre’s current production of the 19th-century Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen’s classic. Hedda is a spoiled girl who settles on husband, Jorgen Tesman, because he demands, she says, the least emotionally from her. Francisco Arcila’s “Tesman,” a scholar, remains preoccupied with his work, yet delights in his wife’s choice of him. Not quite able to afford her, Tesman buys her a house contingent on an appointment at the university he has yet to secure. The story is deceptively simple, but then so is much of life.
What is the stunningly beautiful Hedda to do with herself? She likes to ride horses and shoot at the firing range. At the center of her own constellation, Hedda’s striking entrance into the theatre smoking a cigarette, demands attention. In her late 20s, Hedda sees Tesman as a bonus initially. However, the emotional desert she cultivates which spans the distance between the two, backfires. Hedda finds in the end, that she wants to belong, to feel integral to their union, but it is too late. Jorgen finds support in another. Hedda ends up strangled by her own untempered growth.
Director, Yury Urnov places his Hedda (Britney Frazier) in a flower conservatory, where all the central characters– aunt, husband and former beaux, are gardeners. Hedda is their collective project, perhaps an archetypical divine feminine or receptacle for western society. However, Hedda is “the Explorer,” fearful of being trapped or made to conform.
Nonetheless, circumstances cause Hedda to surrender to the patriarchal norms which strangle her, rob her of will and agency, render her life meaningless and void of substantive content, future delight or satisfaction. The botanical dilemma Henrick Ibsen’s Hedda encounters is not unusual. She is among a classic sorority on a block peopled by characters: Mrs. Louise Mallard in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” (1894) and Edna Pontellier in The Awakening (1899), and the unnamed narrator in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892).
I am not sure if this is a white woman’s story or a story tied to class, which means the issues suffocating Hedda have wider cultural applications. Ibsen did not write the work with the marvelous Britney in mind, but this does not lessen the impact she has on a role, which challenges audiences to see the character through a different lens. This is complicated by the fact that not only is Hedda snipped, so is Ibsen’s work. The play is tighter and lean in this staged interpretation. The musical direction, mobile set and scene changes, especially the set changes, infuse lightness into the drama.
Actors who latch and unlatch, push and turn the wooden frames to create larger or more intimate spaces wear black derbies and kind of dance along to the cool, hip, new age music with floral lyrics at its core. The set itself imprisons Hedda who never leaves. She walks between the rooms but seems confined to its interior mechanisms. Even her foil, Mrs. Carla Pauli (actress Thea Elstead), leaves the known world behind. But Hedda is trapped by the comforts of what she knows to be true, even if this knowledge is not satisfactory.
Fallen petals, branches and leaves depict Hedda’s unmet desires. Hedda is framed by other women who stand outside the garden looking in: Aunt Juliane Tesman (Heidi Carlsen), the maid, Berte (Michelle Drexler) and Thea Elstead, a former classmate Hedda tormented (actress Carla Paulias). These women attain the freedom that eludes the beautiful Hedda.
Auteurs amputate and plant seeds, hoping for a bounty Hedda desires not. The newlywed wilts before our eyes. As Jorgen grows stronger and more assured, his Hedda grows weaker, prey to weeds which also populate the garden. Hedda’s manipulation of the brilliant writer and scholar, Ejlert Løvborg, backfires in a way she cannot imagine. The play is up through February 26 at Cutting Ball Theatre in San Francisco, 277 Taylor Street, (415) 525-1205.
“Hidden Figures,” A Film Review
Scientists Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, profiled in “Hidden Figures” (2016), exemplify what writer Margot Lee Shetterly calls “everyday courage,” a kind of imaginative power that filled these women – Black women, white women, invisible women – with a sense of pride and purpose even when deserved recognition went unstated. Director Theodore Melfi’s film is all the buzz, tying at $22 million in box office ticket sales its opening weekend, Jan. 6-8, with “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” a nod to the Academy Awards all ready for the women in leading roles.
Set during a time when the United States was in a space race with Russia, the story is about “smart” – let’s rephrase this – “brilliant” Black women – mathematicians and engineers, who took advantage of an opportunity to advance intellectually and economically at a time when the only integrated government branch was the military – thanks to the pressure of Asa Phillip Randolph’s March on Washington Movement (1941-1946) pressure on President Franklin D. Roosevelt to ban discrimination in the defense industries during World War II. Executive Order 8802 opened doors for Black women to work in the space industry as mathematicians, engineers and (human) computers.
When the film opens, all the women are working in the computer pool in the segregated West Area Computers division of Langley Research Center, where the women solve equations while they wait for more permanent assignments. Mrs. Dorothy Vaughn (mathematician) has been at NASA the longest and sort of inherited a supervisory position without the pay.
The other two members of the trio, Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson (physicist, mathematician) and Mary Jackson (engineer), are beautiful, sharp and understand the etiquette of the period as Black women in the segregated South; however, they do not put up with nonsense – at least not for long. They all worked professionally at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which later became the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958, when the newly minted entity marked a shift from military to civilian peaceful use of research and technologies.
Scientists Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, profiled in “Hidden Figures” (2016), exemplify what writer Margot Lee Shetterly calls “everyday courage,” a kind of imaginative power that filled these women – Black women, white women, invisible women – with a sense of pride and purpose even when deserved recognition went unstated.
That day, Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) goes to work in engineering for a Jewish scientist who encourages her to go back to school for her engineering license, while Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson) goes to work for the lead scientist, Al Harrison (Kevin Costner), director of the Space Task Group. Johnson is assigned the task of checking the math of all the engineers and other mathematicians. Of course the men resist, especially her supervisor, whom she outsmarts.
Johnson creatively overrides the security protocols while simultaneously having to fight racism and prejudice muddied even further by sexism. We see her demand to be a part of the debriefing meetings since the men are discussing her calculations.
She is the only woman in these rooms filled with white men, and she is quite able of holding her own as she demands their respect. It is her calculations which secure the landings of several early missions: 1962 for John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth and the trajectory of the space flight for the first American in space, Alan Shepard in 1959, and his later Mercury mission in 1961.
Her expertise was charting backup navigational charts for astronauts in case of electronic failures, which we witness on screen. “Hidden Figures” follows closely what writer Margot Lee Shetterly documents in her book, on which the film is based.
The three actresses together, Taraji P. Henson as Mrs. Johnson, Octavia Spencer as Mrs. Dorothy Vaughn and newcomer Janelle Monaé as Mrs. Mary Jackson, are a creative tsunami. How do the women make it?
Perhaps the shared comradery eases their burdens. The women know how to laugh and have a good time too. The system of white supremacy and racism does not deter their spirit, belief or faith in something greater; rather the opposition inflates it.
They are doers. At a time when buses are being blown up and Black people beaten at lunch counters for demanding civil rights, Mary Jackson sues the state of Virginia to allow her to attend college to get her credits for engineering school.
These are career women who challenge social norms at work and at home, which makes peace tenuous and ever shifting; however, none of them give up. When we meet Mrs. Vaughn, she has been a part of the Colored Computer Pool for 15 years.
All the women are married with children, except Johnson, who is a widow. The mother of three girls, she is being pursued by decorated military veteran Jim Johnson (Mahershala Ali). A little romance spices up an already simmering national brew (smile).
The three actresses together, Taraji P. Henson as Mrs. Johnson, Octavia Spencer as Mrs. Dorothy Vaughn and newcomer Janelle Monaé as Mrs. Mary Jackson, are a creative tsunami.
“Hidden Figures” put the human face back on technology. Computers then were people, more trustworthy than IBM mainframes, which might be fast but whose accuracy needed verification. This is what John Glenn (actor Glen Powell) requests when he asks for Mrs. Johnson specifically to run the numbers one more time before takeoff. She does this for several other space missions before shifting completely to digital computers.
This powerful work shows Black girls that not only are Black women scientists capable, they are critical to scientific advancement. If it weren’t for these particular women, early space exploration outcomes might have been quite different.
Author Margot Lee Shetterly says she didn’t think it odd that her dad worked at NASA, her mother was a college professor or that she knew Black women engineers. STEM was her life; it was Hampton, Virginia. “Growing up in Hampton, the face of science was brown like mine.”
Pharrell Williams’s dynamic, pulsing score makes the story, which is serious, entertaining. The creative team uses the artistic legacy of the period as a launching place to write new work. Audiences laugh aloud as they bear witness to whomever will listen – “Hidden Figures“ invites testimony.
This powerful work shows Black girls that not only are Black women scientists capable, they are critical to scientific advancement.
Don’t miss it! Don’t let any Black girl miss it.
They Call Us Monsters, Film Review
Though the story of incarceration is always hard, it is more sobering when those effected are children. What if those youth convicted had an opportunity to reimagine their lives and interrupt and rewind the script? What would the scenario look like? Who would star in the feature? Ben Lear’s “They Call Us Monsters,” (2017) is an invitation into such a story. There we meet Jarad, arrested at 16, Juan, arrested at 16, and Antonio, arrested one month after his 14th birthday. All the young men are facing minimally 90-life, Jarad 200 years.
The Compound, where LA County boys are held, is a jail within a jail at Sylmar Juvenile Hall in Chino, San Bernardino County. The boys are separated from general population for the severity of the violent crime they are convicted of; nonetheless they are still kids: playful, immature, and filled with regret but without the inherent gravity that comes with maturity. The boys don’t seem to grasp what these pending sentences mean. What does 25 years, not to mention 90 years feel like to someone so young? It is incomprehensible. Sentencing children as adults when violent crime in this population is misdirected. Why not put the investment in the public sector: better public schools, after and before school programs, housing and job training and skill development for parents? Instead the boys and girls end up at Sylmar in The Compound. We see one participant get shipped off to an adult prison. We meet his father who shares a letter where the child describes the roaches and other vermin in the cell he shares with a 50 year old man. The boys writes, “I would cry, but I can’t do that in here.” Instead, his dad cries.
The morning I spoke to director, Ben Lear, it was Martin Luther King Day, apropos to discuss crime and punishment and the draconian judicial system in place that tries children as adults. Funny, I thought of a lot of things before I made the call like asking if the director was related to Norman Lear, creator of All in the Family and a series of TV sitcoms which framed a discussion about race and class that Americans were not talking about. There we saw characters who looked unlike the stereotypical ones occupying a horizon which was less complex and easily dismissed.
Such is the case with the three boys we meet in “They Call Us Monsters.” Guilty by association or circumstances, all the boys have confessed – seated in a room facing a policeman without council the boys are all on tape admitting to the crime(s) they are being held. If these children are being tried as adults for the severity of the crimes they are charged, why do they not have council and their parent present at the interrogation? The imbalance in power is evident and perhaps scary to the boys who are familiar with what happens to those captured who do not cooperate. Perhaps this is another film?
The children who end up in The Compound have witnessed violence or have been victims of violence. One father shares his son’s witnessing his attempted suicide. He’d stabbed himself twice and was about to stab himself again when the child approached. Another boy witnesses a shooting. The person right next to him is shot multiple times in the head and body. The fact that these boys and others we do not see react to their world with violence reflect a reality consistent with the norms they see daily.
Post-traumatic stress is not addressed as psychic triggers are charged and released regularly—a deadly extension of the autonomic nervous system which regulates the body’s unconscious actions. We are generally speaking about those actions that keep us alive like breathing, circulation, heart rhythm, the body’s temperature regulation and elimination system. ANA is also responsible for deciding when we need to fight or run; it controls decisions regarding self-preservation, that is, who lives and who dies. In Monsters we meet children whose lives are impacted by structural violence – racism, classicism, sexism, and poverty, a violence Band-Aids and kisses cannot heal, an inherited legacy which brands them targets in a capitalist crap game. These kids are vulnerable, because their families are vulnerable and thus all associated with these boys (and girls) are at risk.
Even though they admit guilt, American society is the real culprit. We hand the child the gun, the drugs, as we keep them psychically and emotionally and spiritually undernourished. Certain populations are groomed for incarceration. Yes, it is a choice, but is a terrain littered by landmines fair? The children imprisoned in The Compound are there because of a psychologically and physiologically heightened response to social-political variables which put them at risk to perceived and actual threat.
Monsters centers on the workshop with Gabe Cowan and the boys who over 20-weeks write a screenplay. Professional actors are brought into the workshop, the film is shot; however included also are the stories of the boys and their families—a film within a film. The embedded work is of the boys sharing their vision of change and what they wish for other youth faced with similar choices.
The work has had a profound effect on the film teams’ lives from 2013 when Lear started to now, and the reception the film met when screened at The Compound, validates the artistic process. It does transform. It gives the boys and others in the Compound an opportunity to exorcize the demons which haunt them. Put them on paper, splatter them on the screen, resist and defuse their power.
Politically at the time the film is shot a lot of legislation affecting juveniles (14-17) in the criminal justice system were being debated, especially Senate Bill 9 (2012) which eliminated the “life without the possibility of parole” sentences for (most) juvenile offenders. SB 260 (2013) which provides parole hearings after 15 or 25 years for juveniles with defacto life sentences and lastly, raises the age with the passage of SB 261 (2015) from 14 to 22-years.
“They Call Us Monsters” (82 mins) is unprecedented in the access Lear is allowed. He stated in a recent interview that his access to the boys and their legal documents was directly connected to whose court the boys were property of. Lear, who stays in contact with the three boys, also now volunteers as a teacher with InSide Out Writers, one of the collaborators with the team. The director says California has more legislation directed at its youth and true rehabilitation over incarceration than any other state. The film opens at Sundance Kabuki, 1881 Post Street, in San Francisco January 27. The director will be at the 7 p.m. screening, January 29, for a Q&A.
Barbara Lee & Elihu Harris Lecture Series: Bob Moses
For those who were not able to attend. It was live-steamed and is archived: https://youtu.be/16vqR5tpHaQ
President and Founder of the Algebra Project. Also the Director of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s Mississippi Voter Registration Project, 1961 – 1964, and a Mississippi “Freedom” Summer lead organizer.
For more information on The Barbara Lee & Elihu Harris Lecture Series and The Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Center, please visit: http://www.mlkfreedomcenter.org
