AfroSolo@32 Finale
AfroSolo@32 was amazing! Congratulations to all the performers and to Thomas Simpson who has been curating this amazing showcase through the various politcal mine fields and temperate landscapes which wanted Black excellence to vanish. For several seasons now he has featured the work of elders, elders who participate in one of many workshops hosted in San Francisco's Bayview Hunter's Point community.
This 32nd season highlighted the work of Darlene Roberts, Sistas wid Gaps, poet and community activist and organizer of the successful Jazz in Fillmore series. Her poem, a lyrical libation paid homage to the legacy of Black music, the score one of sorrows and success. Dressed closing afternoon in red and black, a fez and beautifully embossed jacket, Ms. Roberts was elegant. Mr. JJ Jackson was also dapper in his suit and bowler hat. However it was his blue beard and matching eyebrows that lent dramatic flare to a wonderful story of finding love. He and Ms. Roberts grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Went to the same schools, but didn't make the connection until they both met here in San Francisco at Thomas's writing group.
JJ Jackson portrayed all the roles from his mother to the pastor and Sunday school teacher who carried stories in her bag. He followed her to another church where he learned of God's love. He was seven and had never felt such a thing before. Though he didn't tell of his journey from then to now, God's love has continued to sustain this elder whose memory of that moment remains.
Ms. Augustene Phillips opened with Kendrick Lamar's SuperBowl Half-time performance "Not Like Us." Her story explored secret codes, initiations and legacies. Lamar's work is clearly linked to an ancestral tributary which only the initiated fully understand.
Like Marvin Gaye and Dr. King, whom Ms. Augustene cited, Lamar too knows what's going on. His performance addressed a rivery or problem--misogyny and sexual abuse: pedophilia. Lamar called his industry peer, Drake, out as he should.
Ms. Augustene didn't address the controversy. She shared how she had to dig deep, that is use her analytical tools to understand his meaning. Plain talk it was not.
I love Lamar's work. I was at Half-time too that Sunday afternoon. I taught Lamar's compositions in a unit on Black Panther, the film. Lamar composed the music and directed the collaboration with other artists. Seehttps://wandasabir.blogspot.com/search?q=Black+panther
Honorable ancestors used their platforms to correct wrongs and absolve the innocent Ms. Augustene said as she listed Lamar's awards like multiple Grammy and NAACP awards and a Pulitzer Prize.
Too often in this society girls and women are sexually abused and no one is held accountable. Right on Lamar! The SuperBowl is perhaps the biggest platform one could use to blast a wrong doer.
"Not like us," Lamar sang as his fans sang along. People who do these things are not like us: we don't stand with them, nor do we let them get away with it. Loved it! https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz0l5m5m943o
I digress. I'd forgotten this historic moment until Ms. Augustene reminded me, and how happy I was to recall it. This before the current administration was convicted of similar crimes. Nothing changes until we change it. Right?! This is a lesson African Ancestors activated and Lamar continues. Our ancestors live in us! Right on! Brother Lamar.
James Cagney opened with tribute to his mother and father who raised him. Cagney's poetry conjured gardens, steamy kitchens, bubbling pots. We could feel the love all around him...tangible, nurturing. Cagney's work was funny and reminded some of us of experiences fewer and fewer have. Who remembers rotary phones? His sestina about ordering a sandwich with everything except tomatoes was a lovely close to the first part of the program.
This year Thomas didn't participate. Last year, he shared a film version of one of his stories. It was a AI directed collaboration.
Unique Derique closed the program with a wonderful tribute to some of America's tap dance heroes who performed at a time when to be Black and on stage meant a person could only portray characters that affirmed racial stereotypes. Yet these men nonetheless injected dignity into social roles meant to degrade. We watched short clips and archival films. The choreographer opened with a libation and drumming salute at an altar he'd created.
After giving us the history of these artists, Lance McGee as Unique Derique then shared body percussion with us stylistically integrated with juggling, soft shoe and mime.
A high point was audience participation. He threw one of three (maybe four) hats into the audience and asked without words for the lucky person to throw it back so it landed on his head. No one had a good aim. Moving right along, the actor needed help with his chicken percussion, so once again he left the spotlight and headed upstairs where we sat.
He found a really cool guy in the audience to help him with sound. What was cool was his lollipop. It never left his mouth. The chicken routine with an added whirly stick -- you know the plastic tube that sounds like wind when you make a fast circle in the air? It's a fun toy. Anyhoo, it was rather complicated managing a reluctant fowl under one's armpit and the whirly toy too, but after a few tries the two men worked it out to Derique's unique syncopation.
It was cool. The historian performer shifted elegantly between lecture and demonstration. His finale, a seated hambone which lyrically called into the space the creativity that marks our collective Afrosoul presence in the world then and now, was well, stellar Unique Derique.
Soar(ing) as literal and figurative metaphor was an aspect in all the performances this 32nd annual AfroSolo.
However, I don't think I've ever attended an AfroSolo performance where the ancestors were such a central aspect to the work. From Darlene Roberts to Unique Derique ancestral voices lingered. Invited into the theatre at the start of the program and released at its conclusion. As I write this, I feel them still. Ase!
Applause and announcements:
Thomas Simpson gives closing remarks to applause.
posted by Interchange @ 3:27 AM
0 comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home