Traveling: A New Perspective Pt. 1

Two weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to join the youth cohort of young activists to attend the Alternate Roots  National Learning Exchange, and it was held in Baltimore, Maryland. I was very excited to meet other youth activists from around the country, and I was excited to go to Baltimore, because it was a city that I had never traveled to. While at the learning exchange, I receieved new insights on using art and culture for healing, how to do activist work intergenerationally, and how to be sustainable in the work we do and taking care of our natural environment. It was also affirming meeting and working with other young activists from across the country, because sometimes you can feel so isolated in the work that you do, so the mere fact that other people were doing work in their various communities was really comforting to me. 

Intermixed with the learning exchange was AMAZING theater and dance works. One of the shows that moved me was from Teo Castellanos D Projects' dance theater piece that was called "FAT BOY" that  used aintient art forms and break dancing to talk about America's over consumption, juxtaposed with images of world poverty and hunger, created a thought provoking piece of theater.

Following that show was a show called Peaches from Progress Theatre that was inspired by Nina Simone's song " Four Women". Peaches is a staged essay and dream sequence that used music poetry and monologues to tackle the stereotypes of African American female identity from slavery times to the present, alluding to both academic and popular discourse on race in America. It was amazing, because I could see friends and family in their story.

Another impactful piece of theater I saw was from Jump-Start Performance Co. The piece was entitled "I'll Remember for You," and it is a new bilingual play that was about a mother with Alzheimer's disease and her daughter who was left to care for her. This play blew me away, because I have never experienced a bilingual play, and it gave me the chance to practice my spanish skills, which are in constant need of work. The play was hard to watch at moments, because it was like watching the struggles of my family trying to support my grandmother through her declining memory. It was great to see other stories being told.

Millicent Johnnie & Co. presented Johnnie's work "Daughters of the Cane" which is an interdisciplinary performance work supported by scholarly research and film documentation informed by music, dance and folklore of the Sugar Cane Plantation experience found through out the African Diaspora. Through this work, she "will evaluate the economic inequalities created as a result of monopoly capitalism, neocolonialism and imperialism." It was a very stunning dance piece with an amazing soundtrack, but before she presented this piece,An inspiring moment happened. Johnnie introduced her dancers, and one of her dancers told her story of how she was in a car accident and how her foot needed to be amputated. She said that she thought she was never going to be able to dance again, buit that Millicent Johnnie worked with her and created choreography that made room for her special ability. When her solo came up, it was some of the most passionate, beautiful and elegant dancing I have ever seen, and her story was inspiring, because she didn't let a set back define her life moving forward. I will never forget this piece or that dancers story.

The last piece that I will mention, due to trying to keep this a short blog post, is Brotherly Love from Olive Dance Theater. This piece explores the revolutionary, healer, state and public, and how they connect through the dance form of breaking. The piece was inspired by "the social and political havoc of the 1970's between the city of Philadelphia and the community-based organization of MOVE." The show departs from the historical and delves into the personal and societal heart of change through protest, violence and tolerance. While watching this I rember thinking how the art of break dance is a visual protest, and how coupled with the images and music, and even the dirt that was thrown on stage, all showed how political unrest can quickly turn violent and how people can play a role in the healing of the community. Once again, I was blown away, because I had never seen breaking in the context of theater, and I am excited for more people to explore using it on stage to expose it to new eyes.

All of the art I saw gave me a new perspective on how breaking the traditional thoughts of theater could be new and refreshing, and how it can drive home points of social and political concern. I was blown away at taking theater outside of the four walls of the building could add things that being encased in a theater couldn't give. This inspired me to pick back up the pen and continue working on my original performance piece to give voice to the things that is wrong with the world we call home. Thanks for giving me a new  perspective to take with me while I start creating my own original piece.

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[Kelewele]

The vibe revives us. K