DIABLOTIN MUSIC FOUNDED MARCH 25, 2008
BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2009 LAUNCH MARRED BY RACIST OVERTONES
BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2009 LAUNCH MARRED BY RACIST OVERTONES
By
Albert and Tempie Williams
Our excitement of attending the opening of Black History month 2009 in Crawley at a Celebration Evening at The Hawth, organised by the newly-formed, Crawley Black History Foundation (CBHF), was marred upon seeing confederate flags used by American separatist states between 1861 and 1865, being waved across the stage during a musical by an all white member cast.
The evening which was held last Saturday under the patronage of Mrs Kezia Obama, the step-mother of Barack Obama, the first Afro-American president of the USA, was dubbed a success by the chairperson, Terence Mutongerwa. As we looked around, we were saddened even more knowing that , there were only a handful of blacks in attendance. Noticeably as well, were many of the performers who were of neither African nor Caribbean nationality. The event was used to launch the new organisation and to promote the Road to Crawley Project..
Caroline Murphy, Crawley Community Arts Development Officer, based at the Hawth explained that, that the project was launched to gather information on the diverse community that is Crawly as the town’s records did not reflect the growing ethnic population.
Meanwhile guest speaker, Mrs Obama in her humble expression, remarked how proud she was of her stepson, Barack Obama for being the first black President of the USA. The theme of the night was YES WE CAN, which is also the slogan for the CBHF. Members sported bright yellow t-shirts emblazoned with a painting of the American president and the rallying word hope. HOPE, indicative of the progress that has been made in modern history. The inclusion of an extract from the play, PARADE -A musical by Jason Robert Brown by the Ariel Company Theatre however was, to say the least, in our opinion, a blatant demoralizing and inappropriate digression.
Though masked very beautifully with all the youth performers parading around singing, dancing and showing wonderful talent. Only in the minds of those who truly knew, the history of the United States of America or those that readily heard the cry in the songs, or saw the few blacks in the production and their costumes knew. Immediately, when we saw the confederate flags being waved by white youths representing costumes of many different professions and the young female black youths dressed in their cleaning and washing clothes wearing head scarves, working and singing and the one black male youth with one shoulder strap of his jean overalls dropped, singing, did the musical cease to be a musical and became a real life story.
Tempie being born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee and having lived in Mississippi and Kentucky, knew all too well what very few in the audience may or may not have known . A quote from the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia sums up the issue beautifully below in her opinion:
“…The display of the Confederate flag remains a highly controversial and emotional topic, generally because of disagreement over the nature of its symbolism. Opponents of the Confederate flag see it as an overt symbol of racism, both for the history of racial slavery in the Unite States and the establishment of Jim Crow by Southern States following the end of Reconstruction in late 1870s, enforcing racial segregation within state borders for nearly a century until the Civil Rights Movement. Some hate groups use the Southern Cross as one of the symbols associated with their organizations, including racist groups such as the Neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan…White southerners often see the flag as merely a symbol of southern culture, a "country music flag" without any political or racial connotation…”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America
One might argue that the low overall participation of blacks in the ‘production ’ was due to the low percentage of talented blacks living in the Crawley area or that it was just a musical that had won two Tony awards, rare amongst musicals because of the serious subject matter?
The production was not preceded by a narrator, but as we sat up front centre stage in row B, some of the best seats in the theatre, there appeared a flash on the wide screen on stage the title name Ariel Company Theatre- Parade. We are amazed that the audience were not warned that the dramatization of such a brutal era in the United States history was about to be performed. The only description of the performance was on a postcard /leaflet that was in the tables on display in the lobby area that we happened to pick up which in part read:
“ …the audience experiences an uncompromising account of a disturbing episode from America’s recent past. ..The show is basically an historical retelling of the story, but it also subtly examines class and race relations, prejudice, and the South…a mob takes him from his cell and…See the show to find out more……”
Unless you were born and raised in the south of the USA during the Civil Rights Movement to witness Dr. Martin L. King on the eve of his assassination, or have belonged an attended the same church as President Barack and Michelle Obama in Chicago, Illinois or have done your own research, you would not know the real impact of this musical - Parade and it’s outcome which was not mentioned. According to wikipedia below,
“…The musical concerns the real life 1913 trial of Jewish factory manager Leo Frank, who was accused of raping and murdering a thirteen-year-old employee, Mary Phagan. The trial, sensationalized by the media, aroused anti-Semitic tensions in Atlanta and the U.S. state of Georgia. When Frank's sentence was commuted due to possible problems with the trial, he was transferred to a prison in Milledgeville, Georgia, where a lynching party kidnapped him from the prison. Frank was taken to Phagan's hometown of Marietta, Georgia, and he was hanged….The plot of the show hews closely to the historical story and does not shy away from the conclusion that the likely killer was the African -American drifter Jim Conley, the key witness against Frank at the trial..”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parade_(musical)
Other aspects of the program, included an address by Councillor Lenny Walker who is the Cabinet Member for Leisure and who is the only Black Councillor in Crawley and in the whole of West Sussex.. He called for greater participation by people of colour in community life, and asked that Black members of the audience participate in the next general meeting of the council, “so that I am not be the only black face there,” he said.
There was a tribute to Michael Jackson, “Thriller”, from Vision in Youth Collective,
song performances showcasing aspiring youths with promising talents, traditional dancing by a group from Diego Garcia and Chagos Islands. The highlight of the program for us and many others were the live performances of the band Kaiso. They brought a ‘mellifluous aroma’ on stage, with a blend of calypso, meringue, reggae and steel drum which quickly spread through everyone. There was not a still body in the audience or on stage.
By
Albert and Tempie Williams
Our excitement of attending the opening of Black History month 2009 in Crawley at a Celebration Evening at The Hawth, organised by the newly-formed, Crawley Black History Foundation (CBHF), was marred upon seeing confederate flags used by American separatist states between 1861 and 1865, being waved across the stage during a musical by an all white member cast.
The evening which was held last Saturday under the patronage of Mrs Kezia Obama, the step-mother of Barack Obama, the first Afro-American president of the USA, was dubbed a success by the chairperson, Terence Mutongerwa. As we looked around, we were saddened even more knowing that , there were only a handful of blacks in attendance. Noticeably as well, were many of the performers who were of neither African nor Caribbean nationality. The event was used to launch the new organisation and to promote the Road to Crawley Project..
Caroline Murphy, Crawley Community Arts Development Officer, based at the Hawth explained that, that the project was launched to gather information on the diverse community that is Crawly as the town’s records did not reflect the growing ethnic population.
Meanwhile guest speaker, Mrs Obama in her humble expression, remarked how proud she was of her stepson, Barack Obama for being the first black President of the USA. The theme of the night was YES WE CAN, which is also the slogan for the CBHF. Members sported bright yellow t-shirts emblazoned with a painting of the American president and the rallying word hope. HOPE, indicative of the progress that has been made in modern history. The inclusion of an extract from the play, PARADE -A musical by Jason Robert Brown by the Ariel Company Theatre however was, to say the least, in our opinion, a blatant demoralizing and inappropriate digression.
Though masked very beautifully with all the youth performers parading around singing, dancing and showing wonderful talent. Only in the minds of those who truly knew, the history of the United States of America or those that readily heard the cry in the songs, or saw the few blacks in the production and their costumes knew. Immediately, when we saw the confederate flags being waved by white youths representing costumes of many different professions and the young female black youths dressed in their cleaning and washing clothes wearing head scarves, working and singing and the one black male youth with one shoulder strap of his jean overalls dropped, singing, did the musical cease to be a musical and became a real life story.
Tempie being born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee and having lived in Mississippi and Kentucky, knew all too well what very few in the audience may or may not have known . A quote from the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia sums up the issue beautifully below in her opinion:
“…The display of the Confederate flag remains a highly controversial and emotional topic, generally because of disagreement over the nature of its symbolism. Opponents of the Confederate flag see it as an overt symbol of racism, both for the history of racial slavery in the Unite States and the establishment of Jim Crow by Southern States following the end of Reconstruction in late 1870s, enforcing racial segregation within state borders for nearly a century until the Civil Rights Movement. Some hate groups use the Southern Cross as one of the symbols associated with their organizations, including racist groups such as the Neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan…White southerners often see the flag as merely a symbol of southern culture, a "country music flag" without any political or racial connotation…”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America
One might argue that the low overall participation of blacks in the ‘production ’ was due to the low percentage of talented blacks living in the Crawley area or that it was just a musical that had won two Tony awards, rare amongst musicals because of the serious subject matter?
The production was not preceded by a narrator, but as we sat up front centre stage in row B, some of the best seats in the theatre, there appeared a flash on the wide screen on stage the title name Ariel Company Theatre- Parade. We are amazed that the audience were not warned that the dramatization of such a brutal era in the United States history was about to be performed. The only description of the performance was on a postcard /leaflet that was in the tables on display in the lobby area that we happened to pick up which in part read:
“ …the audience experiences an uncompromising account of a disturbing episode from America’s recent past. ..The show is basically an historical retelling of the story, but it also subtly examines class and race relations, prejudice, and the South…a mob takes him from his cell and…See the show to find out more……”
Unless you were born and raised in the south of the USA during the Civil Rights Movement to witness Dr. Martin L. King on the eve of his assassination, or have belonged an attended the same church as President Barack and Michelle Obama in Chicago, Illinois or have done your own research, you would not know the real impact of this musical - Parade and it’s outcome which was not mentioned. According to wikipedia below,
“…The musical concerns the real life 1913 trial of Jewish factory manager Leo Frank, who was accused of raping and murdering a thirteen-year-old employee, Mary Phagan. The trial, sensationalized by the media, aroused anti-Semitic tensions in Atlanta and the U.S. state of Georgia. When Frank's sentence was commuted due to possible problems with the trial, he was transferred to a prison in Milledgeville, Georgia, where a lynching party kidnapped him from the prison. Frank was taken to Phagan's hometown of Marietta, Georgia, and he was hanged….The plot of the show hews closely to the historical story and does not shy away from the conclusion that the likely killer was the African -American drifter Jim Conley, the key witness against Frank at the trial..”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parade_(musical)
Other aspects of the program, included an address by Councillor Lenny Walker who is the Cabinet Member for Leisure and who is the only Black Councillor in Crawley and in the whole of West Sussex.. He called for greater participation by people of colour in community life, and asked that Black members of the audience participate in the next general meeting of the council, “so that I am not be the only black face there,” he said.
There was a tribute to Michael Jackson, “Thriller”, from Vision in Youth Collective,
song performances showcasing aspiring youths with promising talents, traditional dancing by a group from Diego Garcia and Chagos Islands. The highlight of the program for us and many others were the live performances of the band Kaiso. They brought a ‘mellifluous aroma’ on stage, with a blend of calypso, meringue, reggae and steel drum which quickly spread through everyone. There was not a still body in the audience or on stage.
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