ohhh, okay, its art, right?

I Just got through watching a show here in Montreal, "Le bruit des os qui craquent"... It is about child soldiers. First off i want to say my french sucks, so I can't say that I understood most of what was said. Heres the sticking point for me, and I'm willing to listen(and i did) to reasons for the theatre companies choices. In the advertising they talk of child soldiers in the congo, there are pictures in the front of the theatre, of children,African children, sad looking,with rifles,combat gear etc. So when the lights go down and the stage lights go up,,, why are there no african faces on the stage? yeah! I'm sitting there and the two actors playing the child soldiers are white, I'm sitting there thinking, interesting choices, (as i said, my French sucks.) The actors are wearing that camoflage makeup, so i can't really tell, but as it goes on, yep! So what's the deal? The writer took the words from a girl who was a child soldier, the work is good, but am I finicky about not seeing black faces on the stage ,when the text and theme is about black children, it reminds me of kevjumba In his "Asians just aren't cool". I asked others who saw the production about the choices and I heard; (a)They wanted to give a universal theme to the play;(b) They wanted to get away from the idea of child soldiers being only African As in this could be any child anywhere, So why then use the images of African children in the selling of the show. Why use African child soldier stories?
I have ruled out, the lack of French speaking Black actors. maybe Kevjumba is right (i'll paraphrase) "Black just aren't cool."

JUST A THOUGHT

I recently zipped through the net looking for thinks black and beautiful in the theatre and arts scene. Surprisingly there's not a ton of stuff out there. What does this mean? I think its a clear indication that we, and I mean all peoples of colour must write ourselves into the digital world. I was inspired by the blog uppitybrownwomen(I've added the link,) its systemic. Brian fawcett alluded to this in his book the disappearance of the world. The global village we keep hear about is making the world smaller ,but also whiter. oooppps! there,I said it. Even though we have instant communications, there is the idea that those who own the means of communication productions own the story. or, as M and M says "the medium is the message." Simply, if the people who have the access to the technology are the same as the ones who own the old technology(newspapers,books,economy.)the theme will remain the same.

The Disappearance of the World
Oral cultures took a back seat with the technological invention of writing. Writing made ideas permanent. unchanging. did not rely on memory. the printing press disseminated information. making one set of stories prevalent, while oral histories remained local. imperialism,capitalism spread its ideas through not only with force ,but his- stories lets move to the electric age. radio,television, NEWS,MOVIES,NOVELS,all spreading one story.
the global village makes the world smaller, because there is less diversity.

The WWW.

That being said, We have to write,post, print pictures, tell stories. make ourselves known, make the slight or large differences apparent. or we face disappearing, becoming an insignificant speck on the world wide web,
TRY THIS; Take a walk down your street, look at the amount of diversity you see, turn on your t.v (try CBC)is that diversity there? look at a newspaper?

Post. Write. Demand !

Edwige Jean-Pierre, Theatre Practitioner

I really like the term thetre Practitioner, I first heard it from Djanet Sears, it signifies more than an actor, director or writer, but a person who practices the art and craft. an on going practice of the theatrical art.

one such practitioner is Edwige  Jean Pierre.

 Edwige ; I guess I got bitten by the acting bug at a very young age.  Same scenarios as many... I remember putting on shows for my parents and their friends. My mom took me to go see live theatre at the NAC and Le theatre de l'ile in Gatineau and I knew that that was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.  The writing happened when I was in theatre school.  We had playwrighting classes and found myself really enjoying the art of storytelling. I then found myself writing monologues and plays. Who would of thought? It never crossed my mind growing up.

2) I don't have a general theme per say when I write.  But I do tend to write about issues that people can relate to, regardless of their gender, race, religion, class ect. I like to write things that can perhaps make us think as people, as a society.  Does that make sense?

3)I've met so many wonderful artists.  I've had the honour and privilege of presenting a piece during the AfriCanadian Playwrights' Festival in August 2006.  I worked along side Djanet Sears, who I respect very much as writer, artist and woman.  ahdri zhina mandiela,, d'bi.young, Marcia Johnson, Joseph Jomo Pierre, Rebecca Fisseha, Diane Bridge, Djennie Laguerre, Lorena Gale to name a few.  Each have their own style and it's just refreshing.  Studying theatre out west, we never studied any Canadian plays written by African-Canadian playwrights - it's a shame because they don't know what they're missing.

WHO'S KILLING THE DREAM?

Spike Lee gave a talk in Montreal at Concordia University in Feburary. At one point he told the crowd that they should follow their dreams,and beware of those that try to crush them, unfortunately, said Lee "parents kill more dreams than anybody," The dream he was talking about was being an Artist, a culture maker. Most of us can remember our parents telling us to stay in school and get an education, which meant, get a degree in business or sciences, something that guarentes, a good salary." Art! boy ya mus' be mad, you want to what?" but things are changing, i know that when i was a kid if I said I wanted to be a professional athlete my parents would have howled( not because of my two left feet,) but who made money as an athlete. these days parents consider sports a fantastic option. music too. but visual arts, theatre,, no ,no ,no! Believe me i know my son wanted to be a d.j. I tried everything, me! mister Arts, I can't believe i was telling him how hard his life would be,and to consider a more stable gig. Thank god his mother was wiser. she bought him turntables(yeah imagine the tension between us when that happened.) but now So parents if you want to make the community strong, support the Artist in your children.

think about it maybe the next black History month we can get a canadian artist to speak, instead of bringing someone up from the states.

Toronto,Visual Arts And Theatre.

SixAhWi

Karen Richards, Georgia Fullerton, Merlyn Laveau-Regi, Barrington Robinson, Leyton Franklin and Ato Seitu, started a collective in 1993. They are located in Toronto.
This collective stands out. They are looking forward, they have plans for the future. SAW are planning exhibitions for 2012! these folks don't sleep. SAW are centered in the Caribbean diaspora, their Art takes on the socio-political without letting go of the aesthetic. although there is a tendency for a similarity of work style, but this could be due to the articulated, focused objective.
Obsidian Theatre
Theatre in Toronto, for the diaspora sits with the people at Obsidian Theatre. this theatre company has some of the finest actors directors you can imagine. They have the likes of Djanet Sears, Allison Sealy-Smith, Philip Akin. They have a mandate to place the work of African Canadians on the world stage. OTC also have a great apprenticeship/mentoring program, if you want to continue with your professional theatre career.

art by bryan james

Aesthetics of Art

John Berger, Wrote the seminal book "The Ways Of Seeing" he states, " When an image is presented as a work of Art. The way people look at art is affected by a whole series of learnt assumptions Civilization. Form. Status. Taste. It sounds benign, but in reality these precepts also told us in no uncertain terms what is NOT.
The question is, How do we express ourselves within the acceptable, which I mean, taught aesthetic.
Think of this in terms of speech, how we judge people, proper (I mean formal use of language) indicates a range of things. including our thoughts on class, intelligence. The same set assumptions occur with writing. We all need some order, all languages have rules,otherwise we would have a hard time communicating. but who sets the rules? who are the keepers of the keys. and who gets to break the rules? because these assumptions not only tell us about how to perceive art and the world, it also informs us about our ability to make art. Can we write, or talk about our experiences If we speak, paint, draw outside of the acceptable forms.
locating our experience
I know, I write in a haphazard way. I don't care for editing, I like to throw things into the mix that are problematic,grammatically. It looks bad, my spelling is incorrect, but does it interfere with your understanding of my meaning? please comment and I will change I swear I'll succumb to the will of the three or so people that read this blog.
I will pick up the strunk and white, use the spell check.

I am struck by the willingness to listen to others describe my world. I remember being all pumped to work on this blog. now its work. heres something to do. check out the web for African Canadian Artists. How many sites are dead? Are we out there?