Inconvenient Black bodies

Inconvenient Black bodies

by Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Our blood runs red through inconvenient bodies

that mattered when we were profitable chattel

sold, bought, traded like cattle.

We mattered when raped, forced to birth property.

We mattered when building the white man’s nation

from his soil to the skies.

We mattered when our blood ran red in southeast asia,

when it was our blood--not the white man’s,

back in his comfortable home.

We mattered when our brains, our creativity built industries.

We mattered when our own money built white wealth.

We mattered when our ballots built white power.

We build it still, which is how we manage to matter.

But we are inconvenient people,

troublesome bodies, bodies in the way of progress.

Mouths to feed.

Mouths crying, mouths questioning.

Mouths telling secrets.

We are

bodies taking up space,

holding down space desired by others.

Holding stories never meant to be heard.

Resisting names we did not and

do not choose.

Resisting definition by others.

Resisting obscurity.

Resisting obstruction.

So, we are

bodies in handcuffs.

in prisons, in the crosshairs,

at the crossroads,

under the knee

that snuffs out breath as we

make one last cry to ancestors:

gather us, please; please receive

our inconvenient spirits.

derek chauvin confidently pressed his knee

against george floyd's black neck

for nearly nine minutes, each second

precisely measured out with deadly power,

a procedure well-practiced, one might say,

meticulous in its execution,

effective in its dispatch

of one more Black

and inconvenient body.


(c)2020, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

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DISCLAIMER: In addition to my work on InfiniteBody, I serve, at Gibney, as Senior Director of Artist Development and Curation and Editorial Director. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, strategies or opinions of Gibney.

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World premiere of Geraldine Inoa's "Scraps" at The Flea

Roland Lane (left), Alana Raquel Bowers (bottom center),
Michael Oloyede (top center) and Tanyamaria (right).
the main cast members of Scraps at The Flea
(photo: Hunter Canning)

What we always hear: “Black Male Shot by White Police Officer.” What we never see: how loved ones struggle to cope amidst their anger and grief.

-- from program notes for Scraps

In its new Tribeca home and its fresh new season devoted to "Color Brave" programming, The Flea Theater comes out swinging with Scraps, a psychological drama by LA-based playwright and television writer Geraldine Inoa, directed by Niegel Smith. With a strategy similar to Jackie Sibblies Drury's recent Fairview (Soho Rep), another theater piece examining race in America, Inoa carefully grounds her audience in the familiar before hauling us into bizarre territory. Hard to tell, though, which one hauls with the rougher hand: Fairview's second and third acts seem more cleverly conceptual while Scraps goes full-out surreal nightmare with a menacing Greek tragedy-style chorus.

The 85-minute piece takes place in The Flea's tiny Siggy Theater on a shallow stage not even a leg-stretch away from the audience's first row, a set-up that will only become more engulfing and threatening as this tale of Black urban life and racist police violence proceeds. Inoa introduces us to four main characters--connected by race, culture, neighborhood and personal history--whose interactions become complicated by grief, resentment and fear.

All roles are played by members of the Flea's resident acting troupe, The Bats. We first meet unemployed Jean-Baptiste (Roland Lane) who deftly raps up a bleak, nearly Shakespearean take on the prospects for a Black man under white supremacy. Like his namesake, he's a voice of one crying in the wilderness, and a stern warning.

Inoa quickly--maybe too much so, too stereotypically--gives him a nemesis in the form of Calvin (Michael Oloyede), a London-based college student now home in Bed-Stuy for only a brief visit. Calvin, looking casually-sharp in a way that immediately ticks off Jean-Baptiste, has been able to avoid dealing with the police killing of an unarmed Black man they both knew. Calvin longs to get back in the good graces of Aisha (Alana Raquel Bowers), single mother and young widow of the slain man. Though none too pleased with Calvin either, the alternately sunny, bone-tired and volatile Aisha is susceptible. But her sister Adriana (Tanyamaria) carries the heaviest burden of all, a trauma she tries to conceal with good humor and toughness. Tries and repeatedly fails.

This quartet of skilled actors has energy to burn, particularly Bowers and Tanyamaria who, when they get going with their lines, leave us in the dust, hyperventilating, unable to catch up. Of all, even Jean-Baptiste, Inoa gives the women the best language. But all actors turn on extraordinary ferocity in the final, disturbing developments of the story, which I will not reveal here.

Where Sibblies Drury concluded Fairview with a panoramic view of white privilege, boldly implicating her audience, Inoa maintains focus on the tragedy of unhealed racial trauma passed from generation to generation.

Other cast members: Andrew Baldwin, Bryn Carter

Sets: Ao Li
Costumes: Andy Jean
Lighting: Kate McGee
Sound: Megan Deets Culley
Violence choreography: Michael G. Chin

Scraps continues at The Flea through September 24. For information and tickets, click here.

The Flea Theater
20 Thomas Street, Manhattan
(map/directions)

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Re-membering Black lives with Taja Lindley

This Ain’t A Eulogy: A Ritual for Re-Membering (9:58) is a stunning film by Brooklyn-based visual and performance artist Taja Lindley, based on her solo healing performance ritual This Ain't A Eulogy (premiere: La MaMa's SQUIRTS, 2015). Co-directed with and edited by Ellen Maynard, the film was premiered on February 16 at the 5th Annual Black Artstory Month (Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership).

The film draws "parallels between discarded materials and the violent treatment of Black people in the United States," Lindley writes. "People in the African Diaspora have a long history of repurposing, remixing, and transforming oppressive systems into valuable cultural practices." Through the surreal, eye-catching artistry of her film, Lindley invites the viewer to "imagine how we can recycle the energy of protest, rage, and grief into creating a world where, indeed, Black Lives Matter."

Taja Lindley

Taja Lindley is a writer and artist based in Brooklyn, New York. She is the founder and Managing Member of Colored Girls Hustle, and a member of Echoing Ida and Harriet's Apothecary. Lindley considers herself a healer and an activist, creating socially engaged work that reflects and transforms audiences, shifts culture and moves people to action. She uses movement, text, installation, props, ritual, burlesque, and multi-media to create performances that are concerned with freedom, healing and pleasure. She is currently developing a body of work recycling and repurposing discarded materials. Her artwork has been featured at the Movement Research at Judson Church series, Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX), the Gallatin Arts Festival at New York University, WOW Café Theater, La Mama Theater, in living rooms, classrooms, conferences and public spaces. In 2014 she was a Create Change Fellow with the Laundromat Project and a participant in EMERGENYC, an artist activist program of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at New York University. In 2015 she was a Fall space grantee at BAX. This summer (May-August 2017) she is an Artist in Residence at Dixon Place. Her writing has appeared in Rewire, EBONY, Feministe, Yes! Magazine and Salon. www.TajaLindley.com

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#SayHerName and the value of art over politics

Poet Aja Monet Confronts Police Brutality Against Black Women With #SayHerName
by Maddie Crum and Irina Dvalidze, The Huffington Post, May 21, 2015

Poet as witness: Claudia Rankine reads from "Citizen: An American Lyric"

On October 30, 2014 Claudia Rankine gave this reading from Citizen: An American Lyric (2014 National Book Award) and discussed American racism, police violence, and responsibility at the Williams College Museum of Art. Her words, of course, remain fresh, relevant and insightful.

Protest with joy: a view from Baltimore

We need to be reminded of black beauty in the face of black death. Moments of light to help us not to get lost in the darkness.

--Steven W. Thrasher

In Baltimore we need protest in all its forms. Even joyful ones
by Steven W. Thrasher, The Guardian, May 2, 2015

Black lives matter: Moving Spirits RESPOND

Moving Spirits to Enlightenment

a dance performance by Moving Spirits, Inc., 

Tamara Williams, choreographer, 

along with Jonathan Lassiter, Sydnie Mosley, André M. Zachery, 

A. Nia Austin-Edwards and other creative artists

Saturday, February 21, 3pm

at Smack Mellon

Moving Spirits to Enlightenment is a dance event event paying homage to Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Akai Gurley, Tamir Rice, Ayana Jones, Rumain Brisbon and countless other black lives. Dance solos, quartets and trios will be divided between moments of audience participation and interaction as well as spoken word and poetry. Singing, chanting and additional vocals from the 1960s civil rights movement and the current civil rights movement will accompany the event. Moving Spirits to Enlightenment will also educate through the distribution of cards listing citizens’ rights and statistics about the militarization of police departments to keep the focus on police brutality and the betterment of black lives.

Smack Mellon
92 Plymouth Street (at Washington), Brooklyn
(directions)

Brooklyn's JACK launches Forward Ferguson series

Wildcat! dance collective
(photo: Eleni Zaharopoulos)

Brooklyn performance venue JACK presents Forward Ferguson, a new series "dedicated to furthering the conversation around racial justice in America, featuring dance, music, theater and performance art."

Highlights include a discussion on community-police relationships; work by Social Health Performance Club; the dance collective Wildcat!; a Freedom Songs Festival; readings of Black-authored anti-lynching plays of the early 1900s, performances by our resident youth theater company Truthworker, and a partnership with the activist group Equality for Flatbush.

Events begin January 16 and run through June. For a complete schedule and descriptions, click here.

New film documents peril for Brazilian street artists

A Brazilian Street Art Community Wracked by Tragedy
by Laura C. Mallonee, Hyperallergic, January 1, 2015

Poet Claudia Rankine: Uncovering violence in the day-to-day

Poet Claudia Rankine on the violent deaths of black men
by Mary Jo Brooks, PBS NewsHour, December 4, 2014

Anusha Kedhar: The body in protest

Choreography and Gesture Play an Important Role in Protests
by Anusha Kedhar, The New York Times, December 15, 2014

Esoterico Collective open house supports social justice

A number of my good friends and Tarot students from the arts community are involved in this effort to support the new anti-racism movement for social justice. Please read the following notice, and give your consideration to joining this timely effort.

Thanks!

Eva

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Esoterico Collective Open House

Saturday, December 20, 1-5pm

Esoterico Collective

67 West Street (4th Floor, Suite 402), Brooklyn

(map/directions)

Book your session: 

http://esotericobrooklyn.setmore.com/

The Esoterico Collective stands in solidarity with the families of Eric Garner, Akai Gurley, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Duanna Johnson, Mike Brown, Rekia Boyd, Tamir Rice and too many others whose lives have been cut short and impacted by police brutality. This open house event will take place on the Saturday just before the Winter Solstice, raising much needed monetary support for organizations doing work around issues of anti-Black racism and anti-police repression.

We will be offering our services as healers and intuitive counselors to all who seek it out. We are asking for donations of $25 and up for each 20 minute session. The services we will provide include Tarot, Reiki, Ayurvedic Consultation and I Ching readings (other modalities TBA). 100% of proceeds from those who book in advance (prior to December 18th) will be donated to Healing Justice For Black Lives Matter (https://www.facebook.com/events/728881563862374) and Equality for Flatbush : E4F

Book a session with iele paloumpis, Bobby Abate, Jasmine Spacher, Regina Rocke or Robyn Olds (other member offerings TBA) @http://esotericobrooklyn.setmore.com/ 

You will receive an email with information on how to donate to the causes above.

Generally speaking our open houses are intended to help Esoterico keep its doors open, so we will be accepting separate donations for the space on December 20th as well.

There are many ways to contribute to this movement - healing justice, self and community care are all vital components toward movement building. Our services will be free to organizers who need to take time to self reflect so that their work can sustainably continue, contact esotericobrooklyn@gmail.com. Our intention is to help create more space for healing to happen.

We are sending energy to the protesters out in the streets and activists organizing against state violence, moving us toward racial justice and all forms of social change. We hope that you will add your energy and voices in whatever ways you can. We hope we can support you on your path toward self reflection and healing in this time when community care is so needed.

Roger Guenveur Smith brings "Rodney King" to BRIC

Portraits of Roger Guenveur Smith in Rodney King
(all photos by Patti McGuir)

When I reserved my ticket to review Rodney King--Roger Guenveur Smith's solo performance in its new run at BRIC House--I had no way to know that the Ferguson and Staten Island grand jury decisions would land a one-two punch and knock the breath out of people...at least, people of conscience. And send the bewildered and outraged into the streets. And put some of us suddenly at odds with friends whose hearts and minds we thought we knew.

The show, which first opened in Los Angeles in 2012 and had its New York premiere at the 2013 Under The Radar Festival, lasts just one hour. Trust me, you do not have the fortitude for anything more, for Smith lands blows of his own in this panoramic view of the interlocked tragedies of one Black man and one nation.

On March 3, 1991, Rodney King, a construction worker, was driving with two drinking buddies on a Los Angeles freeway. LAPD cops spotted his speeding white Hyundai and chased it for mile after mile, with more patrol cars and a helicopter joining the pursuit. King's car was eventually trapped on a residential street and all three men ordered out and brutalized by a swarm of cops. King suffered extensive injuries, including brain damage. Despite videotaped evidence of excessive force, a Simi Valley jury--before whom King was never allowed to testify--acquitted his assailants, leading to massive riots throughout LA and incidents of violent retribution.

Rodney King opens with a slurry stew of sounds, designed by Smith's longtime collaborator, Mark Anthony Thompson, from televised news crossed with a musical loop of famous words from a speech he delivered to tamp the unrest: "Can't we all get along?" It becomes an earworm you can't will away. The audience, anticipating Smith, listens and listens as the space, darkened except for a corded microphone lying on the floor inside a large white square of light, remains empty. That white light gradually blooms into the aqua of a swimming pool, like the pool where King, son of an alcoholic who drowned in a bathtub, met his own accidental end.

"Fuck you, Rodney King! You're a goddamn sellout!"

And it begins. Not a monologue so much as a votive offering of Smith's entire body--through fluid, powerful movement, through voice--to a heady, seamless, rhythmic poetry of storytelling with never a wasted gesture or moment.

"You were viral before viral was viral," Smith says, addressing his subject. "Everyone recording you and fastforwarding you." King's ordeal became "the first reality tv show." Smith imagines King watching the televised infernos ("This is for you, Rodney King!"), knocking back brandy to medicate the pain of witness, pulling on a non-threatening Cosby/Huxtable sweater to make a speech to help restore that strange state of "calm" the authorities tell us to respond with when insane things are done to us.

It is a tale tailor-made for a nation obsessed with media and multimedia. But, aside from Thompson's sonic bracketing, Smith has chosen simplicity of form to house complexities and contrasts, letting the supple partnership of voice and body be his channel. Every texture of Smith's narrative is set out in vivid tones, from King's giddy pleasure of surfing a wave to the explosive crack of a baton on facial bones. Smith's words and phrases tumble, pause, swirl, recede, loop around and reappear. Within the confines of his square of light, he conjures energies, impressions, facts, memories.

Smith, aptly, calls his method "jazz acting, where there's a head and a riff, and you come back to the head." (In the post-show Q&A, he also answered an admiring dancer's question by citing his intensive study of dance "in the Cornelius School. Don Cornelius. Every Saturday.") This is an important performance for this very moment--and beyond--but your chances to see it now are few. Rodney King continues only through Sunday on the following schedule: tonight at 7:30pm, Saturday at 7:30pm and 9:30pm, and Sunday at 4:30pm. For information and tickets, click here.

Smith greets his audience
after performing Rodney King at BRIC.
The actor also sat for a Q&A with writer Nelson George.
(photo by Eva Yaa Asantewaa)

Roger Guenveur Smith adapted his Obie Award-winning solo performance of A Huey P. Newton Story into a Peabody Award-winning telefilm. His history-driven work also includes Frederick Douglass Now, Who Killed Bob Marley?, Juan And John, Christopher Columbus 1992, The Watts Towers Project, In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat, and, with Mark Broyard, the award-winning Inside The Creole Mafia. For Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing, Smith created the stuttering hero Smiley. His astonishing range of film credits also includes Malcolm X, He Got Game, Get On The Bus, Eve's Bayou, All About The Benjamins, Hamlet, Deep Cover and American Gangster, for which he was nominated for the Screen Actors' Guild Award. He starred in the HBO series K Street, Oz, and Unchained Memories: Readings From The Slave Narratives.

BRIC House
647 Fulton Street, Brooklyn
(map/directions)

#BlackLivesMatter