The Stanford Forum for African Studies (SFAS) invites proposals for their 2011 Annual Meeting, which will be organized around the theme “The Black Atlantic: Colonial and Contemporary Exchanges.” The conference will take place on October 28-29, 2011, at Stanford University, California. The deadline for submissions is June 1, 2011.
The Stanford Forum for African Studies invites papers by graduate students, scholars, and faculty on the topics of slavery, migration and the African Diaspora, and how each of these affect social, economic, and political development in Africa in the past and present.
Description: This interdisciplinary conference aims to examine the vestiges of the slave trade, along with the resulting economic and cultural exchanges, both within and from Africa. Scholars and activists have traditionally addressed matters relating to economic inequality, hierarchical racial segregation and ideology, and the transfer of cultural realities presented in art, music, and rituals, to mention a few major topics. Consistent with the theme of exploring the triangular interaction (involving Europe, Africa and the Americas) of the Black Atlantic, the symposium seeks to shed light on the effect of forced and voluntary migration on identity and culture, on social, economic, and political development in Africa and in the African Diaspora. We are soliciting proposals that combine insights, methods, and research from both the social sciences and the humanities, including the fields of anthropology, art history, economics, history, literature, political science, and psychology among others.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: identity formation in the Diaspora; the spread and influence of African culture, art, and music; the role of technology in connecting migrants to their home countries; regional integration and the economic effects of migration within Africa; brain drain out of Africa; migration and its relation to political and economic development in Africa; Europe and its acknowledgment of the slave trade; the role of remittances in modern day Africa; and the slave trade present in literature and/or music.
Interested participants should submit abstracts with name, affiliation and contact details by email to stanfordfas@gmail.com
The Eyebeam artist-in-residence program is inviting artists to create and teach in their labs and studios in NYC from September 2011 to January 2012.
Eyebeam is one of the leading art & technology centers in the world, a place where artists and technologists mix with the culture at large to address the issues and concerns of the day. Eyebeam’s creative emphasis is on building relationships between artists, hackers, coders, engineers and other creative technologists within an open and shared culture of investigation and critique.
An artist in residency = 5 months of concentration and immersion in artistic investigation, research or production of visionary, experimental applications and projects. It offers a chance to use the time, space and tools at Eyebeam to develop craft and technique.
An artist in residence = $5,000 stipend and 24/7 access to Eyebeam’s state of the art digital design and fabrication studios.
Deadline May 30, 2011 @ 12 noon.
OPEN CALL: EYEBEAM RESIDENCIES FALL/WINTER 2011
APPLICATION DEADLINE: All applications must be received via online application by 12:00PM, Monday, May 30, 2011. All applicants will be informed of their application status by July 19, 2011.
CONTEXT: Eyebeam is the leading art and technology center in the USA, providing a fertile context and state-of-the-art tools for digital experimentation. It is a lively incubator of creativity and investigation, where artists and technologists actively engage with each other and the culture at large, addressing the issues and concerns of our time.
OVERVIEW: Apply now for Eyebeam's Fall/Winter 2011 Residency cycle. Residents are granted a $5,000 stipend and 24/7 access to Eyebeam's state of the art digital design and fabrication studios at our Chelsea facility.
Up to six Residents will be selected for the upcoming 5-month cycle, which will run from September 1, 2011 to January 31, 2012.
SUPPORT: Eyebeam residencies support the creative research, production and presentation of initiatives querying art, technology and culture. The residency is a period of concentration and immersion in artistic investigation, research or production of visionary, experimental applications and projects. It is a chance to use the time, space and tools at Eyebeam to reach the next stage of your practice. Check out what our current and past residents have been doing on our website, it is a good way to get a sense of the kind of work we support.
INTERNATIONAL APPLICATIONS: International applicants are welcome to apply, although we do not have the resources to provide travel or accommodation. We are happy to work with selected applicants, where required, to help them to secure funds to cover these expenses. International Residents are responsible for securing their own visas for the Residency period. We are happy to provide necessary paperwork and advice to help expedite the process.
International applicants are encouraged to apply for the cycle prior to their intended start date, to ensure ample time to prepare travel and visa.
PARTICIPATION: Residents are expected to participate in public events including workshops, Open Office Hours (Tuesdays, 2 - 4), demonstrations of research in progress, panel discussions, and online releases, in addition to Open Studios (two-day events, held once during the residency period).
The program term is from beginning of September 2011 to the end of January 2012. Residents will be selected from an open call, based on the quality of the work being proposed, the applicability of Eyebeam’s tools and resources in realizing and supporting the work, and in consideration of the overarching research themes and activities of the organization.
Core to Eyebeam’s methodology is the brokering of relationships between artists, hackers, coders, engineers and other creative technologists in the context of an open and shared culture of investigation and critique. We foster and facilitate relationships whereby technologists and artists come together to germinate and incubate their ideas, develop new processes, and create new works through a period of immersion in a social and professional context which is rich in technology, expertise and ideas. Collaborative relationships at Eyebeam will be fostered though group critiques, discussions and projects; and between other Eyebeam Fellows, Residents, and Staff.
RESEARCH GROUPS: Residents will have the opportunity to collaborate within our Research Groups. Research Groups bring together creative practitioners working at Eyebeam as well as expert individual participants and external partners. Initiatives led by Eyebeam Research Groups have included public outcomes such as seminars, workshops, publications and exhibitions.
Eyebeam’s current Research Groups include Sustainability, Open Education, Open Culture, and Urban Research. For more information on each of these Research Groups, including descriptions, related projects, and participants, please see the Research section of our web site. Within each of these Research Groups, Eyebeam is looking for applicants with specific interest in and crossover with their own work in these inquiry threads.
The ideal resident will both contribute to and benefit from the shared environment at Eyebeam, and will thrive in the group dedication to openness across the organization.
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS: Applications are only accepted via our online application system. Applications received after the deadline of noon, 12:00 (EST) PM, May 30, 2011, will not be accepted. All applications and work samples must be submitted through the online form. No exceptions will be made. You can create a user/password during the application process and log back into the server to update your application before the final deadline.
Complete applications must include the following information:
• Contact Information
• Resume or CV (.rtf, .pdf, .doc)
• Work samples in the form of URLs. Include a project description with your work sample that explains your contribution to the piece, how it is meant to be viewed and how it relates to your proposed project(s)/research.
• Concise responses to all application questions. Incomplete applications will not be considered.
STATEMENT ON DIVERSITY: Eyebeam is committed to building a diverse creative environment and therefore welcomes applications from people of diverse backgrounds. We recognize diversity as encompassing personal style, age, race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, language, physical ability, religion, and family.
“It feels like the 1950s all over again,” Walter Dean Myers says. (Photo by Jon Whiten)
Walter Dean Myers writes for the boy he used to be. In young adult (YA) novels like Dope Sick and Sunrise Over Fallujah, the 73-year-old Harlem native and author of more than 80 books for youth explores the high-stakes choices teens make in violent and impoverished communities. A frequent visitor to America’s juvenile detention facilities, Myers’ rough upbringing compels him to reach out to youth at the margins; it also informs his art.
His 2010 book Lockdown—a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature—is about a boy who must choose between protecting a younger boy from a gang assault and looking after himself.
In a field celebrated for its formal experimentation, Myers, whose influential classic, Monster, is written in screenplay format, stands as a titan to the legions of new YA authors working today.
Currently, Myers is at work on All the Right Stuff, a novel inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract.
He spoke to In These Times from his home in Jersey City, N.J., about the importance of mentors and the debt he owes James Baldwin.
The field of young adult literature has exploded, attracting authors who hadn’t previously published for teens. What responsibilities does an author have to his teen audience?
I’m torn, because I feel a responsibility of moral leadership when I write for teens, but I also think that you write for yourself first. I look at the young people that I deal with and so many of them are in so much need of guidance, the sort of guidance that I had as a kid. Many kids I meet don’t have that. I want my books to prompt a discussion of values.
How did you become involved working in juvenile detention facilities?
I was working a lot in adult prisons and I began to realize that all these guys in prison have kids. I was at a juvenile prison recently and I asked two 15-year-old girls what was the worst part about being in jail and they said, “Not knowing where our children are.” They had kids. All these young men and women with children are going to jail. Who’s going to raise those kids? Somebody has to at least talk to them and say, “Look, this is what you did, you should have been thinking about this earlier before you were in trouble.” I feel that I have a responsibility to all kids to visit them, to see how they’re doing and to offer whatever advice that I have to give them.
What do you say to kids in these facilities about their futures?
I tell them they’re going to have to find something outside themselves just to survive.
When I was writing Lockdown, I was reading Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Frankl, who was in a concentration camp, developed a theory that no matter how miserable your own existence is, you have to come out of it and find something to care for and love that’s beyond yourself. This is what these kids have to do. There are not sufficient programs to help them. There’s nothing in our society that tells them they’re OK. They feel absolutely helpless. And one of the things I say is, “I’ve been through this experience.”
I dropped out of school at 15 and my mom was an alcoholic. That was devastating. I couldn’t go to school and raise my hand and say, “Oh, I couldn’t do my homework because my mom was lying drunk on the street and I had to help her home.” That stuff absolutely fills your head up. You can’t think of anything beyond that. I say to them, “It doesn’t get easier, but you have to look at yourself and be self-protective.”
What do you think would be a more effective way to deal with youths who commit crimes?
I think we need alternative sentencing and a strong mentoring system. They need mentors who will show them the deeper values than they would normally receive. There’s one boy I’m working with now in a facility who writes science fiction. He may never become a writer, but at least he’ll think about his work with me and he’ll have some hope.
My time as a young person was a lot easier than it is now. When I was coming up, if you earned the minimum wage you could find decent housing. Not today. And now states are quietly closing down the alternative programs along with the few juvenile detention facilities they have because there’s no money. So, a kid gets into trouble, what do they do with him? They move him to upstate New York, far away from his community. I see many kids who hate being in jail, but they’re afraid to come out.
Why?
They know they’re in the cycle. And they don’t have support once they’re out. I went to a facility recently and saw all these kids lined up. I asked why and I was told, “Oh, they’re getting their medications.” These are young men being given psychotropic drugs like Librium in the morning, to calm them. They’re being medicated. So, then they leave the prisons and go back to the streets and they begin self-medicating with illegal drugs, which is what so much drug use is all about. Each time they go back in it gets more severe. It’s very discouraging.
When I was growing up, what I had going for me was my reading. I was reading well, and I was reading good stuff. I had a larger sense of myself as a person. And that’s what kept me from going to jail.
You’ve said that you get annoyed when people trumpet reading as an escape. Is there value in reading about experiences different from your own?
There’s value, but it’s risky. I remember talking to James Baldwin and telling him that when I was growing up I was reading all these British authors and looking for values in those people and not ever understanding that I was devaluing my own life. I was devaluing my own family and my own community because I never read about them. And as strange as it might seem, I decided I was not going to be black. I was going to be an intellectual. And Baldwin said he experienced the same thing. He did not want to be black or gay, which was why he went to Europe. I felt pleased to hear him say that he had the same experience, but then I felt bad. I wished I’d had the knowledge that I wasn’t alone when I was 14. I could have used it.
One of the things I want to do in my books is include a recognizable black community so that young people can at least see their community represented.
What would you like to see President Barack Obama do or say about the state of the black community?
I would love to see him acknowledge that we are losing our youth and that we’ve lost the benefits we gained from the Civil Rights Movement. Look, equal opportunity doesn’t mean diddly-squat if you’re not equal. If I were fighting a heavyweight, you could tell me that I have equal opportunity because I have two arms and two legs, but the reality is that I have none whatsoever. And we’re turning out these kids at a fantastic rate who are so far behind educationally that they have no shot at getting a decent job. How are these kids going to make a living in a country in which manufacturing is totally lost?
What is getting in the way of the African-American community organizing as it did in the ’60s and demanding that it be treated like part of this country?
The African-American community is divided as it never has been in the past. The black middle class and upper middle class no longer feel the connection to the poor that they used to. I remember when Malcolm X was alive and he said, “What do they call a black man with a Ph.D.? A nigger.”
Today, that’s not happening. Racism exists but it’s no longer legally protected anywhere in the States. Too many blacks are wallowing in the comforts of their first-class rides and not realizing that the difficulties of the lower classes are at least partially racially based and threaten us all. It feels like the 1950s all over again: Everyone is in it for themselves.
Where do you see hope for young Americans?
I see it in young adult literature, which is addressing more issues now than it did 30 years ago. Today, although so much of the field is vampire books, there are a lot of interesting writers approaching the real problems in our society.
I think literature at least gives you the possibility of speaking up. And at the very least, in young adult literature you can make statements that help kids find themselves in the book. When that happens they won’t be as isolated. That’s what all art does. Art removes the isolation. I feel that I have to do this. I don’t have a choice.
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Jarrett Dapier is a former assistant publisher at In These Times.
There are black people everywhere… even in Finland (tongue firmly planted in cheek).
Get to know Wanjiku wa Ngugi, the founder and director of the Helsinki African Film Festival, which runs from May 12th to the 15th - this Thursday through Sunday.
It’s only in its second year, by the way, though I’m only just now hearing about it. Apparently, its first installment, held last may, was a big success; according to Ms Ngugi, there’s a lot of Finnish interest in seeing contemporary and varied representations of Africa, as almost all the film screenings were sold out.
This year’s lineup includes a few titles we’ve previously covered on this site, like The Figurine, Sisters In Law, From A Whisper, Les Saignantes, and more. The full lineup can be found HERE.
In an interview with the African Women In Cinema Blog, posted yesterday, Ms Ngugi, originally from Kenya, talks about the festival (with this year’s theme being “Women’s Voices and Visions”), as well as discusses African representation in Finnish media, and the expected cultural role the festival can play in the country.
Wanjiku wa Ngugi talks about the Helsinki African Film Festival
Wanjiku wa Ngugi, founder and director of the Helsinki African Film Festival which runs from 12-15 May 2011, talks about representations of Africa in Finland, this year's festival theme "Women’s Voices and Visions”, and future goals for the festival to play a larger cultural role in Finland.
Wanjiku, please talk a bit about yourself and the creation of the Helsinki African Film Festival.
I was born and raised in Kenya. After high school, I attended New York University (NYU) where I studied Sociology and Political Science. It was actually here that I first met Dr. Manthia Diawara, a film-maker and critic, who was also the head of the Institute of African-American Affairs at NYU. I got a job assisting in his office and thus begun my introduction to African films. Growing up in Kenya, all we got to watch were Hollywood films and seeing black people on the big screen was a very rare occasion if ever. Anyway, a few years back I moved to Helsinki and was surprised at the level of misinformation about African people, both in the continent and the Diaspora. Even Finland has not escaped the Hollywood machine and the chronically negative representation of Africa in the News, so information about Africans is largely informed through the same narrow prisms. Hollywood has not exactly done any justice to the story of Africans, as most of their films—I am thinking here of popular films such as The Last King of Scotland orBlood Diamonds for example, are replete with stereotypes about Africa and Africans. And basically this is how HAFF was born—out of this need to deconstruct the depiction of Africa as this Dark Continent that only produces dark images, one-sided stories, and dehumanised people who should be pitied. Africa is not a country; I want to repeat this over and over again! We wanted to show the diversity of this continent, and begin a different conversation, one informed by a more realistic view as told by the Africans themselves.
This is the second edition of the festival, what was the response at its inception in 2010?
Our first film festival held in May last year was a huge success. Even we were pleasantly surprised at the level of interest shown. But in hindsight, we should not have—we should have recognized that people here have over the years been moving away from the usual sorts of politics. Even though the recently held elections may speak otherwise, the truth is that there is indeed much more openness within the Finnish society. It was only a question of creating an opportunity to see a different view of Africa, and people seized it. (I think the government here also recognized this as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs supported this initiative.) Almost all the film screenings were sold out, with some people even sitting on the steps of the cinema. We have also attracted interest from other provinces in Finland as well, so this year some of the films will be traveling to the provincial towns of Kuopio, Oulu, Lahti and Tampere too.
The theme for this year is “Women’s Voices and Visions”. Why the focus on women? How does this focus reflect your own interest and experience as an African, Kenyan woman?
We wanted to not only celebrate women in film but also raise awareness about the African women’s experience, highlight the global economic and political issues that affect them. We also wanted to showcase the diversity of African women, as well as hopefully move away from the tendency to depict African women as weak, voiceless and always as victims. And even though African women, like their counterparts in most parts of the world, have and are still engaged in the struggle for equal rights, they are far from weak, and have been at the forefront of many struggles. For instance, the women who were part of the Mau Mau armed resistance against the British colonial government in Kenya, the women’s role in the Algerian revolution, and most recently women right at the forefront in the Egyptian uprising and pro-democracy movements, and so on.
In the mainstream media, popular films, etc., make African women invisible and this has largely informed how African women are viewed especially in the West. Not long ago I met a journalist who was going to interview me about the African woman’s experience and after some pleasantries, she remarked that she was surprised to meet me as she was under the impression she was coming to interview an African woman. I mean here I was, a black Kenyan woman. How else can anybody see me, except as an African woman—unless she had some preconceived notion about African women? And I have other such examples, but this goes to show how African women have been pigeonholed to fit certain stereotypes.
The festival includes an exciting selection of films. Could you detail the program and talk a bit about the films and filmmakers that are included?
We are showing fifteen films in total, three of which are documentary films. The documentaries showcase women advocating for change albeit in different settings. Sisters in Law, a brilliant film about a judge and prosecutor determined to change the lives of women in Cameroon in the courtroom. There is the film,Taking Root, about Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai’s struggle to plant trees in Kenya and how it became a national political force. We get to see how this eventually evolved into a powerful women’s movement that shook the dictatorial government in Kenya at that time.
Our guest director is Caroline Kamya from Uganda whose debut film Imani highlights class differences in present day Uganda as depicted by three characters in the course of just one day. We also have this year’s FESPACO winner Pegasus, which is a powerful and beautifully shot film about a psychologist investigating a young girl who has been the victim of incest.
We have the compelling drama Barakat! directed by Djamila Sahraoui from Algeria, which chronicles the journey of two women who confront contemporary religious limitations imposed on women. From a Whisperby Kenyan director Wanuri Kahiu is another must see film, and a moving tribute to the people who died following the US embassy bombings in Nairobi, Kenya.
Basically we have put together a cross-section of brilliant films covering different genres from across the continent. One definite highlight is the provocative sci-fi film Les Saignantes, in which two young femme fatales set out to rid a futuristic country of its powerful, corrupt and sexually obsessed men. It’s a completely unique film that is guaranteed to get people talking about Africa—and lots of other things too!
Film festivals at the same time venues for showing films, also serve as conduits for broader cultural initiatives. What are some of the future goals for the festival and other projects that focus on African culture and issues?
In the future we hope to screen more African films as our audience grows and to extend the cooperation with the regional film centres and everyone else interested in African cinema. We will continue to showcase progressive films that show the African people in motion and not in unrealistic and or subservient roles. We hope to incorporate more African art—music and literature. Of course all this is only possible if more funding channels are available, as right now we are producing the festival largely on a volunteer basis.
Left, Theresa Harris with Barbara Stanwyck in the film "Baby Face." Right, Stephanie J. Block with Sanaa Lathan in the play "By the Way, Meet Vera Stark."
FOR Lynn Nottage, the aha moment that led to “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark,” her new play about race, sex, fame and the dream — and crushing reality — of Hollywood, was unexpected. She was watching “Baby Face,” a delectably sordid 1933 studio film about an Übermensch in silk stockings played by Barbara Stanwyck, who climbs to the top one bed at a time.
But it wasn’t the star who caught Ms. Nottage by surprise, it was the woman next to her: Theresa Harris, the African-American beauty with the honey voice and sly look who was holding her own against Stanwyck and taking up precious screen space.
This wasn’t one of those nearly invisible black actresses who filled Hollywood movies in the years before the civil rights era, the woman at the edge of the screen announcing visitors and taking hats. Harris’s character is a maid, but she’s also Stanwyck’s companion, and something of a friend. Entranced by both the character and actress, Ms. Nottage started wondering about Harris — who she was and how she got to Hollywood and the types of films she had been able to make in that notoriously inhospitable town. “I was struck,” she said of the performance, “by how different it was from so many of the other representations of African-American women that I had seen from that period.”
Curious to know more, she set off on an intellectual investigation that became an aesthetic revelation, as she searched for Harris’s traces in the Hollywood histories of African-Americans, in biographies, online, on YouTube and DVD. She didn’t find much, save for movies like “The Flame of New Orleans,” a period confection directed by René Clair in which Harris somewhat reprises her role in “Baby Face,” but with more lines and real glamour shots. With little to go on but the movies, Ms. Nottage began filling in the blanks with her imagination. The result is “By the Way,
Meet Vera Stark,” an imaginary history that, like other of Ms. Nottage’s plays, weaves the personal with the political. Now in previews at the Second Stage Theater, it opens May 9.
Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times
The playwright Lynn Nottage, whose new work is "By the Way, Meet Vera Stark."
Ms. Nottage, 46, has a MacArthur “genius” grant and a Pulitzer for her play “Ruined,” about women in war-ravaged Congo. These bona fides suggest a level of intimidating gravitas, but this is also a woman who, I discovered when we met one afternoon in March in a Midtown apartment, greatly enjoys gabbing about old movies. She had just come from rehearsals for “Vera Stark,” which stars Sanaa Lathan, best known for movies like “Love and Basketball,” as Vera; Jo Bonney is the director. Ms. Nottage arrived with a small wheeled suitcase that she uses to haul around her scripts and a handful of DVDs for us to sample. As I fumbled with the player she talked about “Vera Stark” and how it had been inspired by watching Stanwyck and Harris.
Tellingly, Ms. Nottage couldn’t remember the name of Stanwyck’s character (Lily Powers), but she did remember Harris’s: Chico. It’s no wonder. From the moment Harris, whose character works in a speakeasy alongside Stanwyck’s, appears on-screen, leaning over a pile of dishes and singing “St. Louis Blues,” she draws your eyes to her. Your interest deepens soon after, when Lily’s abusive father fires Chico for breaking some dishes. “If Chico goes, I go,” Stanwyck snarls.
“I love that moment,” Ms. Nottage said, with a small laugh. “This is what first gave me pause, seeing that moment — wow, this is going to be a different experience.”
For a while it is. Because while Stanwyck is unquestionably the star, Harris has real screen time: she’s attractively lighted, and stands and sits side by side with Stanwyck like the intimates they convincingly play. The relationship shifts after Lily sleeps to the top and Chico starts wearing a maid’s uniform (if sometimes a white fur muff and stole). They can’t “occupy the same universe once Lily moves into society,” Ms. Nottage said.
Directed by Alfred E. Green in 1933, a year before the production code was strictly imposed, “Baby Face,” with its brazenly sexual lead, was too racy to make it into theaters uncensored. Its offending sections were excised and remained unseen by general audiences until 2004 when a curator at the Library of Congress found an uncensored copy, adding another gem to the “precode” DVD catalog.
The film’s frank, even brutal portrayal of sex is what knocked me out the first time I saw it. Here, after all, is a studio film about a sexually abused young working-class woman (Lily) who, inspired by a lecture from a Nietzsche-reading cobbler, takes her revenge on men. What I didn’t see, however, and what Ms. Nottage showed me as we watched the film, was something nearly as startling: Theresa Harris.
Harris’s character isn’t merely an embellishment in “Baby Face”: she has important lines, a strong presence and — this is crucial given how black women could be made into grotesques and comically desexualized — lovely, at times glamorous. The director wants us to see her as the beautiful woman she was, and I was taken aback that I hadn’t really noticed her before. Watching Harris, I realized that when I had looked at women’s pictures, those five-hankie weepies, the only women I had seen before were white. I’m not alone. Most academic books about women in film are really about white women in film.
These were the other women in women’s pictures: the black cooks, nurses and maids, maids, maids who, breaking out of the margins if only a little, joked with Mae West, fretted about Claudette Colbert and stood by white woman after white woman, scolding them and appealing to their better selves if every so often, like Chico, also playing their laughing co-conspirator. Sometimes they didn’t have names, and they didn’t necessarily make it into the credits. Still, they were there. And they did what they could with what they were given, a strategy that Ms. Nottage illustrates when Vera tells a friend that the Southern epic she has her eye on doesn’t just have slaves — it has “slaves, with lines.”
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Photofest
Theresa Harris with Bette Davis in "Jezebel."
Photofest
Theresa Harris with Marlene Dietrich in "The Flame of New Orleans."
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“Vera Stark” opens in 1933 with its title character helping rehearse her employer, a white actress, Gloria Mitchell, who’s up for the role of “the beautiful octoroon prostitute” in the fictional “Belle of New Orleans.” Vera, an actress who works as a domestic, lands her first important role as the prostitute’s sister and “devoted servant and companion” and over time achieves such a level of success that later observers (seen intermittently) debate her legacy. “She was shackled to the stage and paraded like chattel,” one character says of Vera’s time at the Folies Bergère. “She was doing what she loved,” another shouts. The play suggests that both are right.
Ms. Nottage seems less interested in rescuing the African-American actresses who were her inspirations than in arguing for the complexity of their images. She sees films like “Baby Face” and movies made before the code was enforced as presenting a more realistic vision of race in America than many later films simply because they show blacks and whites existing alongside one another. “If that code hadn’t set in,” Ms. Nottage speculates, “the whole trajectory of Hollywood would have been different, and some would argue that race in America would be different because the representations of people of color and particularly of women would have been much more expansive.”
It didn’t happen that way, of course, and there was nothing that Harris — who died in 1985 but about whom little else has been written — and actresses like Fredi Washington and Nina Mae McKinney could do to stop history’s tide. Yet, like the quietly biting title of “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark” — with its suggestion of a life that’s seen as an afterthought — meaning can run deeper than its surfaces initially suggest. Look at an old Hollywood movie and you may see a woman playing a maid. Ms. Nottage wants us to look harder.
“As an actress, she was progressive,” she said of Harris. “She was asserting her presence in the films. I wouldn’t argue that it’s entirely directors. I would argue that there’s something this woman did that was unique — that demanded directors pay attention.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: May 1, 2011
An article last Sunday about the playwright Lynn Nottage and her new work, “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark,” misstates the play’s scheduled opening date at Second Stage Theater (305 West 43rd St.). It’s May 9, not May 2.
FOR Lynn Nottage, the aha moment that led to “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark,” her new play about race, sex, fame and the dream — and crushing reality — of Hollywood, was unexpected. She was watching “Baby Face,” a delectably sordid 1933 studio film about an Übermensch in silk stockings played by Barbara Stanwyck, who climbs to the top one bed at a time.
But it wasn’t the star who caught Ms. Nottage by surprise, it was the woman next to her: Theresa Harris, the African-American beauty with the honey voice and sly look who was holding her own against Stanwyck and taking up precious screen space.
This wasn’t one of those nearly invisible black actresses who filled Hollywood movies in the years before the civil rights era, the woman at the edge of the screen announcing visitors and taking hats. Harris’s character is a maid, but she’s also Stanwyck’s companion, and something of a friend. Entranced by both the character and actress, Ms. Nottage started wondering about Harris — who she was and how she got to Hollywood and the types of films she had been able to make in that notoriously inhospitable town. “I was struck,” she said of the performance, “by how different it was from so many of the other representations of African-American women that I had seen from that period.”
Curious to know more, she set off on an intellectual investigation that became an aesthetic revelation, as she searched for Harris’s traces in the Hollywood histories of African-Americans, in biographies, online, on YouTube and DVD. She didn’t find much, save for movies like “The Flame of New Orleans,” a period confection directed by René Clair in which Harris somewhat reprises her role in “Baby Face,” but with more lines and real glamour shots. With little to go on but the movies, Ms. Nottage began filling in the blanks with her imagination. The result is “By the Way,
Meet Vera Stark,” an imaginary history that, like other of Ms. Nottage’s plays, weaves the personal with the political. Now in previews at the Second Stage Theater, it opens May 9.
Ms. Nottage, 46, has a MacArthur “genius” grant and a Pulitzer for her play “Ruined,” about women in war-ravaged Congo. These bona fides suggest a level of intimidating gravitas, but this is also a woman who, I discovered when we met one afternoon in March in a Midtown apartment, greatly enjoys gabbing about old movies. She had just come from rehearsals for “Vera Stark,” which stars Sanaa Lathan, best known for movies like “Love and Basketball,” as Vera; Jo Bonney is the director. Ms. Nottage arrived with a small wheeled suitcase that she uses to haul around her scripts and a handful of DVDs for us to sample. As I fumbled with the player she talked about “Vera Stark” and how it had been inspired by watching Stanwyck and Harris.
Tellingly, Ms. Nottage couldn’t remember the name of Stanwyck’s character (Lily Powers), but she did remember Harris’s: Chico. It’s no wonder. From the moment Harris, whose character works in a speakeasy alongside Stanwyck’s, appears on-screen, leaning over a pile of dishes and singing “St. Louis Blues,” she draws your eyes to her. Your interest deepens soon after, when Lily’s abusive father fires Chico for breaking some dishes. “If Chico goes, I go,” Stanwyck snarls.
“I love that moment,” Ms. Nottage said, with a small laugh. “This is what first gave me pause, seeing that moment — wow, this is going to be a different experience.”
For a while it is. Because while Stanwyck is unquestionably the star, Harris has real screen time: she’s attractively lighted, and stands and sits side by side with Stanwyck like the intimates they convincingly play. The relationship shifts after Lily sleeps to the top and Chico starts wearing a maid’s uniform (if sometimes a white fur muff and stole). They can’t “occupy the same universe once Lily moves into society,” Ms. Nottage said.
Directed by Alfred E. Green in 1933, a year before the production code was strictly imposed, “Baby Face,” with its brazenly sexual lead, was too racy to make it into theaters uncensored. Its offending sections were excised and remained unseen by general audiences until 2004 when a curator at the Library of Congress found an uncensored copy, adding another gem to the “precode” DVD catalog.
The film’s frank, even brutal portrayal of sex is what knocked me out the first time I saw it. Here, after all, is a studio film about a sexually abused young working-class woman (Lily) who, inspired by a lecture from a Nietzsche-reading cobbler, takes her revenge on men. What I didn’t see, however, and what Ms. Nottage showed me as we watched the film, was something nearly as startling: Theresa Harris.
Harris’s character isn’t merely an embellishment in “Baby Face”: she has important lines, a strong presence and — this is crucial given how black women could be made into grotesques and comically desexualized — lovely, at times glamorous. The director wants us to see her as the beautiful woman she was, and I was taken aback that I hadn’t really noticed her before. Watching Harris, I realized that when I had looked at women’s pictures, those five-hankie weepies, the only women I had seen before were white. I’m not alone. Most academic books about women in film are really about white women in film.
These were the other women in women’s pictures: the black cooks, nurses and maids, maids, maids who, breaking out of the margins if only a little, joked with Mae West, fretted about Claudette Colbert and stood by white woman after white woman, scolding them and appealing to their better selves if every so often, like Chico, also playing their laughing co-conspirator. Sometimes they didn’t have names, and they didn’t necessarily make it into the credits. Still, they were there. And they did what they could with what they were given, a strategy that Ms. Nottage illustrates when Vera tells a friend that the Southern epic she has her eye on doesn’t just have slaves — it has “slaves, with lines.” Read More
The amazing clip above is a preview from an upcoming documentary, “Shake the Dust which features hip hoppers from all over the world. Made by emerging film director Adam Sjoberg, the film tells the story of b-boys, and girls in poor communities from Uganda to Yemen to Haiti who all connect through the universal language of hip hop. Acknowledging the universality of music, Sjoberg writes of hip hop culture: ”
"although separated by cultural boundaries and individual struggles, are intrinsically tied to one another through their passion for break-dancing and hip-hop culture....“Shake the Dust” uses b-boying to show commonality and humanity in cultures that are affected by war, disease, and poverty. It seeks to paint a picture of the struggles the characters have– but only as a backdrop to the real story: one of hope and beauty."
Interestingly, there's a side story that developed out of making "Shake the Dust" in Yemen Sjoberg met up with some Somali hip hoppers who dropped some rhymes about the futility of war, their ancestry and forced migration.
For more on Yemen's b-boy crews, I recommend Tom Finn's article, on Sana'a's breakdancers. Apart from insight into how hip hop as universal livelihood and source of creativity for Yemen's youth, the different class mix and multi-cultural dancers stood out for me. The main group featured in this article is The Blast Boyz who are described as "a motley bunch of refugees and expatriates, harking from Canada, Tanzania, Iran, Somalia and America." This is an important thing to remember at a time when there's so much political focus on Yemen. It is often presented as a monocultural and monracial society and yet Yemen like many other Arab countries is visibly multicultural and thousands of years of interaction with countries on the Horn of Africa. Depending on what you believe, modern humans are said to have migrated out of Africa through Yemen and milleniums later, the Ethiopian Queen of Sheba (Makeda) ruled over the then south Arabia and parts of the East Africa. Presently there are at least 700 000 Somalis in Yemen as its one of the closest countries for people fleeing conflict or seeking a better life. Obviously, migrants are in the minority (23 million pop.), but they're some of the small everyday stories which are part of the current, mass anti-government protests which will hopefully topple Ali Abdullah Saleh. On the impact of the protests on hip hop and family life, Finn writes:
"Social stigma, the b-boys say, is the only thing stopping them from joining the ranks of protesters who have been camped outside Sana’a University for the past two months calling for Yemen’s ruler for the past thirty-three years, President Ali Abudallah Saleh, and his family to leave power. “My father would disown me, simple as that,” says Danny Al-Basry, another Iraqi considered one of the crew’s most talented members. “But if things get much worse here, I will have to join them.”
Like many others, the boys say they feel alienated by social expectations that are no longer achievable as a result of the deteriorating economic and political situation. For some of them, b-boying is not only a means of expression but also a vital way of escaping from these looming pressures as well as the monotony and tedium of everyday life in Yemen."
After Chris Rock’s documentary “Good Hair” brought greater mainstream familiarity with the fact that the issues of black beauty went a lot deeper for many people of color than just esthetics, now Sammy Sosa’s recent photos has brought out the dirty little secret of skin bleaching/colorism amongst people of color for mainstream consumption & debate. The passing of Michael Jackson revisited the issue of skin bleaching, but was brushed away as alien to Michael Jackson’s obsession with plastic surgery & desire to be White, or vitiligo, for those who didn’t want to believe that he was suffering from the mental anguish that colorism had brought to his life & physical destruction.
Sammy Sosa’s story has knocked the issue of skin bleaching out of the ballpark erupting into global debates & recognition of documentaries bringing the issue of skin bleaching & colorism to the forefront of mainstream topics. Years of African colonization along with the physical & mental enslavement of Africans throughout the Diaspora brought about the idea that lighter was better in the minds of African descendants because it brought one favor in the fact that it meant one was mixed with the genetics of the master, the superior race- the White race. This beauty ideal of colonizers & slave masters became cemented throughout the continent & carried on thru African descendants around the world as a badge of honor for some & a dirty little secret for others centuries after emancipation & continues to plague people of color even today. There have been many books, films & discussions on the topic in the past, but the global interest in Sammy Sosa’s rise & fall as an international alpha man type of hero struggling with this issue has now forced the world to face itself & the mental destruction of its people going as far as dying to achieve the esthetic of a European or the colonizer & slave master’s standard of what is deemed as universally beautiful.
Take a look at the bustling film industry in Africa (Ghana, Nigeria & South Africa in particular) & you will see many of its lead characters are lighter skin Africans & this remains true for most of the world when dealing with showcasing a black standard of beauty, wealth & talent whether it’s in film, fashion, or everyday business. This issue of colorism effects every continent where lighter pigmentation is the standard form of beauty, wealth & privilege widely known amongst people of color all over the world, but often overlooked or swept under the rug as a source of embarrassment complicit in self discrimination based on one’s pigmentation. I have personally witnessed this amongst Africans, Latinos, Black Americans, Indians, Arabs and even Italians- where darker hue Italians from the south are discriminated against for their close proximity to Africa or as descendants of Italians mixing with Africans. Throughout the world, Africa & its darkest of hue has always brought a sense of fear, inferiority and sometimes a warped fetish & fantasy of the ultimate in animalistic instincts, behavior & temptation, so the lightening of the hue decreases the fear & brings more acceptability & softness in beauty & humanness in accordance with colonial standards. This European standard is not only an issue for African descendants, but also a dirty little secret amongst people of non-African decent all over the world who were also colonized or economically globalized .
The issue of colorism has been a topic of discussion in Black communities in America for centuries, from Alex Haley’s “Queen”, Spike Lee’s “School Daze” , Toni Morrison “The Bluest Eye”, Oprah Winfrey Presents: The Wedding (dealing with colorism & wealth in martha’s vineyard), Tyra Bank’s episodes on her talk show, and even the election of President Barack Obama; now the issue of skin bleaching combined with colorism & racism has become a global topic of discussion continuing to rear its ugly head in its divisionism & destruction of global citizens.
I have seen so many African women bleaching their skin for all of my life & it has always been a socially acceptable thing because most African societies accept the idea that lighter is better while pumping their fists for African pride. Ironically if you look at Black American history you can see that those who pumped their fists the hardest for Black pride were often of a lighter shade of Black or married White: Malcolm X, Minister Louis Farrakhan, Angela Davis, Bobby Seale, Mohammed Ali & even the notorious Reverend Wright amongst others. I will never forget the day I realized that telling a little white girl from the upper east side of manhattan that I was babysitting for while in elementary school, that Michael Jackson was Black was as traumatizing to her as being told there was no Santa Clause. She cried & cried & told me that I was lying . I was beyond shocked by her reaction, but was taught a lesson on the negative perception of Blackness even in the eyes of the children of the so called liberal Whites in America.
My aunt recently told me an ironically funny yet sad story stemming from colorism & societal perceptions. She told me that when she was in Africa she saw Indians in Africa as being so beautiful because to Africans they associated Indians as white because of their hair & certain European features, but when she got to America she no longer found them to be so beautiful because she saw they were just like her & not white. All I could think was wow-really? I was not surprised because I grew up in this mentality, but for some reason I always loved my darkness which brought me my shine particularly amongst my global encounters – you know, the whole “wow you are so EXOTIC” thing-LOL! I was once told by my Senegalese friend, who was born & raised in Europe & works in the beauty industry, that I was the “new ideal” with my dark skin & European features- HUH? I happen to have a smallish button type of nose, oval shaped eyes & full lips that are proportional to my face -all of which are natural native features of my 100% Ghanaian family, but I guess now it is considered European features or non-stereotypically Black/African & in some circles “the new ideal”-SMH. Part of the reason my aunt no longer found Indians to be so beautiful when she saw them in America was because in Africa many of them had the wealth & represented a certain class & perception while in America they are lumped in the same minority status as she is, within a new definition of wealth, class & colorism in America!
Esthetic globalization + Colorism + racism = Global Confusion + Global Madness!
“Colorism is a form of discrimination in which human beings are accorded differing social and treatment based on skin color. The preference often gets translated into economic status because of opportunities for work. Colorism can be found across the world. The term is generally used for the phenomenon of people discriminating within their own ethnic groups. The term colorism usually refers to when lighter skin tones are preferred and darker skin is considered less desirable or vice versa. In the United States, the phenomenon also occurs in other populations, such as among Chicanos and other Latinos and Indian immigrants. While colorism still exists in the U.S., it has diminished since the Civil Rights Movement. The name pigmentocracy is given to a group-based social hierarchy based largely on colorism. Also labeled as colorism.Colorism in the United States is a practice that began in times of slavery due to white slave owner’s beliefs that any person black (African) or associated with blackness, was inferior or lowly. Common practices of the time were to allow the slaves with the lighter complexion (more commonly the offspring of the slave masters and their slaves) to engage in less strenuous usually domesticated duties, while the darker, more African looking slaves participated in hard labor, which was more than likely outdoors. The “brown paper bag test” was a ritual once practiced by certain African-American and Creole fraternities and sororities who discriminated against people who were “too dark.” That is, these groups would not let anyone into the sorority or fraternity whose skin tone was darker than a paper lunch bag, in order to maintain a perception of standards. Spike Lee’s film School Daze satirized this practice at historically black colleges and universities. The “brown paper bag test” form of colorism is also believed to have been used in the application process to the prestigious Historically Black College Howard University. The University once required students to submit a photograph of themselves, most likely to ensure that the majority of the Universities students were of lighter complexion. Along with the “Paper Bag Test,” guidelines for acceptance among the lighter ranks included the “comb test”, which tested the coarseness of one’s hair, and the “flashlight test,” which tested a person’s profile, to make sure their features measured up, or were close enough to those of the Caucasian race. Colorism is prevalent in the job application process as well, research shows that a light skinned African American male with a bachelors degree and mediocre experience is more likely to be hired for a typical job than a dark skinned man with a Masters in Business Administration and past experience in the field…..” SOURCE
“A study released today draws a connection between political partisanship and the skin tone of political candidates. Researchers from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago suggest people believe that a lighter skin tone is more representative of a candidate with whom they are politically aligned than a politician with a darker complexion.” READ MORE
Dove Hypocrisy: I guess the campaign for Real beauty in India according to the same company that owns the Dove brand is to be White
No matter your celebrity the racism that carries into colorism is alive & well –Let’s see if FIFA will live up to what they say- but then again the next world cup is in South Africa- a country which has had a long & very recent history of Apartheid/colorism/racism –so we’ll see how truly far we have come as human beings!
I don’t know how true this video is because -some of the celebs. are obvious but others not so sure it isn’t just make –up & air brushing which is far from skin bleaching.
UPDATE ON THE GLOBAL MADNESS BY Vybz Kartel “The blacker the berry the sweeter the juice? Well not for reggae artist Vybz Kartel who is endorsing his own brand of skin lightening cake soap. Kartel justifies his change in appearance by comparing bleaching his skin to white people tanning…” READ MORE
Timi Dakolo is famous for winning the debut edition of Idols West Africa in 2006. He was tipped to be the next big thing for his unique voice and fantastic vocal range. In the time in between, he won The Hip-Hop World Awards ‘headie’ for the Best Recording of the year 2010 with his single, Heaven Please featuring MI.
On There’s a Cry, we see Timi take on matters of the heart and humanity, as he tackles the nagging Niger Delta issue with this soul stirring ballad. He does this with the same grace that made us fall in love with his music in the first place.
The Knight Digital Media Center at UC Berkeley is hosting an all expenses paid new media workshop for journalists, freelancers and educators.
The Workshop runs from July 17 -22 and offers intensive training for all aspects of multimedia news production; from basic storyboarding to hands-on instruction with hardware and software for production of multimedia stories. Participants will be organized into teams to report on a and construct a multimedia presentation based on that coverage.
Participants are will learn:
• Video recording and editing • Photography and audio slideshows • Audio recording and editing • Voice coaching for narration or stand-ups • Photoshop and Web design concepts • Producing Adobe Flash interactive story graphics
This workshop is aimed at journalists and educators who want to expand their skills to include new media.
Accommodations, meals and tuition are fully subsidized by the Knight Digital Media Center.
