Karamu’s 'Juneteenth' is a winner!

50,000 viewers see Karamu artists channel black sentiment in response to public health crises of race and COVID

Mariama Whyte, center, sings with cast members in an opening scene in Karamu House's "Freedom on Juneteenth."

By R. T. Andrews

I’m not a theater critic. This is not a review. But it is a hearty and unqualified recommendation of Karamu’s tight, professional, educational and emotionally thrilling production of Freedom on Juneteenth that debuted last Friday across a variety of platforms.

The sixty minute production, brilliantly conceived and extraordinarily well-executed, used the arts to yoke the long and complicated history of black people in America to the unprecedented times our nation and the world are experiencing today. 'Freedom' employed music, dance, and the spoken word in a seamless march across centuries before an aggregated audience of more than 50,000 people, who saw the program from a variety of modern day platforms — including Roku, YouTube, Vimeo, Fire TV and Facebook — projecting images and sounds from the small but mighty historic Karamu stage.

Gabrielle Shipley, center, and Soursop dance company perform in "Freedom on Juneteenth."

The unique production — conceived, written and produced within 10 days as a response to the murder of George Floyd — gained pre-performance attention from the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Boston Globe, which no doubt contributed to the nationwide audience that made this Karamu’s most successful production from a viewership standpoint. 

The show was taken down from its original platforms after 24 hours. It will be re-broadcast, along with the pre-recorded panel discussion that followed, on Monday, June 29 at 8PM EST/5PM PST and Sunday, July 5 at 3PM EST / 12PM PST. The entire 90 minutes will be available on Vimeo, YouTube, Facebook, Fire TV and Roku.

Prophet Seay performs as a griot, or storyteller,
in Karamu House's "Freedom on Juneteenth."

Karamu president, CEO and artistic director Tony Sias and his entire team deserve major kudos for this effort. Remarkably, the production was filmed over two days and produced within the following two days to air on Friday, June 19. 

One of the many high points for this viewer was the recitation of Claude McKay’s defiant poem, If We Must Die, by Karamu veteran Ananias Dixon. Other poetic works were from Karamu pioneer and Harlem Renaissance wunderkind Langston Hughes, the playwright Mary E. Weems, and the multi-talented Daniel Gray-Kontar of Twelve Literary Arts.

The show will be re-broadcast on Monday, June 29 and Sunday, July 5.

The performance was produced at breakneck pace under the press not only of the calendar but also an ongoing health pandemic. Karamu’s management implemented numerous measures to ensure compliance with CDC regulations and recommendations. All individuals were double-screened with symptom questionnaires and temperature checks. Masks were worn at all times when social distancing was not completely guaranteed. Only certain numbers of people were allowed in the theatre at any given time. Additionally, the entire facility was used for dressing rooms to ensure that every performer could maintain ample distance.

The production was followed by  a panel of community leaders who reacted to the production. Panelists included Edward M. Barksdale, Jr., Surgeon-in-Chief, University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital; Judge Patricia Ann Blackmon, Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals; and Chenoa Miller, Youth Activist/Organizer, and Brand Ambassador, EmpowerCLE. Each brought unique insights to bear in responding to the production. 

Dr. Barksdale, for example, noted that "it does not take a  halo or a set of wings to move things forward. It takes resolve."

Judge Blackmon expressed her love for General Order No. 3, the declaration that informed the slaves in Galveston Texas, that they were free, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. She observed that the order didn't speak merely of freedom; it spoke of equality. "That's what Black Lives Matter is saying!"

The judge had an excellent suggestion about how technology could operate to counter police officers who turn off their police cameras; central police headquarters should turn them back on automatically. 

It was especially welcome to have Ms Miller's voice; too often we give lip service to the next generation in lieu of having them participate and speak their own truth.

The program was the first in Karamu's new monthly Social Justice series. The next program will be July 23, 2020 at 7PM and will focus on policing and criminal justice. 

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Photo Credit: Kayla Lupean

Reverie for a Summer Day • Langston Hughes, Eddie Harris, Richie Parker, my Glenville neighborhood

Mother to Son

Well, son, I’ll tell you:

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

It’s had tacks in it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor —

Bare.

But all the time

I’ve been a-climbin’ on,

And reachin’ landin’s,

And turnin’ corners,

And sometimes goin’ in the dark

Where they ain’t been no light.

So boy, don’t you turn back.

Don’t you set down on the steps

‘Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.

Don’t you fall now —

For I’se still goin’, honey,

I’se still climbin’,

And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

—  Langston Hughes

I received a video from an old friend this morning that is a tribute to the power of the human spirit. I didn’t know it at the time I started watching, but I had seen the last minute of it when it was broadcast on television.[1]  The title is misleading, but spending eight minutes of your life to watch it will captivate you as well as reveal what made me [a] retrieve and re-read this Langston Hughes poem[2], and [b] follow it by the Charles Stepney/Eddie Harris classic, “Theme in Search of a Movie”, introduced to me by my older brother Steve in Glenville days of yore.

Richie Parker:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiLDMBDPCEY

Eddie Harris:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FXcjDCs5ec

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[1]ESPN SportsCenter

[2] Langston Hughes is one of my favorite poets. Part of the reason is encapsulated here, heightened by his Cleveland connections:

Langston Hughes 1902-1967

“He was the first black American to earn his living solely from his writing and public lectures. Part of the reason he was able to do this was the phenomenal acceptance and love he received from average black people. … ‘Langston Hughes stands at the apex of literary relevance among Black people. …[H]e recognized that “we possess within ourselves a great reservoir of physical and spiritual strength,” and because he used his artistry to reflect this back to the people. He used his poetry and prose to illustrate that “there is no lack within the Negro people of beauty, strength and power,' and he chose to do so on their own level, on their own terms.””

— Source