Under the baobab: Community finding much-needed ways to come together at last
“We are still America.
We know the rumors of our demise.
We spit them out. They die soon.”
-Joy Harjo, 23rd Poet Laurette of the US, Muscogee (Creek) Nation
The rumors of the America’s death are premature and exaggerated. We may be knee deep in the muddy Mississippi but before you write us off, better look at our history. We have been down before. Coming together as a people, we found a way back up. Often we have been better for the climb. We learn. We teach. We come together.
As I write this column Penn State is preparing to welcome more than 107,000 fans to a White Out game in Beaver Stadium. Last Saturday we were among the 105,000 who watched as the Lions trounced Ball State. We wore masks though many others didn’t. Soccer, volleyball, men’s and women’s basketball are inviting fans back.
People are not just getting together in sports stadiums. People are also gathering in other places. West College Heights brought back their annual Ruth Fergus Memorial Picnic after skipping it last year. Democratic mayor candidate Ezra Nanes invited his neighbors over to hear Miss Melanie sing some righteous blues. On Friday there was a POW/MIA Remembrance Ceremony on Old Main Lawn. It was a joint-service, 24-hour vigil that included a 21-gun salute, speakers and a performance by Penn State Air Force ROTC a cappella group. The actor/musician Craig Meyer held a tribute to Elton John called “Remember When Rock Was Young: The Elton John Tribute” at the Pullo Center at Penn State York.
Broadway shows started running again. Movie theaters reopened. If you couldn’t go to New York; New York came to State College. Stephen Carpenter, dean of the College of Arts and Architecture, together with Sita Frederick, the newly appointed director of the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State, hosted a weeklong residency of Mwenso and the Shakes, a brilliant musical ensemble based in Harlem, New York. They appeared several times during the week concluding with a free performance on the Eisenhower Auditorium mall on Thursday evening attended by several hundred delighted and masked audience members.
Aquila Kikora Franklin, associate professor at the the Penn State School of Theatre and the artistic director of Roots of Life Dance Company, performed with her student troupe. Franklin is world renowned as the creative developer of the Mojah technique and she also developed a student program for the State College Area School District.
According to his bio, Michael Mwenso, who hosts the CPA’s monthly “Meeting the Moment” began singing and playing piano after he moved to London from his birthplace in Sierra Leone. At 16 years old, Michael began leading his own band and performing with local jazz groups. In late 2010, Wynton Marsalis invited him to join the programming team at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Mwenso headed the after-hours program at Dizzy’s Club. He formed Mwenso & the Shakes, a unique troupe of global artists who merge jazz and blues expression through African and African American music. The band members come from Sierra Leone, London, South Africa, Greenwich Village, Madagascar, France, Jamaica, and Hawaii. The Shakes now call Harlem their home.
So, brothers and sisters, despite the persistence of the pandemic, the raging forest fires, the floods and hurricanes, the disorganized military disengagements, the ill-conceived incoherence of our fellow citizens, we are still finding ways through the smoke and darkness. In the light of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks one of the ideas we are sharing with each other is “E pluribus unum,” out of many one. It means no one person or party can guide us through the storm. But, working together we can turn this around.
Stay strong.