Under the baobab: Theater, film, discussion ahead for Black History Month
It takes a village to raise a play. Bill T. Jones will be doing just that at the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State (CPA) on Friday at Eisenhower Auditorium. To celebrate Black History Month, Sita Frederick, the artistic director of CPA, commissioned the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance to mount “What Problem?” He uses deconstructed text from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech and Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick.” He reimagines and expresses, “We shall overcome” in new ways and reinterprets the national scripture engendered in “We The People.”
Jones is a recipient of the National Medal of Arts, a MacArthur Genius Award, a Kennedy Center Honors Award and multiple Tony Awards. In this critical time as our community remains alienated by pandemic and political divisiveness, tremors on the surface of our commonality, Jones examines the tension between feelings of community and estrangement.
Using performance as healing, he employs actual members of our community to contribute to telling the story, some professional, some not: Alece Morgan, Kristina Douglass, Michele Dunleavy, Sarah Flynn, Caitlin Osborne, KT Huckabee, Ana Rossi Lanzendorfer, Dr. Tom C. Hogan, Sharon Frost, Regine Sophia Elarmo Torres, Muggs Leone, Rebecca Maciejczyk, Shelly Stevic, Dayanna Blanco, Shannon Bishop, Olivia Lewis, Lauren Malcolm, Tracey Mariner, Charles Dumas, Danielle Johnson, Mary Rose Valentine, Leann Andrews, Jeff Helffrich, Ann Van Kuren. They rehearsed with the company for a week. Though the company has performed this piece in other venues, Friday’s program will be unique insofar as our Happy Valley neighbors shall share their input.
Other Black History month events:
Pastor Paul McReynolds at Albright-Bethune UMC has invited guest speakers to perform readings from James Weldon Johnson’s “God’s Trombones” on Sundays at the 11 a.m. service during February.
Feb. 8, 6-7 p.m.: Identity Talks series “Celebrating Black History” online panel. The College of Information Sciences and Technology alumni share their diverse experiences and perspectives.
Feb. 9: Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity Celebration of Black Queer History — HUB LL011. The Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity will present an exhibit-style night for Black queer history, including the many notable figures and key parts of the civil rights and LGBTQ+ movement.
Feb. 9, 7 p.m.: “My Name Is Pauli Murray” film and post-film discussion. Pauli Murray’s legal scholarship helped form the basis of Brown vs. Board of Education and later Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s arguments on gender equality and subsequent LGBTQA+ rights cases. She became the first African American woman priest in the Episcopal Church.
Feb. 10, 7 p.m.: “American Experience: The American Diplomat” online screening hosted by WPSU. At the height of the Cold War, the U.S. State Department remained one of the last agencies to desegregate completely. This film tells the story of the fight for inclusion in American diplomacy through the lives of three African American ambassadors: Edward R. Dudley, Terence Todman and Carl Rowan.
Feb. 16: Judge (retired) A. J. Wagner of The Church of the Good Shepherd’s Social Justice Group is presenting weekly seminars on MLK’s Beloved Community. The next scheduled is “The Blood that built the Beloved Community.”
Feb. 18: The State Theatre will present Jerry Zolten’s documentary, “How They Got Over.” It tells the story of Black gospel quartets during the decades following World War II, when the broad reach of radio and record sales helped these quartets spread throughout African American communities across the United States. Afterward there will be a Q&A with Jerry and the director, Robert Clem.
Feb. 22, 2 p.m.: WPSU’s World Kitchen for Black History Month featuring Shawn Carter of Carter’s Table Catering. Carter will join World Kitchen host Tamra Fatemi-Badi, to talk about traditionally Black food and its history and culture, and to show viewers how to prepare his delicious version of shrimp and grits.
Have a joyful Black History Month, Brothers and Sisters.