So many posts, so little time !
Let's get the show on the road.
I have been lazy about getting this post started. But I was shamed into it when I saw that Brother Dean B has already started his reading list for the month.
My small wish is for more people to start thinking in terms of Black History and culture by reading. I know that folks are busy, I know that some are tapped out financially. But give it a try. you don't have to buy a book, there is the library, the internet, heck even your own book shelves.
There are prizes to be had. Well, one any way.
Read a short story, book, play, article concerning, relating, involving... You name it Afro-America.
And them post in the comments, or email me about it and I will post it here. The way how and why you do it is not limited (Although I am trusting you to do it this month, don't try to pass off any old AM/AFRO lit. classes now), just as long as you express yourself so that we can all share and learn from it.
The winner will not be picked by me. I may put a certain Reluctant one to work.
But the prize is a 25.00 gift certificate to Borders or Circles.
More to come ...
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Judy, I don't want to win by default, so if there are no other entries I release you from your generous offer of a prize.
Come on, other readers, what's happening, it's three-quarters of the way through the month.
I read two August Wilson plays, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" and "Jitney", because of Judy's entry about Wilson back in the fall.
The first thing to say is, he has an ear for dialog. Sure, you hope a playwright can write dialog that sounds like the characters in the play. Wilson does. His plays are each set in a different decade, and I think you can feel some of the era in the dialog as well as the subject. You can just hear the people talking as you read, and you say either, "Yeah, I heard those people talking," if you were there in the '70s, or, "Yeah, that's what it sounded like backstage of a recording session in the '30s" if you need to rely on your imagination.
Because the plays are about the Afro-American experience of each decade, at least "Jitney" has for me a feeling of everything happening at once in it. "Ma Rainey" didn't feel that way to me; it seemed more limited to what would realistically be happening in the recording studio (except that the violent ending seemed a bit much -- but such is drama, and you could sort of see it coming)."Jitney", much as I liked it, felt like everything from the '70s happening to one group of people, right there, in two days. One character is killed in an accident at the steel mill (it takes place in Pittsburgh, after all) but somehow that doesn't feel as over the top as the ending of "Ma Rainey" because the other characters in the play discuss it as being over the top. There's a bit of dialog along the lines of "You work over there for fifteen years and everything's OK, retire, go back to fill in for one night and that's the night the bolt decides to break." That gives it the ring of truth, of something that could happen.
Does anyone remember a lovely Saturday Night Live sketch, probably written by Chris Rock, of some black men sitting around a barber shop talking? It wasn't one of the great funny skits, but was wonderful for how real the people sounded. That's what "Jitney" felt like, even if Booster's history seemed a little forced (to me).
OK, the real thing I learned about African-American culture from the plays was from Toledo's speech in "Ma Rainey" after one character, trying to get another musician to share a reefer, lists all the things they've done together, how they go way back together, and because of that the other guy should give him a toke. "We did this, we did that, we even..." on and on. I've heard that kind of pattern of talk without realizing it's a cultural thing, but Toledo says, "That's African. That's an African recapitulation," and goes on to explain its significance and history in traditional African religion.
OK, and the other thing I learned was the importance of jitneys, independent unlicensed taxis, to Black neighborhoods where white taxi drivers would refuse to drive. That's explained somewhat more in the introduction to the play than the play itself, but a character does say something like, "We're providing a service to the community by being here. That's why when you answer the phone you say, 'Car service...'."
Well, the books are due back at the library today but the month isn't over, so I guess I'll look for another Wilson play and see if I can post about it too. And I need to order a CD or two with a Ma Rainey recording on it.
It's me again. I just finished reading a third August Wilson play, "Joe Turner's Come and Gone". It's set in Pittsburgh in 1911, a time when African roots were almost 100 years closer than they are now, when people could see ghosts and visions at any time, when mojos and voodoo were real if not quite respectable.
Of the three Wilson plays I read last month and this month, this is the one I'd most like to see on stage. This is the one that's set in a reality very different from any I've experienced (OK, I was never in a recording studio in the '30s, but it just doesn't seem so foreign). Reading the play almost could take me there. Seeing it performed would make a big difference.
"Joe Turner's COme and Gone" doesn't teach you about Black history. It takes you right there. If you don't have a chance to see the play on stage, at least read it.
I finished reading _Two Trains Running_ by August Wilson. I liked it a lot. It seemed very true to life. It takes place in the '60s, I think. As in _Jitney_, a big theme is urban renewal and how disruptive it is. It didn't have the feeling I got in _Jitney_ that Wilson was trying to squeeze in a little of everything that happened in the decade. More might have happened than did before I would have said, "Aw, come on, that's just too much." There was a five-gallon can of gasoline in the alley, but nothing right there was torched (maybe I'd better check that -- there was a fire in the neighborhood, and maybe it was the one; but if so, it wasn't a main point) though you wouldn't have been surprised if something had been. Nobody was murdered, though you wouldn't have been surprised if someone (any of three or four people!) had been. There was plenty of tension and conflict, but most of it was resolved pretty neatly. I didn't feel I learned as much from it as from _Joe Turner's Come and Gone_, but I think it does give a good sense of the period.
OK having read 4 Wilson plays (which I did greatly enjoy) and it no longer being February, I will turn my reading to 1) learning to care for apple trees and 2) my own heritage with _Everything is Illuminated_ which I was partway through in January. My grandma Annie was born in Ukraine. :-)
Hi, happened upon your sight here, just curious if there might be a possible connection. My name is Carolyn Hammerquist and I live in Connecticut.
If you have any interest in finding out a connection, you may email me at: mschammer@cox.net.
Post a Comment