Battlestar Gallatica, meet Donnie, Rev. Wright, and Hurricane Katrina.
One week after becoming completely sucked into the BSG universe I know this to be a fact: art culture can examine our times from a safer repose than political discourse and media talking heads can. What other medium could in one fell swoop tackle nuclear apocalypse, racial angst vis-a-vis human/cylon hatred and a flawed criminal justice system *without* provoking any reactionary partisan discord?
I'm waiting...
But this post ain't about Battlestar Gallatica, my new favorite TV show (OK, so Friday Night Lights and The X-Files reruns come in a close second tie). What this blog entry is about, however, is how and why the month of March brought madness to the 24/7 news world. How and why some cultural mediums can challenge American hegemony when the good reverend can't.
Last month, America, it seemed, discovered that Black Americans hold a different view of American history than White Americans. Mainstream papers unequivocally positioned Reverend Wright and his words as hate speech, merit-less, and a 60s throwback (an argument which calls out their hollow support for what the 60s brought this country). Here's a case in point:
My, my, my those are all some pretty charged images, aren't they?! Klu Klux Klan? Genocide? Creepy white room with black bombs squirming out of the walls?! What in the devil's name are you spreading, Donnie?
Seriously though, could this disconnect between cultural criticism and news analysis be explained with the argument of the objectivity of "news" folks and the merit-based criticism of the arts? The Front Page vs. Leisure and the Arts departments?
* * *
Last week I saw a show at The Flea, Lower Ninth, a play about three men, one already dead, who are trapped on top of a roof during Hurricane Katrina. One of the most powerful and tear-inducing moments in the play for me was when the elder character retold the biblical parable of Noah's arc. A familiar story to most folks, but what was unfamiliar was his second retelling of the story which had a decidedly Black-perspective. In that telling, Noah and his family were not the only survivors. There was another family who survived the floods after climbing up a tree. Their skin peeled away from sun exposure and bitter and full of angst from having to endure the flood, they would become the descendants of Whites who control the disparity filled world that these Katrina-survivors have come to know all too well.
Let me make this point clear: what upsets many Blacks about the Reverend Wright "controversy" is not that the mainstream press and Whites have disagreed with his views, but that his views and the historical events that shaped his words have been illegitimatized or conveniently forgotten to win an argument. This episode has awakened the Black masses from our own Safe Reposia (Hip Hop, Dave Chapelle, Broadway's Color Purple, etc.) to publicly defend the Black worldview. I mean, damn so much of Black culture has been pimped out that the tenets of our Safe Reposia way of life would surely start to be understood by everybody else, right?
March proved that logic wrong.
All of this is a lot to wrap one's thoughts around, I know. As an playwright/director, one direction I feel like I'm moving toward within my work is nuking Safe Reposia and, like the true BSG bandit that I am, flee to our long lost brothers and sisters of the 13th Colony on Earth.
I'm waiting...
But this post ain't about Battlestar Gallatica, my new favorite TV show (OK, so Friday Night Lights and The X-Files reruns come in a close second tie). What this blog entry is about, however, is how and why the month of March brought madness to the 24/7 news world. How and why some cultural mediums can challenge American hegemony when the good reverend can't.
Last month, America, it seemed, discovered that Black Americans hold a different view of American history than White Americans. Mainstream papers unequivocally positioned Reverend Wright and his words as hate speech, merit-less, and a 60s throwback (an argument which calls out their hollow support for what the 60s brought this country). Here's a case in point:
Reporters, talk-show hosts and others will keep asking about Obama's close and long-standing relationship to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose most bombastic comments came to dominate the Democratic presidential contest recently, the strategists predicted in interviews. -USA TodayMeanwhile back on the planet, Safe Reposia, Donnie's new album and video "911" is sucking up all the good juices of critical acclaim and hardcore fandom after several months of airtime on Myspacetv:
My, my, my those are all some pretty charged images, aren't they?! Klu Klux Klan? Genocide? Creepy white room with black bombs squirming out of the walls?! What in the devil's name are you spreading, Donnie?
Four years ago, Donnie’s The Colored Section was the most provocative soul-fueled social commentary since the days when Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway routinely offered biting analyses of current events. These days, the real daily news continues to give him plenty to talk about, which he does with wit and insight. It’s nice to be reminded that there is more to R&B than preening and pickup lines. - USA TodayOh. Well in that case, right on, brother!
Seriously though, could this disconnect between cultural criticism and news analysis be explained with the argument of the objectivity of "news" folks and the merit-based criticism of the arts? The Front Page vs. Leisure and the Arts departments?
* * *
Last week I saw a show at The Flea, Lower Ninth, a play about three men, one already dead, who are trapped on top of a roof during Hurricane Katrina. One of the most powerful and tear-inducing moments in the play for me was when the elder character retold the biblical parable of Noah's arc. A familiar story to most folks, but what was unfamiliar was his second retelling of the story which had a decidedly Black-perspective. In that telling, Noah and his family were not the only survivors. There was another family who survived the floods after climbing up a tree. Their skin peeled away from sun exposure and bitter and full of angst from having to endure the flood, they would become the descendants of Whites who control the disparity filled world that these Katrina-survivors have come to know all too well.
Let me make this point clear: what upsets many Blacks about the Reverend Wright "controversy" is not that the mainstream press and Whites have disagreed with his views, but that his views and the historical events that shaped his words have been illegitimatized or conveniently forgotten to win an argument. This episode has awakened the Black masses from our own Safe Reposia (Hip Hop, Dave Chapelle, Broadway's Color Purple, etc.) to publicly defend the Black worldview. I mean, damn so much of Black culture has been pimped out that the tenets of our Safe Reposia way of life would surely start to be understood by everybody else, right?
March proved that logic wrong.
All of this is a lot to wrap one's thoughts around, I know. As an playwright/director, one direction I feel like I'm moving toward within my work is nuking Safe Reposia and, like the true BSG bandit that I am, flee to our long lost brothers and sisters of the 13th Colony on Earth.
posted by Andre Lancaster at
10:19 AM
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