Wednesday, January 24, 2007
William Wells BrownThe Escape or A Leap For Freedom
After reading William Wells Brown's The Escape or A Leap For Freedom, you have experienced a former slave's perspective of the plight of slavery and his quest for freedom. How can you relate Brown's performance as a playwright to current theatrical platforms used by African American men and women such as acting, directing, Emceeing? Do you see any contemporary references to the pursuit of "freedom" in contemporary discussions about performance? How can we make sense of what Harry Elam calls "the continued presence of the past in African American thetaer and performance"(2001,3).
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It is a simple task to name African American individuals in the media who reference the pursuit of freedom or the American dream and reflect on their troubled past. In one of his stand-up acts Dave Chappelle made a joke about going to inner-city schools and talking to kids about getting out of the projects. He said "Well, you kids better learn how to..... rap or play basketball cause that's the only way you're getting out!...Get to dancin'!"
Not only is Chappelle poking fun at himself here, he brings up a valid point that is not so hidden in the US. The reason that many blacks in the media reference their troubled past is because one of the most sought after ways of getting out of the ghetto is to become involved in sports or the entertainment industry (which I don't necessarily frown upon). This being said, for every successful actor/rapper/athlete there are an innumerable amount of kids who never "made it" and are stuck in the same place they started. Whether or not this is their fault is up in the air.
I think the media outlet that sees this most often is the rap-game. Not only is rap dominated by African Americans, one of it's distinguishing traits is displaying how hard someone's life is or was. One of the ways to gain 'street-credit' and RESPECT is to prove yourself. In rap this is done by showing off your thuggish-past and toughness and how someone can single-handedly move their way up the social ladder.
Rappers like Jay-Z and 50 Cent, both former drug dealers, rhyme about 'making it' from the bottom and overcoming all of the things that hold people down. Although some may find their means of getting money not as honorable as, say, going to college and becoming a doctor, both of these stars have become something bigger than themselves and deserve any praise that comes their way because they DID go out on a limb and work until they got money and recognition, something that not everybody can claim they've done.
One person that I could compare to Brown and his usage of racial performativity is Sidney Poitier. One thing Brown did was utilize repetitive and familiar behavior associated with what Elam calls the "happy darky" to create a comfort with the white audiences he was performing for. However, once he got the audience comfortable he shattered their perception of what this character, Cato really was. Similarly, although not within the last 25 years, Sidney Poitier did the same thing. For many years he played the role of what some would call an Uncle Tom. His starring roles often featured complacent leads who were satisfied and happy with their role as being inferior or the work horse to the whites around him. In fact, he was the first black man to win an Oscar for it, with Lilies in the Field. However, once he had built up acclaim and notoriety he was able to use people's previous perception of what he was and how he would utilize the same behavior patterns to gain footing on screen as a black individual, and not just a tool of the white characters around him. While he starred in films such as "A Raisin In The Sun" dealing with issues of the black family, he took things one step further. In the film "In The Heat Of The Night" Poitier did something that no other black man had ever done on film and got away with, he slapped the mess out of a white southern plantation owner who had touched him first. And although Poitier did not go on to make a career out of slapping white people, he did arguably open the door to a certain type of black character that had previously been stereotyped as evil and malicious, but now was empowering and positive to the black community in its ability to assert a right to its own body and its own fate. Furthermore, although there was not directly any slavery in this film, Poitier's slap was so powerful in that his on-screen portrayals always carried with them the past of African Americans in the U.S. His roles as second fiddle to a white man would not have been so upsetting to black people at the time were this not true. However, his slap in some ways was symbolic of breaking the chains that enslaved him.
From a playwriting experience, I have been a part of quite a few discussions over the viewpoint and perspective of the writer. Would a play like "Fences" ever be written by a white playwright? Or any playwright besides a black one? Or was it August Wilson's play, and only his? I can't really speak to one end or the other.
If I want my characters to be latino, I will write them to the best of my ability and work not to be inconsistent or incorrect. But I am not going to avoid the discussion all together because I am NOT latino. But at the same time, there is a degree of truth, or "freedom" that exists in writing what one knows. Its almost to the point where if one writes for an audience like the writer, he or she does not need to show concern for their words because it already bears an inherant amount of credibility because he is part of "that" community.
Mark referenced Dave Chapelle in his response regarding his comments on getting out of the ghetto. Just like many other instances, would these words have been acceptable if they were uttered by an Asian man? A White man? Are they even admissable at all?
One thing is for sure, though. Because he is part of the community he is appealing to, he has some degree more of this freedom when dealing with his particular performance. By drawing on common experience, he is able to make inferences that the audience allows, because that experience is SHARED. So, not suprisingly, the past, history, is constantly drawn upon on performance because it is something that is shared between the writer, actor, and audience alike.
Brown's performance as a playwright greatly mirrors the theatrical performances of today, as Elam correctly points out the continued presence of the past. Brown's "The Escape or A Leap For Freedom" can by seen as a form of black face ministrelsy but so much of current theatrical performance can be perceived as such. Black Entertainment Television runs rampant with stereotypical images perpertuating negative views of African Americans, while simultaneously emcees rap about their struggle in the streets and how they used the drug or rap game as their leap of freedom. This becomes problematic as many times the only contact with African Americans are from television. Furthermore, racial performativity is seen throughout hip-hop as it shows just as gender, "blackness" is troubled and not fixed but based on the behaviors seen on music videos, tv, and film.
This may be completely random, but when reading Brown's play kanye West reminded me of Cato. Kanye has always seemed to be a rapper that made white audiences feel comfortable. However, during Hurricane Katrina, kanye took his leap for freedom and spoke out against the racist undertones in the rescue efforts of Hurricane Katrina. "I dont like the way we are portrayed in the media when you see a white family they're searching for food, but blacks are looting... and you know it took them five days to get to New Orleans because the victims were black"... That was completely unexpected, especially from Kanye West!
Overall, Brown's play expressed themes and issues that continue to persist over time; racism is endemic to society thus social, cultural, and political critiques will continue to be displayed in African American theatrical performance.
I agree with Mark that rap is definitely representative of the same type of theater that Brown has written with The Escape. In both situations, we have African Americans in situations of repression (slavery and ghettos) that they escape and then create art about the situation they escaped from.
In this situation, I think it can be more interesting to look at the differences, and there is a major one that sticks out to me. The difference that I see is that the escape and the art are separate actions for the slave. Brown escaped from slavery, then wrote about the experience later. For the rapper, the art form is the means of escape itself. The two are linked; rappers don't go to school and get a "real-world" job, then write rap songs about their experience. The songs they write about their experience are how they escape from their oppressive situation.
There are similarities, too. One similarity is that in both scenarios, the past is almost never left behind completely. Escaped slaves were often recaptured and brought back into slavery. Dred Scott is a famous example of this. Similarly, rappers who grow up surrounded by gangs, violence, and drugs are often unable to leave that lifestyle behind after they "make it." Extreme examples of this are Tupac and Biggie Smalls whose lives were ultimately ended by gang-related violence.
I think there are so many ways in which the points that Brown brings up in The Escape or, A Leap For Freedom are present in current theatrical platforms utelized by African Americans.
The big one, i think, as someone above said, is the rap game. The whole culture of rap was built upon a desire to get out, to be free of life in the ghetto. At this point "getting out", "making it" & rap are synonymous. I think also that the techniques that Brown used to presented his material to his white audiences and get them to a certain comfort zone only to flip the script on them and show them something new, is also utelized by today's rappers. They put out mainstream singles to pull in the mainstream audiences, who in turn go buy the rapper's cd only to find that there's a different tone and subject matter going on ranging from tales of the artist own struggles to the plight of those still trying to gain that "freedom." I think it's just all part of the game and trying to get those looking from the outside to a place where they can look beyond the surface and see the reverse of the situation.
Also I think that the fact that there is even a BET represents the fact that the desire for freedom is still there. The channel not only caters to an African American audience but gives a lot of performers a platform to display their work, which might otherwise go unnoticed. Alot of the artists, programming, and movies that are shown on the channel, be them sterotypical or not the best representations, now have a chance to be heard. And i think that's what BET is about, similar why the African Grove Theater was started,to give an unrepresented voice their own platform to express their artist freedom.
I think that the idea of the rap game being used as a form of escape from poverty is important to today's youth culture, but the big difference between this and Brown's play is that Cato not only decided that he wanted freedom but that he wanted to change his identity. When he decides to rename himself yes it's comical and a bit outlandish but that is apart of his freedom. He's no longer being defined by his master but he is defining himself and I think that this does not necessarily exist in hip hop today because of its mass marketing. Hip hop was used as a tool of expression and still is but now this tool has been marginalzed to certain aspects of the culture. Gangsta rap has been prevalent in hip hop since the early 90's and this form of hip hop was so successful that labels look for this type of music. The rap game has become more of a dictatorship with people wanting to express themselves but labels setting strict stipulations on this expression. Sure you can make it out the ghetto by being a rapper but once you sign your name on the dotted line that label owns you. So I don't necessarily think that the rap game is the best comparison. What we have to remember is that slavery was an economic institution that used bodies as chattle and although the idea of owning someone as property has been outlawed that does not mean that this economic mindset just suddenly vanished. Now its just used in different forms.
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