brownsville song (b-side for tray) Teacher Information Packet

LWT 5 0

kimber lee eric ting by directed by

march 25 - april 19

TEACHER INFORMATION PACKET ION WITH T C U D O R A CO-P TRE COMPANY HIA THEA P L E D A L I PH

go r d o n e d e lst e i n artistic director

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J OS HUA BOREN S TEI N managing director

WITH DUCTION ANY O R P O C A RE COMP IA THEAT H P L E D A PHIL

kimber lee eric ting by directed by

M A R C H 2 5 – A P RI L 1 9 2 0 1 5 on the clair e to w stag e i n t h e c . newto n sch en ck I I theatre

T e a c h e r I n f o r m a ti o n P a c k e t Compiled and Written by BETH F. MILLES Director of Education m allo r y pellegrino Education Programs Manager kr istia n n a smit h Interim Principal Teaching Artist ba r bar a so nenstein Resident Teaching Artist eli zabeth nearing Literary Manager

Teacher Information Packet Layout by claire zoghb

L ONG W HARF T HEA T RE GRA T EF U L LY ACKNO W L EDGE S T HE GENERO S I T Y OF O U R ED U CA T I ON S U P P OR T ER S ANNA FITCH ARDENGHI TRUST ELIZABETH CARSE FOUNDATION Frederick A. Deluca Foundation the hearst foundations elaine gorbach levine charitable foundation THE GEORGE A. & GRACE L. LONG FOUNDATION the seymour l. lustman memorial fund national corporate theatre fund The Seedlings Foundation wells fargo foundation The Werth Family Foundation FOUNDING SUPPORTER OF LONG WHARF THEATRE’S VIDEO STUDY GUIDE AND SUPPORTER OF THE EDUCATORS’ LABORATORY

50TH SEASON COMMUNITY PARTNER

GORDON EDELSTEIN Artistic Director

JOSHUA BORENSTEIN MANAGING Director

in association with

PHILADELPHIA THEATRE COMPANY Sara Garonzik Executive Producing Director

Priscilla M. Luce Executive Managing Director

PRESENTS

KIMBER LEE directed BY ERIC TING BY

Set Design Scott Bradley°

Costume Design Toni-Leslie James°

Lighting Design Russell H. Champa°

Sound Design Ryan Rumery°

Production Stage Manager kathy snyder* World premiere in the 2014 Humana Festival of New American Plays at ACTORS THEATRE OF LOUISVILLE. Produced By LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater, New York City, 2014 The video and/or audio recording of this performance by any means whatsoever is strictly prohibited.

50TH SEASON COMMUNITY PARTNER

This project is supported in part by an award from

INDIVIDUAL PRODUCTION SPONSOR Ruby Melton & Gail McAvay

contemporaryamericanvoices festi

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*M ember of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States ° Member of United Scenic Artists, USA-829 of the IATSE This Theatre operates under an agreement between the League Of Resident Theatres and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

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contents A B O U T T HE P L AY Explanation of Title: b- side 8 About the Playwright: Kimber Lee 9 Interview with Kimber Lee 10 Characters 12 Synopsis 14 Power and Privilege Definitions 17 Themes 20 T HE W OR L D OF T HE P L AY Setting 24 Profile of Brownsville, Brooklyn 25 Humans of New York on Brownsville 28 Profile Tray Franklin 34 Photos of the Brownsville Neighborhood 36 S uppl e m e n t a l M a t e r i a ls Boxing in Brooklyn 39 Profile of New Haven, CT 42 Literary Connections 44 Swan Lake Synopsis 45 Curriculum Connections 46 For the First-Time Theatregoer 47

Look for this symbol to find discussion and writing prompts, questions and classroom activities!

ABOUT THE PLAY

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e x pla n a t i o n o f t i t l e : b - s i d e

brownsville song: a story from Brownsville, Brooklyn (b-side for tray): The terms A-side and B-side refer to the two sides of 78 and 45 rpm gramophone (phonograph) records, whether singles or extended plays (EPs). The A-side usually featured the recording that the artist, record producer, or the record company intended to receive the initial promotional effort and then receive radio airplay, hopefully, to become a “hit” record. The B-side (or “flip-side”) is a secondary recording that has a history of its own. Music recordings have moved away from records onto other formats such as Compact Discs and digital downloads, which do not have “sides,” but the terms are still used to describe the type of content, with B-side sometimes standing for “Bonus” track.

In boxing, “b-side” refers to the opponent people assume will lose in a match—like the world is betting against him.

Playwright Kimber Lee’s explanation of title: “I wanted a title that could encompass the feeling of a lament, of mourning, but that would also contain hope and sense of celebrating a life.

And the “b-side” - for those of you who don’t remember record singles (45 rpm) - the hit single would always have a not as popular, or unknown song on the other side. I wanted Tray’s song to show us a side of a familiar story that we may not have considered before.”

In the Cla s s room CONSIDER THE TITLE: In explaining the significance of the title of the play (b-side for tray), Lee wants to show a “side of a familiar story that we may have not considered before.”

How is Tray’s story a b-side?

What part of this familiar story have we not considered before?

GO FURTHER: What else might b-side imply?

Are boys like Tray considered b-sides—meaning they are not expected to succeed? How are the people of Brownsville b-sides of the world? Explain your answer.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-side_and_B-side http://www.lct.org/explore/blog/kimber-leeanswers-our-questions/

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A B O U T T H E P L A Y W RI G H T

kimber lee

K

imber Lee’s plays include fight, tokyo fish story, and brownsville song (b-side for tray), which premiered at the 2014 Humana Festival and will also receive 2014-2015 productions at LCT3, Long Wharf Theatre, and Philadelphia Theatre Company. In May 2014, Center Theatre Group presented the world premiere

of her play different words for the same thing directed by Neel Keller, and tokyo fish story will premiere at South Coast Rep in March 2015. Her work has also been presented by Lark Play Development Center, Page 73, Hedgebrook, Seven Devils, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, TheatreWorks (Palo Alto), Old Globe, Magic Theatre, Great Plains Theatre Conference. Kimber is a Lark Playwrights Workshop Fellow (2014-2015), member of Ma-Yi Writers Lab, and is currently under commission at Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3, South Coast Rep, Denver Center Theatre Company, Long Wharf Theatre, Hartford Stage, and the Bush Theatre (London). Recipient of the 2014 Ruby Prize, the 2013-2014 PoNY Fellowship, the 2014-2015 Aetna New Voices Fellowship, and the inaugural 2015 PoNY/Bush Theatre Playwright Residency in London. MFA: UT Austin.

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interview with kimber lee

By Elizabeth Nearing, Literary Manager LWT February, 2015

What inspired you to write this play?

realizing you can’t. You buy almond butter because they’re allergic to peanuts, then remember they won’t be there to eat it. And I think this manifests most clearly in the play for Devine - the internal world of a child is such mysterious, unknowable terrain. For this introspective little girl, the passages back to moments with Tray are very fluid and easily accessed, and then she instinctively uses this imaginative memory ability to help herself survive the loss of her brother. And for Merrell and Lena, the rhythm of past and present is always part of the tension between them, but is also the only way they can find their way back toward each other.

It was something I read on a blog, a story about the loss of a young man in Brownsville. The post was very simply written, but it sort of lodged in my gut and wouldn’t let go. I kept thinking about this boy’s family and loved ones - what they must be going through. I kept thinking about the tremendous loss of life in some of our communities, and how easy it is in this hyper-connected world for these losses to disappear from our consciousness. And how that is especially true for some of our more challenged neighborhoods - the only time we hear about them is when something violent has happened. Often there can be this sort of head-shaking resignation - “oh well, that’s just what happens there” - and implicit in that thought is the idea that these deaths are acceptable somehow. That if you look a certain way, and live in a certain zip code, your life is worth less, you matter less - and this was going around in a circle in my head. I didn’t know what I could do about it, what I could offer - how to bear witness in meaningful way. And I was trying to work on another project, but when I sat down to write, Lena’s voice came blazing out of me.

You have a background as a boxer, something that’s also important to Tray. What is it about boxing that you’re drawn to?

Oh man - it’s hard for me to focus my love of boxing into a tidy statement, because it is so vast and always changing. I think the rigor of it, the demands on both the physical and spiritual aspects of a person, the fact that there are no shortcuts in boxing. Natural talent may allow you to advance more quickly, but no one gets a pass on putting in the daily work. I love the way I get emptied out after a hard training session - there’s a meditative quality that settles over me after I’ve spent everything I got. And there’s no bypassing any of the stages of your development you’re going to be bad at it, for a very long time, and everyone in the gym is going to watch you be bad.

There’s a kind of strength you build internally when you have to come back into the gym, day after day, just being humiliatingly bad at it until hopefully, one day, you’re not. The only way out is through. I love the elegance of strategy in the ring, the chess game that is played between you and your opponent, and how your mental processes are inextricably linked to your emotional strength and physical reflexes and endurance. Every single challenge I have in my

Can you talk a little bit about rhythm and the nature of time in this play, for this family?

The rhythms of the play moves between language and silence, but in a lot of ways the silent moments are the most active - vibrating with the need or intense emotion of the character. Similarly, the way time pivots, pulling the characters to before and after Tray’s death is a rhythm I associate with the shock of loss. When you lose a person that way, your sense of time becomes very fluid, and their presence in your life is still so recent, there’s a big part of you that can’t quite make sense of their absence. You keep picking up the phone to call them, and then

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interview

continued

of the projects? What are the forces that combine to make options for a future for our young people seem impossibly out of reach? What is the untruth of the seductive and well-used “one who made it out of the hood” storyline, and how does it obscure the broader societal responsibility for the conditions in these neighborhoods? All of these questions swirl around for me, but the deepest truth about the writing of the play is that I simply wanted to bring that family’s pain and loss into close, personal contact with audiences who may never even have heard of Brownsville, Brooklyn.

life, in work, in relationships - fears, habits, selfimposed limitations - all of those tendencies surface in maddening multitudes when I spar. Some days I beat them, some days they beat me. But even on the days when I struggle, there’s a spiritual and physical muscle being trained. I love it. In case you couldn’t tell, I could talk about it all night. :) Why did you decide to set this story in Brownsville, Brooklyn?

The short answer is that Brownsville is where the young man I read about was killed. The deeper truth is that I believe we are all responsible for the creation and continuation of circumstances that lead to the kind of challenges faced by a community like Brownsville. And then we avoid those neighborhoods because they are so “dangerous” there is a great feeling of separateness, and though most of these places are a short train ride away they can sometimes feel like they are on another planet.

What is our collective responsibility here? What housing policies create and perpetuate the troubles

As I have worked on this play, it has also remained an urgent matter to ensure that the picture of this community is whole, and not just another stereotypical depiction of the “dark, violent ghetto.”

Brownsville is a place that has seen more than its fair share of trouble, but it is also a place of great vibrancy, humor, love, and hope - and there are many wonderful people there who are fighting for change every day.

Brownsville is a place that has seen more than its fair share of trouble, but it is also a place of great vibrancy, humor, love, and hope - and there are many wonderful people there who are fighting for change every day.

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C H A R A CTERS

LENA Tray and Devine’s grandmother (Grams); a black woman in her mid-60s. She supports her grandchildren who live with her in her Brownsville neighborhood apartment.

TRAY An 18 year old black man. He is applying for a scholarship to attend college in the Fall. He loves boxing, his family and holds down a job at Starbucks.

He helps Lena care for his baby sister Devine.

DEVINE A 9 year old black and Korean American girl. She is in fourth grade and adores her brother Tray. When stressed, Devine retreats into her dream world.

MERRELL A 36 year old Korean American woman. She is Tray’s stepmother, Devine’s birth mother, and Lena’s daughter-in-law.

Merrell is a recovering addict and has been estranged from the family for four years.

JUNIOR An 18 year old black man. He lives in the Brownsville, Brooklyn neighborhood and is an old friend of Tray’s.

BROOKLYN COLLEGE STUDENT Black man, early 20s. He is played by JUNIOR actor.

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I n t h e Cla s s r o o m “What’s in a name?”

Do you think the playwright, Kimber Lee, chose the names of the characters intentionally? Why or why not?

Examine the meanings of the names of the characters in brownsville song.

LENA:

means “torch” in Swedish, “sunlight” in Greek, and “tender or devoted” in Arabic. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lena

TRAY:

in Welsh means “strong as iron.” Tray also means three and is a common nickname for those who are the third of their name (Ex John III’s nickname is Trey). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trey

DEVINE:

derives from the Latin Divinus meaning “God-like.”

MERRELL: is of English origin meaning “sparkling sea.”

JUNIOR:

of Latin origin and means “the younger one.” Occasionally used as a given name, though more usually the abbreviation Jr is used with a full name when it is identical to a father’s or grandfather’s name. http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/1/Junior

Before you read/see the play: Can you make predictions about how the characters will behave in the play based on the meaning of their character name?

After you read/see the play: Did the names of the characters foreshadow the character’s actions?

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S Y NO P SIS brownsville song does not happen linearly.

The story moves between Tray’s life and his absence in the lives of his loved ones.

T

he play begins with Lena, Tray’s grandmother. Tray has recently fallen victim to the “tragic senselessness of street violence,” but Lena reminds us that “he was not the same old story.” Tray was not a member of a gang—or even a bad kid—this was not supposed to happen to him. Lena asks to not begin the story with her but to start with Tray.

assigned to work with Tray on his scholarship essay and insists that she will not write his essay for him; Tray must write the essay in his own words. Merrell encourages Tray to “tell them who you are, do it for you.” As Tray goes to leave, Merrell apologizes for the past. Merrell and Tray’s father had been together, and Merrell took care of Tray in absence of his mother—but she left after Tray’s father was killed. Merrell confesses that she can “never make it right.”

Enter Devine, Tray’s baby sister, speaking to her 4th grade class about her brother. She attempts to show her class Tray’s New York Jets souvenir football, but when she cannot find it, she panics and retreats into her own world. In this dream world, Devine dances with her brother.

Tray finds Devine hiding under the bench. Devine tells Tray that she is not a swan but a weeping willow. Tray tries to cheer Devine up by telling her how great being a tree is and performs tree “moves” to get her to laugh. A car slows down, and its headlights sweep over Tray and carry him away.

Lena cooks in her kitchen as Tray sits at the table, working on a college scholarship essay in between checking his phone. Lena and Tray bicker over how little work Tray has done on the essay. Tray tells Lena that he has to go to boxing training for the Golden Gloves tournament. Lena worries that Tray is getting into trouble on the streets again, but Tray promises her that it is “not what you think.” As Lena watches from the window, Tray greets his friend Junior on the street, then leaves.

Merrell visits Lena to offer her condolences, but Lena tells Merrell she cannot change the past and warns her to stay away from Devine. Merrell threatens Lena, saying she could get other people involved. After Merrell leaves, Lena realizes that she is late to pick up Devine but she can’t find her keys.

As Lena searches frantically, Devine quietly enters the kitchen. Lena asks Devine how she got home, and Devine replies, “Tray walked me.” Although Lena tries to engage her, Devine remains withdrawn.

She sets the table for three and stares at the empty third place.

Devine’s class rehearses “Flight of the Swans” from Swan Lake. While the rest of her classmates are swans, Devine is a tree by the lake of swan tears. At the boxing gym, Tray jumps rope in time with the music from Swan Lake. As the music builds, Devine dances away from the classroom, out of the school building, and into the pouring rain. She finds shelter under a bench in the school playground.

A

bruptly, Tray enters the apartment carrying his gym bag. He avoids Lena and retreats to his room blaring music. Lena follows him and asks him if he is getting into trouble with Junior again. Tray tells Lena that Merrell is helping him with his scholarship essay and

Merrell enters the boxing gym. She has been

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that his coach says that Merrell has straightened out.

Lena warns Tray that Merrell cannot change and that she is worried that Merrell is trying to get to Devine.

Tray says that Merrell wasn’t the only one who messed up and that she is trying to do the right thing now. Tray encourages Lena to forgive Merrell.

return home to her family in Philly when she was in trouble. Merrell explains that her family never accepted her relationship with Tray’s dad. Tray and Merrell share nice memories about Tray’s dad.

Tray shows her a new draft of his scholarship essay.

Merrell tells him that the essay is still not in his own voice, encouraging him to put more of himself into it.

Lena sits alone on Tray’s empty bed, remembering and sobbing. Devine enters the bedroom, and they hold each other in the dark.

It is the day of Devine’s recital, and she is on stage in her tree costume, worn over Tray’s sweatshirt.

Devine dances her tree dance scanning the audience errell shows up at the Starbucks where for Lena who is not present. Devine spots someone Tray works. Tray interviews her for a in the back of the audience who she thinks is Tray job. During the interview, Tray questions and retreats to “Devine’s world” where they do a Merrell about her past and learns that brother/sister/tree dance. Devine dances her heart she hasn’t been in Philly with her out, and the audience applauds. family but that she has been in Devine is back in real time. She Brooklyn the past four years hiding spots the back of a Starbucks TRAY EXPLAINS that in shame while trying to get through apron leaving the auditorium and rehab. Tray tells Merrell that runs after it, thinking it is Tray. he, Devine, and Lena abandoning Devine traumatized her. held on tight, Tray concedes that everyone was At Starbucks, Merrell comes out didn’t let go, lost after his father was killed, but he of the back room to find Devine. doesn’t understand why Merrell left Devine asks for her brother and that is how them. He explains that he, Devine, Tray and Merrell tells her that he they have survived. and Lena held on tight, didn’t let go, isn’t here. Devine says she saw and that is how they have survived. him at school, and Merrell tells Devine that she was the one at At her apartment, Lena confronts Tray’s friend the auditorium. Merrell takes Devine back home to Junior and asks him why he hasn’t been to see her.

Lena.

Lena demands to know how Tray died. Although Junior is hesitant, Lena explains that nothing is worse Lena invites Merrell in for a snack, confessing that than losing your son and grandson to violence. Junior she feels awful for missing Devine’s recital but that explains that Tray was killed just because he stopped her memory isn’t always good. Lena and Merrell to talk to Junior. A rival gang member shot Tray reconcile. Lena opens a letter from the Flatbush four times in the chest for no good reason. Junior Gardens Community Fund that says Tray won a promises Lena revenge for Tray. Lena tells Junior $5000 scholarship with his essay. that Tray’s daddy died of four bullets in his chest and that no one deserves a street death. She urges Junior Tray reads his essay aloud. He explains that the best to pay for Tray’s death by living a long life. parts of him are those he received from the people he loved.

At Starbucks, Tray asks Merrell why she didn’t

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S Y NO P SIS

continued

I n t h e Cla s s r o o m Sound and light figure prominently in the telling of brownsville song. Light shifts and sound cues bring the audience back and forth in time so that the scenes “can flow one into the other in rhythm” as the playwright suggests in her notes on setting.

LIGHTING defines the different places in the scenes of the play. It tells us the time of day, season, location. Light also has an emotional quality. Light creates mood and can help us understand the emotional state of the characters.

• Have students imagine the ways in which light defines a location and affects mood.

Have students read the play paying attention to the light shifts. What colors of light would suggest an urban, concrete environment? How do different colors of light affect mood?

SOUND also helps define environment. Think about the different sounds one hears in a city.

• Have students create a soundscape of an urban neighborhood. Divide students into groups and suggest sounds to each group one at a time until the classroom sounds like an urban city block.

Hint: Cars driving by, loud music-sub woofers in cars, car alarms/horns, cell phones, rattle of subway underground, voices-shouting, sound of shoes on cement sidewalks, building doors opening/closing etc.

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P O W ER & P RIVI L E G E DEFINITIONS INSTITUTIONAL POWER: The ability or official authority to decide what is best for others. The ability to decide who will have access to resources. The capacity to exercise control over others.

favors, and benefits to members of dominant groups at the expense of members of target groups. In the United States, privilege is granted to people who have membership in one or more of these social identity groups: • White people • Able-bodied people • Heterosexuals • Males • Christians • Middle or owning class people • Middle-aged people • English-speaking people

PREJUDICE: A judgment or opinion that is formed on insufficient grounds before facts are known or in disregard of facts that contradict it. Prejudices are learned and can be unlearned.

STEREOTYPE: An exaggerated or distorted belief that attributes characteristics to members of a particular group, simplistically lumping them together and refusing to acknowledge differences among members of the group.

Privilege is characteristically invisible to people who have it. People in dominant groups often believe that they have earned the privileges that they enjoy or that everyone could have access to these privileges if only they worked to earn them. In fact, privileges are unearned and they are granted to people in the dominant groups whether they want those privileges or not, and regardless of their stated intent.

Unlike targets of oppression, people in dominant groups are frequently unaware that they are members of the dominant group due to the privilege of being able to see themselves as persons rather than stereotypes.

OPPRESSION: The combination of prejudice and institutional power which creates a system that discriminates against some groups (often called “target groups”) and benefits other groups (often called “dominant groups”). Examples of these systems are racism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, classism, ageism, and anti-Semitism. These systems enable dominant groups to exert control over target groups by limiting their rights, freedom, and access to basic resources such as health care, education, employment, and housing.

Four Levels of Oppression/isms” and Change: • Personal: Values, Beliefs, Feelings • Interpersonal: Actions, Behaviors, Language • Institutional: Rules, Policies, Procedures • Cultural: Beauty, Truth, Right

TARGETS OF OPPRESSION: Targets of oppression are members of social identity groups that are disenfranchised, exploited, and victimized in a variety of ways by agents of oppression and the agent’s systems or institutions.

Targets of oppression are subject to containment, having their choices and movements restricted and limited, are seen and treated as expendable and replaceable, without an individual identity apart from their group, and are compartmentalized into narrowly defined roles.

PRIVILEGE: Privilege operates on personal, interpersonal, cultural, and institutional levels and gives advantages,

Targets of oppression are people subjected to exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence. Targets of oppression are kept in their place by the agent of oppression’s

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DEFINITIONS

ideology, which supports oppression by denying that it exists and blames the conditions of oppression on actions of the targets.

continued

racist allies involves exploring and understanding how privilege has operated in our own lives.

Think about your behavior when you are introducing yourselves to new acquaintances or groups…what aspects of your target or agent status do you share as part of your introduction? Why or why not?

Targets of oppression have fewer “life chances” or benefits as a result of their membership in a particular social group. As examples, there is a higher likelihood that African American males will be arrested than Caucasian males; there is a greater chance that males will have a higher salary than females; and there is a higher probability that persons using a wheelchair for mobility will have fewer job opportunities than non-disabled people.

RACE: Someone has said that “race is a pigment of our imagination.” That is a clever way of saying that race is actually an invention. It is a way of arbitrarily dividing humankind into different groups for the purpose of keeping some on top and some at the bottom; some in and some out. And its invention has very clear historical roots; namely, colonialism.

“Race is an arbitrary socio-biological classification created by Europeans during the time of world wide colonial expansion, to assign human worth and social status, using themselves as the model of humanity, for the purpose of legitimizing white power and white skin privilege” (Crossroads-Interfaith Ministry for Social Justice).

AGENTS OF OPPRESSION: Agents of oppression are members of the dominant social groups in the United States, privileged by birth or acquisition, which knowingly or unknowingly exploit and reap unfair advantage over members of groups that are targets of oppression. Agents of oppression are also trapped by the system of institutionalized oppression that benefits them and are confined to roles and prescribed behaviors. In United States culture, agents have the power to define the “norm” for what is reality and they see themselves as normal or proper, whereas targets are likely to be labeled as deviant, evil, abnormal, substandard, or defective.

To acknowledge that race is a historical arbitrary invention does not mean that it can be, thereby, easily dispensed with as a reality in people’s lives.

To acknowledge race as an invention of colonialism is not the same as pretending to be color blind or declaring, “I don’t notice people’s race!” Our world has been ordered and structured on the basis of skin color and that oppressive ordering and structuring is RACISM.

OPPRESSION AND POWER DIFFERENTIAL: Look over these definitions and locate yourself on both sides. Where are you a target of oppression?

Where are you an agent of oppression? How are you feeling about this list? Are there surprises for you?

RACISM: Racism is a system in which one race maintains supremacy over another race through a set of attitudes, behaviors, social structures, and institutional power. Racism is a “system of structured dis-equality where the goods, services, rewards, privileges, and benefits of the society are available to individuals according to their presumed membership in” particular racial groups (Barbara

For many of us, it is much more difficult to identify and describe the ways in which we experience the world as agents of oppression, because these characteristics are privileged. Privilege often operates in an unconscious, invisible manner. We believe that part of the process of becoming anti-

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INTERNALIZED OPPRESSION: The process whereby people in the target group make oppression internal and personal by coming to believe that the lies, prejudices, and stereotypes about them are true. Members of target groups exhibit internalized oppression when they alter their attitudes, behaviors, speech, and self-confidence to reflect the stereotypes and norms of the dominant group. Internalized oppression can create low selfesteem, self-doubt, and even self-loathing. It can also be projected outward as fear, criticism, and distrust of members of one’s target group.

Love, 1994. Understanding Internalized Oppression). A person of any race can have prejudices about people of other races, but only members of the dominant social group can exhibit racism because racism is prejudice plus the institutional power to enforce it.

ALLY: An ally is a person whose commitment to dismantling oppression is reflected in a willingness to do the following: • Educate oneself about oppression • Learn from and listen to people who are targets of oppression • Examine and challenge one’s own prejudices, stereotypes, and assumptions • Work through feelings of guilt, shame, and defensiveness to understand what is beneath them and what needs to be healed • Learn and practice the skills of challenging oppressive remarks, behaviors, policies, and institutional structures • Act collaboratively with members of the target group to dismantle oppression

Definitions were abridged from: © Leaven 2003 Doing Our Own Work: A Seminar for Anti-Racist White Women © Visions, Inc. and the MSU Extension Multicultural Awareness Workshop From amsa.org

I n t h e Cla s s r o o m We often define ourselves by our oppression.

List the ways in which you are privileged.

How can you use your privilege to be an ally?

How does your privilege/oppression impact how you will view Brownsville?

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T H EMES Family Love Read the excerpt from James Baldwin’s, 1964, “Nothing Personal” that Lee uses as a preface to the script. Then read the excerpt of Tray speaking to Lena about Merrell. What are Lee and Baldwin saying? Are they speaking to one family or a greater audience?

“The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.”

TRAY She your blood too LENA The hell she is TRAY S he Devine’s blood and We Devine’s blood How you gon sort out blood yo Cell by cell Pick the ones you gon care for Nah We all mixed in Grams No matter what we thinkin bout it We all gon sink or swim together just the same

Perseverance & Survival “Because the story pivots around a deep loss, there may be a tendency to sink into that emotion, but this should be resisted.The scenes, even the ones after Tray’s death, must drive forward, as we all must do in life even in the midst of heartbreak. Especially for Merrell, a healthy measure of trust that the depth of the feeling is present, and simply saying the words to get the job done will be most effective. Merrell presents a dual challenge: to stay present and purposeful and strong, without singing into regret and pain or playing her angry or defensive—dry humor is a useful tool.”

– Kimber Lee “a note from the playwright” While Lee is addressing the actors and directors of brownsville in her note she mentions, “The scenes, even the ones after Tray’s death, must drive forward, as we all must do in life even in the midst of heartbreak.” What are some examples from recent news, literature, or history you have read that exemplify the idea of moving forward?

Is this a trait that all humans have? Why is it necessary?

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Violence Below is a piece of The Roots song “How I Got Over” Lee uses to open the script, an excerpt of brownsville song, and a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. How do these three pieces (song, play, and speech) tie together? Write a brief response or discuss as a class.

“Before I go back to the Heavenly Father Pray for me if it ain’t too much bother Whatever don’t break me a-make me stronger I feel like I can’t take too much longer It’s too much lyin, and too much fightin I’m all cried out ‘cause I grew up cryin They all got a sales pitch I ain’t buyin They tryna convince me that I ain’t tryin We uninspired, we unadmired And tired and sick of being sick and tired of livin in the hood where the shots are fired We dyin to live, so to live, we dyin You just like I am…”

Link to the full song “How I Got Over” by the Roots https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI4D1QOLGuM&noredirect=1

JUNIOR I swear to you on my life This ain’t gon go unanswered Ima even this shit up Ima bring it to SJ same as he brough to Tray LENA D id you know Did Tray ever tell you how his daddy died.

Four in his chest.

I remember the day you were born Anthony Please Please Let me run into you someday on some sidewalk twenty years from now Let me see you grown strong and happy and hear you sayin ‘You was right Ms. Lena’ Excerpt from brownsville song “Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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T H EMES

continued

Racism brownsville song is a very diverse cast with no white characters. Still racism is a large theme within the play. Look at the short scene Lee creates between Tray and Devine to bring to light the forces around the family, without introducing another character. Referencing the Power & Privilege Definitions, which factors do you think are present in the conversation between Tray and Devine?

TRAY Wait Hold up You gotta be a tree DEVINE Yeah TRAY What the other kids DEVINE They the swans TRAY And you a tree DEVINE Yeah I do like She does her tree pose—she throws a little swagger on it.

DEVINE And the swans They be doin like (She waves her arms, sketching in the swans flapping around and past her tree, excited to be showing the dance) TRAY Nah nah That’s F—ed up man DEVINE Well But cuz TRAY Why you gotta be the tree DEVINE I dunno

I n t h e Cla s s r o o m 5 Tips For Being A Good Ally https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dg86g-QlM0 Race and Privilege in America-Ferguson http://www.pbs.org/specials/town-hall/america-after-ferguson/talk/race-privilege/

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W OR L D OF THE PLAY 23

SETTIN G Where is Brownsville, Brooklyn? brownsville song (b-side for tray) takes place in late spring, mid-summer and late summer of the same year. The scenes occur in various locations in and around the Brownsville and East Flatbush neighborhoods in Brooklyn, NY.

What does a city block in the Brownsville, Brooklyn neighborhood look like?

TOP: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Brownsvillebk2.JPG/440px-Brownsvillebk2.JP BOTTOM: http://41.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kpd2tqzXJA1qa01j6o1_500.jpg

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BROWNSVILLE

TIME MAGAZINE, feature on the photography of REED YOUNG Published: Tuesday, January 31, 2012

B

Many Brownsville residents say that the area has more sneaker stores than after-school programs. Brownsville has a total of three sneaker stores. A few years ago, Penny began hosting an informal after-school program so that children in her building would have a safe place to go after school.

rownsville, located in east Brooklyn, has long been one of New York City’s most dangerous neighborhoods. But even as crime rates reached record lows in the borough in 2009, violence has continued to increase in Brownsville, which has remained untouched by the gentrification seen in so many other parts of Brooklyn. Inspired by the rapid changes in his own neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Reed Young began researching places that hadn’t seen such gentrification over the last few decades.

“I always tried to kind of stay away from New York stories just because I think it’s so easy to do a personal story in New York if you live here,” the Brooklyn-based photographer says. “But once I started doing research, I found out that Brownsville has similar crime rates to a place like East New York,

“Sixx” has been a mentor to his nephew Brasco since Brasco was a small child; Brasco feels comfortable only around those whom Sixx trusts. Every person in the gang to which both men belong is known by his “gun name.” Sixx was named for his very first gun, a “six shot.”

25

B RO W NSVI L L E

continued

Wendy’s son Tyquan was shot and killed in July 2010 after playing basketball in a court at the Howard housing projects. As a Sethlow resident, Tyquan was not welcome on the Howard courts.

but is almost a third of its size. Brownsville is one square mile of public housing, basically.”

asked if it was cool to just walk around and kind of talk to people to get a feeling of the neighborhood,” Young says. “And he said, ‘Hell no. You’ve got to be kidding.” In the same breath, Jackson called a Brownsville resident named Randy, who eventually led Young and his friend around the neighborhood for the project.

In May 2011, Young and a friend, who does social work, spent two weeks photographing various community members in Brownsville, from gang members to a UPS driver who has to deliver packages with a police officer because he was held up at gunpoint. But before beginning to shoot, Young and his friend first met with Greg Jackson, who runs a recreation center in the neighborhood, after reading an article about him in the New York Times. “We

Though some people tried to rough up Young and his friend over the two weeks, the photo shoots were, for the most part, hassle-free. The most intense moment from the project took place when Young

26

photographed a gang member and his mother in their doorway. “That was the most tension I’ve ever felt doing a photo shoot,” Young says. “Because he was head of the gang, all of his people were around, and it was on this block that’s really, really, really tough.”

Young walked away from the project seeing Brownsville divided between the good and the bad, with little in the middle. “There’s a saying in Brownsville that says if you’re 25, you’re either dead, or in jail or you’re done with the gang life,” he says.

“You’re one of the three because you can’t be much older and be out of that category.” The photographer hasn’t returned to Brownsville since shooting the series, though he hopes to in the future. “I want to go and do a follow up and even talk to a lot of the same people,” he says. “But I wonder if it’s too early yet.

Change happens really slowly there.”

Donte is one of eight who live in this three-bedroom apartment on the sixth floor. He is in the third grade and wants to be a firefighter when he grows up.

Until 1960, Brownsville was a predominantly Jewish neighborhood. Leon Sternhell is now one of only two Jews still operating a business in the community. He has watched Brownsville’s crime rates increase as shops and storefronts are pushed out of the neighborhood.

In response to the ongoing street violence, Sternhell locks the front door after every customer enters, and notes that if anything, this improves business, as his customers appreciate the safety precaution.

27

b r o w n s v i ll e b r i ll i a n c e : t h e hu m a n s o f n e w y o r k s t o r y It all began with two pictures of a young boy from Brownsville.

The first caption read: “When you live here, you don’t have too many fears. You’ve seen pretty much everything that life can throw at you. When I was nine, I saw a guy get pushed off the roof of that building right there.”

The second asked: “Who’s influenced you the most in your life?”

“My principal, Ms. Lopez.”

“How has she influenced you?” “ When we get in trouble, she doesn’t suspend us. She calls us to her office and explains to us how society was built down around us. And she tells us that each time somebody fails out of school, a new jail cell gets built. And one time she made every student stand up, one at a time, and she told each one of us that we matter.”

Three days later, HONY was back to the same story.

A couple days back, I posted the portrait of a young man who described an influential principal in his life by the name of Ms. Lopez. Yesterday, I was fortunate to meet Ms. Lopez at her school, Mott Hall Bridges Academy.

“This is a neighborhood that doesn’t necessarily expect much from our children, so at Mott Hall Bridges Academy we set our expectations very high. We don’t call the children ‘students,’ we call them ‘scholars.’ Our color is purple. Our scholars wear purple and so do our staff. Because purple is the color of royalty. I want my scholars to know that even if they live in a housing project, they are part of a royal lineage going back to great African kings and queens. They belong to a group of individuals who invented astronomy and math. And they belong to a group of individuals who have endured so much history and still overcome. When you tell people you’re from Brownsville, their face cringes up. But there are children here that need to know that they are expected to succeed.”

MRS. LOPEZ

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Humans of New York was started by a man named Brandon in 2010 who thought it would be “really could to create an exhaustive catalogue of New York City’s inhabitants.” With this in mind, Brandon “set out to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers and plot their photos on a map,” but somewhere along the way, HONY began to take on a “much different character.” Brandon started collecting quotes and short stories from the people he met, including these snippets alongside his photographs.

Together, these “portraits and captions” became the subjects of a vibrant blog. Now with over 8 million followers on social media, HONY provides a “worldwide audience with daily glimpses into the lives of strangers in New York City.”

Over the next few days and weeks, HONY focused on Vidal, Ms. Lopez, Mott Hall Bridges Academy, and Brownsville. Here are some notable excerpts: ADRIAN “What’s your biggest goal in life?” “ I want to make it out of the hood.

I don’t have to go that far. But if I can just live an inch outside, then I’ll feel safe and know that I’m straight.”

Adrian is the student government president at Mott Hall Bridges Academy.

ADRIAN 29

hu m a n s o f n e w y o r k s t o r y

MS. LOPEZ: SUMMER PROGRAMS

continued

students have a safe place where they can continue to grow outside of school.”

“We have a major need for a summer program,” she explained. “Learning stops during the summer for my scholars. We have what is called a ‘summer slide.’ My scholars can’t even go outside. It’s too dangerous. As an exercise, my teachers broke into small groups and took a walk through the community. We wanted to understand how our students live. We went inside the housing projects. The parks and playgrounds were empty because it’s too dangerous. Even the library isn’t a safe zone. Just last Saturday, one of my scholars had two guns pulled on him while he was walking to the community center. In broad daylight.

It’s just too dangerous to be outside, so my scholars stay inside all summer. They aren’t learning to ride horses or drive boats, and they certainly aren’t traveling. They miss out on the enrichment available to children from more affluent neighborhoods. They need a safe place where they can do activities and continue to grow their minds. I tried to put together a program last summer, but I couldn’t afford it. I couldn’t really put together any activities, and I could only use teachers-in-training. I need the funds to put together a program with my own teachers so my

VIDAL’S FAMILY:

“Vidal is very loving. I sometimes worry that he might be a bit too loving, and someone will take advantage of him one day. Anything that needs to be done, Vidal does it. He does laundry. He cooks. He cleans.

He always tells me: ‘Mom, you rest. I’ll do it.’ One time he didn’t have any money to get me a gift for Mother’s Day, so he wrapped up some things we had around the house, and gave them to me.”

MS. MAURICIERE DE GOVIA, THE SUPERINTENDENT OF BROWNSVILLE’S SCHOOL DISTRICT

“Nadia is fearless. When she says that every kid can learn, she means it. And not only does she mean it, she puts systems in place to make it happen. It all

vidal

vidal’s family 30

MR. TURNER:

begins with high expectations. When students arrive at this school, many of them are very behind. But Nadia sets high expectations on every one. She never says: ‘This student lives in the shelter so he deserves a break.” Or ‘Because of his parents, this student can’t be expected to keep up.’ She says: ‘This is how we do things here, and there is no sidestepping.’”

“I grew up down the block, but I used to get bussed to school in a white area. There were always a lot of people in that neighborhood who would make us feel like we didn’t belong. They would try to send a message that blacks aren’t allowed. But the principal of the school was a Jewish man named Irving Rahinsky. And every morning, when we got off the bus, Mr. Rahinksy would be standing there at the curb, waiting for us. He would shake each one of our hands as we stepped off the bus, and he made us feel like we belonged. So now that I’m a teacher, I come in early every single morning, so that I can stand right here and make sure my students get a hug and a handshake when they arrive.”

“People have such a horrible concept of what is going on in Brownsville. But there are leaders here who are committed to transforming this neighborhood.

Ms. Lopez is exceptional, but I could introduce you to many more principals who are just as committed to transforming the lives of their students. There’s Craig Garber at Brooklyn Environmental Exploration School— it’s just incredible what he’s done at that place. There’s Dr. Thomas McBryde from Mott Hall IV. There’s Stacey Walsh from Brownsville Collaborative Middle School. There’s Robin Williams Davson at Brooklyn Landmark. I could go on and on and on. There’s a whole group of educators who are revved up to rebrand Brownsville and the world is going to know about it.” #BrownsvilleBrilliance

VIDAL:

“The buildings are filthy in the housing projects.

Some people poop and pee in the hallways. And some of the people around here aren’t friendly. I don’t think it’s a sadness or an anger that they feel, but a sort of emptiness. You look around and see a lot of negative things, and you can’t help but feel like you’re a part of something negative, and that maybe

MS. DE GOVIA

MR. TURNER

31

hu m a n s o f n e w y o r k s t o r y

you’re something negative. Part of me wants to leave.

But part of me wants to stay, because I have a lot of family nearby, and I don’t want to live far away from them.”

continued

people. But all of you gave people a reason to feel a little less broken. And the craziest thing about all of this is that it’s happening in Brownsville. Before this, people watched the news and read the newspapers, and some people even thought that all we do here is fight and act crazy. But now there are so many people out there that care about you and want to know more about you. People are even emailing me and asking if they can meet you and mentor you.

Not just people from Brownsville, not just people from Brooklyn, not just people in New York, but people all over the world. So I need all of you to work a little harder. Whenever you don’t feel like doing your homework, I need you to remember that you’re helping tell the story of Brownsville to people all over the world.”

VIDAL FAMILY 2:

“I try to be very open with them about everything, because I want them to feel that they can be open with me about everything. I work as a nanny, and work is steady right now, but sometimes it’s slow.

And when it’s slow, I explain that we need to cut back financially. On Friday we have family night, where we watch a movie and the kids get to choose what food we eat. But they know that when Mom isn’t working, we can’t have family night.”

“I have something to admit to all of you. Before all of this happened, I was about to give up. I was broken.

I felt like typing my resignation. I told my mother: ‘Mom, I don’t think I can do it anymore. Because I don’t think my scholars care. And I don’t think they believe in themselves enough to care. I’m afraid they don’t think they’re good enough.’ And she told me

MRS. LOPEZ ON FEELING BROKEN:

“Before all of this happened for our school, I felt broken. And I think the world felt a little broken too, because a lot of bad things have been happening lately, especially between black people and white

MRS. LOPEZ

vidal’s family

32

to pray on it. But I told her, ‘I might be too angry to pray.’ And I know this is hard to believe, because you guys have never seen me break. But I was broken. It’s just like when you see your mom break down. You only see your mom cry when she’s been fighting so hard for you and she doesn’t think you care. That’s how I felt. But then a couple nights later I was with my daughter at a Broadway show, and we were waiting for the show to start, and I started to get all these text messages from my teachers and former students. And then I saw Vidal’s face pop up on my screen. And my first thought was that something

bad had happened. Because that’s normally the case around here when someone’s photo shows up unexpectedly. And the moment I realized that Vidal had said something nice about me, the usher came over and made me turn off my phone. When intermission came, my daughter said: ‘Mom, we’ve got to find out what’s happening.’ So we went and sat in the car. And I read what Vidal said, and I began to read the comments. And tears started coming down my face. Because even though I always tell you that you matter, up until that moment, I didn’t feel like I mattered.”

While sharing these stories, HONY also asked for people to donate to the school’s annual Harvard field trip, but the people of the internet did not stop at the $100,000 goal mark. In less than 20 days, HONY raised $1,417,894. Now, they have established 10 years of Harvard trips, 10 years of summer programs, and a scholarship for Mott Hall Bridges Academy graduates. Vidal, the boy whose picture and kind words started it all, will be the first recipient.

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HEADING 51 PT

Promising young boxer Tray Franklin Franklin was just 20 after being fatally shot in Brownsville, Brooklyn Copy will be 10.5/14 Gill Sans Regular. Copy will be 10.5/14 Gill Sans Regular. Copy will be 10.5/14 Gill Sans Regular. Copy will be 10.5/14 Gill Sans Regular. Copy will be 10.5/14 Gill Sans Regular.Published: Tuesday,

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS July 3, 2012, 4:00 AM

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kids shot dead in their 20s and younger in this city before they’ve even lived a life.

“I’ll tell you who Tray Franklin was,” says Pat Russo, a retired narcotics detective who trained Franklin in a vital program called Cops and Kids Boxing.

“Tray was the typical kid who comes into the gym off the bullet-crazy ghetto street and laces on a pair of boxing gloves to try to straighten out his life with guts, hard work and discipline.

“Tray was a good kid who lived with his mom after his dad was murdered when Tray was 5 and wrote an essay last year that won him a $1,000 Joey Fariello Scholarship from the Daily News.

“Tray went to school by day, worked nights and squeezed the gym in between. He was eliminated in his third fight in last year’s Golden Gloves and came right back to the gym because he knew that turning failure into harder work would bring eventual success.

“That’s who Tray Franklin was.”

Promising young boxer and Kingsborough Community College student Tray Franklin was shot to death in Brownsville, Brooklyn.

Last Thursday night, Franklin slipped out of a party with two pals in Brownsville to shoot some craps against the wall.

Last Friday, the headline on a Daily News story read: “13 men shot as gunfire erupts across city.”

“A few guys they didn’t know defiantly strutted right through their dice game,” Russo says. “Tray said, ‘Yo, wassup with that?’ ”

When the gunsmoke cleared on the corner of Sutter and Ralph Aves. in Brownsville, Brooklyn, Tray Franklin, 20, a Kingsborough Community College student and promising young boxer, lay dead from another gun fired by a two-bit punk.

One of the young intruders pulled a gun and opened fire. All three dice players were hit.

Two survived.

Tray Franklin would never again climb into a ring, kiss his mom goodnight or attend another college class.

Tray Franklin’s name didn’t make the story.

But he is part of the neverending obituary of minority

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loses fightHto mean streets EADING 31 PT

t w o - l ine head l ine

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“I have always wanted to attend college outside New York City.

Aside from receiving a good education, I would be able to broaden my horizons and experience new forms of culture.

One of my teachers told me that the reason we learn about all these different places we might never visit, like Egypt or the Pacific Ocean, is because in life you have to make adjustments and be flexible. If you’re not used to Mafia guys was anti-Italian. It’s changes in school, how are you about stopping the goddamned going to face them in life?” senseless shootings!”

Now Tray Franklin faces the Russo says his idea of a tough guy gravedigger. is a man who goes to school, gets “I challenge the (Charles) Barrons, a career and works to supports a (Hakeem) Jeffries and the (Rev. family.

Al) Sharptons,” says Russo. “Do “Tray Franklin was a genuine something! Tray Franklin can’t tough guy,” Russo said. be just another black teen shot dead in the ghetto. It’s gotta stop.

In his essay, Franklin laid out I was a cop in Brooklyn when the his fight plan for life: “Boxing Colombo crime family had street has taught me the value of selfwars. We stopped and frisked discipline and the confidence to every known gangster. We tapped strive for great things in life. . . . their phones. If this punk had been Boxing helps me prepare for the stopped and frisked that night, future, because just like in life, I Tray would be alive. This isn’t have goals to accomplish, obstacles about race any more than stopping to overcome and challenges to face.

35

“This scholarship would help me set myself up with a Plan A and a Plan B. If my career as a boxer doesn’t flourish, I would have an education to fall back on.”

Pat Russo spends his life trying to rescue kids like Tray Franklin, and he mourns when the violent street wins.

“This punk shooter will be caught and spend his life in jail,” he says.

“And Tray is dead. Two senselessly wasted lives. And some people want to blame the cops who stop and frisk to get the goddamned guns off the street? Get real.”

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37

S U P P L EMENT A L M A TERI A L S

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BOXING’S RETURN TO BROOKLYN AND BROWNSVILLE’S THIRST FOR BOXING Excerpt from Patrick Rosal’s article in Greatland http://grantland.com/features/boxing-return-brooklyn-brownsville-thirst-boxing/

T

he day before the fight, I found myself in Brownsville, the neighborhood that produced Tyson, Bowe, and Judah. It’s a tough part of town — been that way for at least a generation — but another local fighter, 34-year-old Martin Wright, offered to show me around. Wright’s record is nothing out of this world. He’s 11-1-2 with five knockouts against mostly no-name competition, and he’s the current U.S. New York State welterweight belt holder, whatever that means.

Like so many fighters, Wright started training at Gleason’s, the legendary gym on the Brooklyn waterfront where fighters from Jake LaMotta to Mike Tyson have worked out over the years. Eventually, however, Wright moved over to Bed-Stuy Boxing. “No gym like Bed-Stuy,” he told me. “You only have one ring. One boxing ring in there, unlike Gleason’s. They have three. So you couldn’t run from the sparring.

You couldn’t run from the fight in Bed-Stuy.”

Bed-Stuy Boxing, now called the New Bed-Stuy Boxing Center, was the project of a man named George Washington, who had been a sparring partner for Joe Louis. The gym has struggled to stay open, and Wright says its presence in the community has changed significantly. “You go by — you cannot tell if it’s open or closed,” he explained. “You go by there now, it’s more than likely open, but the gates are down. The gates are always down.” Wright says that the youth who would normally take advantage of the gym don’t even know that it’s available to them.

Mike Tyson moved to Brownsville when he was 10 years old. He was orphaned at 16 and left in the care of his boxing trainer.

So with his old neighborhood gym foundering, Martin, who has been living in Brownsville for about 10 years, dreams of building a new one. “I would like to open a gym,” he told me, “right on the corner of the block where I’m at. It used to be a supermarket and next to that used to be a laundromat. That would be big, if my name could be on that — alone — that would do more for me than even winning any belt, any Showtime, any HBO [contracts]. That’s my dream.

That right there.”

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B OXIN G

continued

A T L A S CO P S A ND KIDS B OXIN G C L U B Atlas Cops and Kids is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit running three free community gyms in Brooklyn and Staten Island.

We offer boxing instruction, tutoring, and mentorship to create champions in and out of the ring. We are privately funded and in need of support to continue our work.

See their blog at atlascopsandkids.blogspot.com

I n t h e Cla s s r o o m In the play, boxing can be viewed in several ways. Two examples are as a means of getting out of your current situation/community and into a better one and as a coping mechanism or means of stress release.

What are different ways that you cope with the stresses in your life?

What things do you put your energy toward in hopes of improving your situation?

40

FOSSIL HEART

By Elijah, 17

Elijah, 17, is an honors student at Academy for Young Writers in East New York. He is a talented track athlete who just took up boxing and already shows great promise. Elijah wrote this rap for his father Jahmien, who was shot to death by police when Elijah was seven.

“Writing poems relaxes my mind, lets me explore, and helps me to not feel trapped,” Elijah says.

Heart beating I could feel it in my chest cause I’ve been having nightmares waking up in cold sweats, things been getting out of order Where do I start? suffering from broken Hearts and a pinch of paranoia Drop tears for my brothers that done died arose from the jungle struggling to stay alive Tryna make this rap work so I can get up out the ville only nine years left we gone make it pass 25 yo Ima ride you put my family together but made my momma lose it so when I see you brother its gone be a horror movie See I was only a toddler I couldn’t sleep at night now I got em going stupid like retarded groupies. you took my father away you a loser brother you took one of mines now I got a group of brothers because of you I’ve been living with a bad temper It’s on sight when I see you Ima need some supervision.

I had to rap like that to shine like this through all the broads I hit and the bars I spit it couldn’t equal to all the tears for the father I miss I got some anger bottled up so I got my bottles up and I drunk my life away like a Jew would do in Hanukkah Heart trapped up in a fossil so I’m crying by a large amount Drinking all this liquor Just drinking till I’m throwing up but you know it’s love when you was alive this was your dream now it’s mines so I’m doing it for the both of us.

41

NE W H A VEN NEI G H B OR H OODS

IT wasn’t long ago that New Haven was the poster child for the troubled college town, a place where the graduates of prep schools rubbed shoulders with the trauma of the mid-’80s and early-’90s crack epidemic. While New Haven’s hard luck reputation lingers, it’s no longer fully deserved. The city’s historic center, which fans out around twin lawns planted with towering elms, maintains an old New England character, with neo-Gothic towers, well-aged dive bars and working-class neighborhoods of faded but elegant Victorian houses.

While town and gown have worked to attract brand-name businesses to downtown (among them a new Apple Store and Shake Shack), New Haven remains complex and layered — a city of taco trucks and barbecue shacks as well as high-end clothiers and stylish cocktail lounges.

– The New York Times “36 hours in New Haven”

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NEWHALLVILLE

brownsVILLE

Newhallville has the highest rate of violent crime in New Haven, and one of the poorest.

The estimated chance of being a victim of a crime in Newhallville is 1 in 13. The estimated chance of being a victim of a violent crime in Newhallville is 1 in 58.

In Brownsville the estimated chance of being a victim in a crime is 1 in 45 and the estimated chance of being a victim of a violent crime is 1 in 165. A part of the reason for the discrepancy is the sheer density of Brownsville.

New Haven violent crime breakdown Crime Murder Rape Robbery Assault

New Haven 19 76 770 778

New Haven /100K 14 58 587 594

Connecticut /100K

National /100K

2 27 98 135

5 25 109 229

New York violent crime breakdown Crime Murder Rape Robbery Assault

New York 335 1,112 19,170 31,767

New York /100K 4 13 228 378

New York /100K 3 17 139 235

National /100K 5 25 109 229

I n t h e Cla s s r o o m Take a look at the graphs comparing violent crimes rates in New Haven and New York . Note the similarities and the differences.

Although the play is very specifically about Brownsville, NY, how could it be about New Haven? Does New Haven have stories similar to Tray’s?

FREE WRITE: Write a short story or poem inspired by how someone in your community overcame a specific struggle or challenge.

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literary connections Lorraine Hansberry ● • A Raisin in the Sun

James Baldwin with Richard Avedon’s portraits: Nothing Personal 1964

August Wilson ● • Fences

“The light that’s in your eyes / reminds me of the skies / that shine above us every day-so wrote a contemporary lover, out of God knows what agony, what hope, and what despair. But he saw the light in the eyes, which is the only light there is in the world, and honored it and trusted it; and will always be able to find it; since it is always there, waiting to be found.

One discovers the light in darkness, that is what darkness is for; but everything in our lives depends on how we bear the light. It is necessary, while in darkness, to know that there is a light somewhere, to know that in oneself, waiting to be found, there is a light. What the light reveals is danger, and what it demands is faith. “ – James Baldwin

Langston Hughs ● • Harlem

HHH kimber lee includes the following excerpts at the beginning of brownsville:

“Before I go back to the Heavenly Father Pray for me if it ain’t too much bother Whatever don’t break me a-make me stronger I feel like I can’t take too much longer It’s too much lyin, and too much fightin I’m all cried out ‘cause I grew up cryin They all got a sales pitch I ain’t buyin They tryna convince me that I ain’t tryin We uninspired, we unadmired And tired and sick of being sick and tired of livin in the hood where the shots are fired We dyin to live, so to live, we dyin You just like I am…”

Film Bullets Over Brownsville by Damon Diddit and Natural Langdon is a cautionary tale that chronicles the lives of four Brooklyn housing project residents caught in an absurd web of violence linked by situations that will forever change their lives. This film is an artistic, thought provoking and entertaining exhibition of moral truths that sends a crucial message to the world.

(The Roots, 2010, “How I Got Over”)

“The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.”

Do the Right Thing by Spike Lee dives head-first into a maelstrom of racial and social ills, using as his springboard the hottest day of the year on one block in Brooklyn, NY.

(James Baldwin, 1964, “Nothing Personal”)

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“ F L I G H T OF T H E S W A NS ” from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake Devine is a tree by the lake of swan tears Her classmates are the Swans Swan Lake is a tale of tragic love Act I

Act III

It is Prince Siegfried’s twenty-first birthday party. His mother, the Queen, arrives to give him a present, a crossbow, and reminds him that to become King he is obligated to choose a bride at tomorrow evening’s ball. Siegfried leaves his party to seek solace in the woods.

The castle: Siegfried struggles with his responsibility to marry as prospective brides are presented to him at a great ball but Siegfried can only think of Odette. Just then, an un-invited guest arrives. It is von Rothbart with his daughter Odile-who looks just like Odette. Siegfried is seduced by Odile and proclaims he will chose her for a bride. von Rothbart asks Siegfried to “swear his fidelity”. Siegfried realizes only too late that he has been tricked and that Odile is not Odette. Next, Odette is seen weeping tears of betrayal at the castle door. Siegfried rushes to the lake to find Odette.

Act II Later by the lake, Siegfried sees a beautiful swan in flight. He takes aim but he is astonished to see the swan transform into a beautiful girl. The girl reveals that her name is Odette and she confesses to Siegfried that she is truly a princess under the spell an evil sorcerer and for eternity her fate is to be a swan by day and only in darkness can she be human.

Odette tells Siegfried that only if a virgin youth falls in love and swears his fidelity to marries her will the spell be broken. She tells Siegfried that the lake they are at is filled with her mother’s tears. At that moment the sorcerer appears and Odette protects the sorcerer from Siegfried’s crossbow. She knows that if the sorcerer is killed, she will die too. Dawn comes and Odette returns to a swan.

Act IV At the lake a great storm rages. Siegfried finds Odette and begs for forgiveness. Odette tells Siegfried that she must kill herself or forever remain a swan. Siegfried declares that he will die with her, thus breaking von Rothbart’s power over her. As dawn comes, von Rothbart appears. The lovers drown themselves in the lake-vanquishing von Rothbart of his power. The lovers are united in love after death.

I n t h e Cla s s r o o m How does the story of the ballet Swan Lake relate to brownsville song?

Source: http://www.abt.org/education/archive/ballets/swan_lake_mckenzie.html

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c u r r i c ulu m connections We believe that theatre can support and work in tandem with everyday classroom activities and scholastic goals. Below are some suggested activities that can be done for each production, with a focus on vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and writing.

VOCA B U L ARY

F L U ENCY

• Highlight words in the script that are unfamiliar.

• Read the script aloud in a large circle.

• Pair up and read scenes aloud together.

• Write definitions in the margins of the script.

• Pick a character and focus on reading his/her lines with accuracy and expression.

• Find synonyms for new vocabulary words.

• Find antonyms for new vocabulary words.

• Study the new vocabulary words for spelling tests.

• Switch roles so that the students have a chance to experiment with different vocal expressions for different characters (tone, tempo, and volume).

COM P REHEN S I ON

W R I T I NG

• Create a story map for the play.

• Write journal entries or monologues using vocabulary words.

• Create a biography for one of the characters.

• Write a journal entry or monologue from the perspective of one of the characters.

• Map out the relationships in the play.

• Write a scene depicting part of the story that we hear about in the play, but is not in the stage action.

• Summarize the play.

• Summarize each individual scene.

• Write a review of the production.

• Summarize the play from the perspective of one of the characters.

• Write a letter to one of the cast members, designers, director, playwright, or staff members sharing your impression and questions regarding the show.

• Answer the essay and text-related questions.

• Discuss the play’s themes.

• Write a letter from one character to another.

• Discuss the current events that correlate with the themes of the play.

• Write a new ending to the play.

• Cut out articles from magazines and newspapers that discuss some of the issues and topics brought up in the play.

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H E L P F U L H INTS FOR TH E FIRST- TIME T HE A TRE GOER the major consideration to keep in mind is that your actions can be distracting not only to the rest of the audience, but to the actors on stage as well. Behavior that is acceptable in other public settings, like movie theatres, ballgames, or concerts, is out of place when attending the theatre.

The following tips should help you get acquainted with some DOs and DON’Ts for first-time theatregoers.

DO arrive early. Make considerations for traffic, parking, waiting in line, having your ticket taken, and finding your seat. If you need to pick up your tickets from the box office, it is a good idea to arrive at least twenty minutes early. Generally, you can take your seat when “the house is open,” about half an hour before the show begins.

Late seating is always distracting and usually not allowed until intermission or a transition between scenes, if it is allowed at all. Follow the old actors’ mantra: To be EARLY is to be ON TIME. To be ON TIME is to be LATE. To be LATE is UNFORGIVABLE. DO turn off your cell phone. Phones and any other noise-making devices should be switched off before you even enter the theatre: you won’t be allowed to use them anyway. Texting during a performance is also rude. The intermission is a good time to use your phone, but remember to turn it off again before the next act begins.

DON’T leave your garbage in the theatre. Food and drinks are usually not permitted in the theatre at all, with the exception of bottled water. If it is allowed, be sure to throw out your trash in a garbage can or recycling bin in the lobby; don’t leave it for the house manager or ushers at the end of a show.

DO watch your step. Aisles can be narrow, so please be considerate when finding your seat. Avoid getting up during the performance whenever possible, since it can be very distracting. You can use the restroom before the show and during intermission. Also, be careful not to cross in front of the stage, as it will break the illusion of the show. Don’t step on or over seats, and never walk on the stage itself.

DON’T talk during the performance. Chatting is extremely rude to the actors and the audience around you.

Everyone is trying to pay attention to the play and those nearby will be able to hear, so please be quiet and considerate.

DO get into it! Actors feed off of the audience, just as the audience feeds off of the actors. Don’t be afraid to laugh, clap, or cry if you are so moved. However, there is a line that can be crossed. Please be respectful, and don’t distract from the work of the professionals on stage. After all, people paid good money to watch the show, not you. Just enjoy the experience and let yourself have an honest response.

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