Aesthetically Speaking - First Issue

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Insight News • April 15 - April 21, 2013 • Page 5

BROTHER ALI:

‘Fame is an illusion’

By Harry Colbert, Jr., Contributing Writer It’s Monday afternoon in a cold rehearsal space in St. Paul and Brother Ali is putting in work.

Ali is putting the finishing touches on his live band show. He’s got a 12:30 p.m. flight the next day – destination, Cape Town, South Africa. The Rhymesayers artist is playing the Cape Town International Jazz Festival. He’s on the bill with the likes of Jill Scott, the Robert Glasper Experiment, the Brand New Heavies and a host of others. Ali and his band are set to perform on show and Ali will also be a presenter during one of the festivals workshops.

Clad in all black – black Adidas, black jeans and a black hoodie – Ali is totally into the groove that his band, keyboardist, Devon Gray, guitarist Jeremy Ylvisaker, and DJ Plain ‘Ol Bill, is laying down.

Photo by Jonathan Mannion

Six years ago this month Brother Ali dropped his first album The Undisputed Truth.

ALI TURN TO 7

River See comes to the Pillsbury House Theatre

S

et on a juking boat, with blueswomen, flamboyant deviants, and Seers, “River See” by Sharon Bridgforth uses Black American rural southern tradition and an aesthetic steeped in jazz as the base for bringing people together to witness and create.

“River See” is the prayer before the Great Migration.

This production features Sonja Parks and includes some of the Twin Cities most exciting multidisciplinary performers including Aimee Bryant, Mankwe Ndosi, Leah Nelson, Kenna

Cottman, and Truth Maze. Creator Sharon Bridgforth also appears onstage as she choreographs the words, sounds, movement, and singing live in front of the audience.

“River See” explores blues

MORE

• Chinua Achebe: The Passing of a gentle literary giant and friend

• Jackie Robinson essay contest

stories as living arrangements of jazz. The text serves as the score and structure for the improvisational process that births the performance. Through this process, occurring during the event between performers and audience, together each becomes responsible to one another in the art of creating a piece about love.

This Pillsbury House Theatre production is the recipient of a MAP Fund award (supported by the Doris Duke and Andrew Mellon Foundations). “River See” is also part of the National New Play Network Creation Fund and will be seen in different forms throughout the year locations and theatres as diverse as The Living Arts of Tulsa in Oklahoma and Theatre Offensive in Boston.

“River See” runs from April 13 – 21. Wednesday - Saturday performances are at 7:30 p.m. with Sunday performances at 3 p.m.

All tickets are “pay what you can” as patrons pick their own price for every performance, every night. Free child care is available on select dates.

For more information and tickets call (612) 825-0459 or visit www. pillsburyhousetheatre.org.

• Rashaan Patterson in concert at the Dakota, photos

Page 6 • April 15 - April 21, 2013 • Insight News

Chinua Achebe The passing of a gentle literary giant and a friend

insightnews.com

By Irma McClaurin, PhD Culture and Education Editor

Artspeak

On March 22, 2013, Chinua Achebe, one of the world’s foremost African writers, joined his ancestors. He died at the age of 82. My mourning the loss of this literary giant is not just the right thing to do, it’s personal!

I had the distinct pleasure of being taught and mentored by this writer of novels, short stories, critical essays and poetry. Chinua used numerous forms to carry his message of the impact of colonialism on Africa: the novel, short stories, creative non-fiction, poetry and teaching.

The Africa of which he wrote was at the same time traditional and triumphant and corrupt and cruel. And Achebe himself, a Nigerian Igbo, lived a life that mirrored the same contradictions: he was a world-recognized author who was forced to live in exile from his own country because his country’s government deemed his writings politically provocative and highly critical.

While Chinua showed the downside of the effects of colonialism and Christianity on the erosion of African culture and traditions, he also showed the downside of post-colonialism: African leaders more interested in securing their own wealth than leading their countries out of post-colonial dependency -- only a few steps up from being subjugated, except the oppressor looked like you.

I first met Chinua in 1973 when I arrived in Amherst, Mass., to enroll in the Masters of Fine Arts Program. I was thrown into a circle of intellectual and literary greats-- mostly men (for which I have long forgiven their intended and unintended misogynist tendencies) such as Jules Chametsky, founder of the Massachusetts Review and one of the foremost scholars on the image of Blacks in American literature and on Jewish literature in Americas. Jules and his poet wife, the late Ann Halley, who wrote of the Holocaust, became my Jewish Godparents. I lived with them for several months. Chinua and Christy Achebe were among the people to whom I was introduced. Others included members of the Afro-American Studies Department such as Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole who was chair; Michael Thelwell, a Jamaican and former SNCC activist who would write the novel, The Harder they Come (1980) based on the brilliant 1972 movie starring reggae musician Jimmy Cliff; and Esther Terry and her late husband Eugene Terry, who were among the founders of the W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies. Esther Terry is currently interim president of her alma mater, Bennett College for Women.

The arts were as integral a part of Afro-American Studies as history and literature.

Musicians and artists like the late Matt Roach and his then wife, Janus Adams, Archie Shepp, Paul Carter Harrison, Nelson Stevens, one of the founding members of AfroCobra, filled out the ranks of talented scholars that were the foundation of the department.

Among this crowd, I would meet my ex-husband, Ernest Allen, Jr., who joined the department as a historian in 1973. And down the street, Sonia Sanchez resided for several years on the faculty of Amherst College. I was able to take creative classes from her, but that is another story.

In Chinua Achebe’s African Literature course at UMass, I was exposed to the brilliance of African writers-- mostly men at that time-- and Chinua’s own penetrating post-colonial critiques. He did point me in the direction of African women writers, upon my request and encouraged my development of my own poetic

Chinua Achebe speaking at Asbury Hall, Buffalo, as part of the “Babel: Season 2” series

by Just Buffalo Literary Center, Hallwalls, & the International Institute. voice. Always with a calm demeanor, Chinua took on the hard questions about Africans’ own complicity in making a mess of the continent’s affairs, which he acknowledged. But, he never ever backed off his critiques of colonialism and post-colonialism. He was an ardent critic of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and the way in which it depicted Africa as a “dark” place with people who grunted rather than spoke.

His indignation over what he deemed a racist portrayal would later inspire him to work on an Igbo language project with his son.

I cut my magazine editorial teeth on Okike: A Nigerian Journal of New Writing, the African literary journal founded by Chinua Achebe in 1974 (or 1975) at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. I became his teaching assistant with responsibilities for working with contributing editors like Joseph Skerrett (English Department) and Lynn Innis. From them and Chinua, I learned the editorial functions of manuscript solicitations, the peer review process, layout and graphic design, which I got to do hands on, working with the printers, subscription management, etc.-- it doesn’t get any better

Chinua did so with a positive spirit and laughter in his eyes.

He had an eye-twinkling sense of humor.

I left Amherst, Mass., in 1991 and it would be sixteen years before I would encounter Chinua Achebe again. In 2005, I took a leave of absence from my position as Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida to work as Program Officer for Education and Scholarship at the Ford Foundation.

My portfolio of $10M and 59 grantees, focused on developing and sustaining the fields of Black Studies and Women’s Studies and supported scholarship and research on race, class, gender, ethnicity, faculty diversity, cultural diversity and “difficult dialogues.” One day, in my pile of grant inquiries a request to fund an African language project from Bard, in the Annandale on the Hudson caught my attention. In the back of my mind, I vaguely recalled that Bard had offered Chinua Achebe a professorship and a house to accommodate his new disability. Curious, I decided to go to the source rather than have them visit me as they had requested. I asked if they could arrange for Prof. Achebe to meet with the Program Officer from the Ford

“Those who have yet to read Chinua Achebe’s works in their entirety have no idea of what they are missing.” than that. It was a magazine apprenticeship in the old tradition of learning by doing.

My mettle was truly tested when Chinua took a year’s leave and entrusted the daily editorial and design functions to me and the secretary. This predates the era of cell phones, emails, and digital technology, so we were on our own. I learned how to layout pages, design ads, and read blue-line galley proofs.

Throughout my life, these skills in one way or another would serve me well, but especially when, for seven years (1997-2004), I became the editor of Transforming Anthropology, the signature journal of the Association of Black Anthropologists. Throughout the time I worked under the tutelage of Chinua Achebe, he was always gracious and optimistic. Even as he delved into Africa’s past to explain and understand its messy present,

Foundation-- me.

I wanted to surprise Chinua and Christy. And it was a glorious reunion. I was welcomed with hugs and memories of the times we had spent in the Pioneer Valley.

We spoke of our children; their sons were all grown up.

The youngest, Chidi, was “the youngest ever to be appointed a medical director in the US,” according to the Vanguard.

And Dr. Ike Achebe, was now a scholar in his own right. In Chinua, I found a man of wisdom, at peace with the hand he had been dealt of paralysis and wheel chair bound, yet still filled with aspirations and vision. He had the same critical focus, twinkling humor, and a passion, possibly fueled by the breakdown of his body, to complete his life-long project on a dictionary of the Igbo language. The Igbo Dictionary Project is a labor of love that

Chinua shared with his son Ike, who managed the project. With my support, Bard received a FF grant to support both the Igbo Dictionary project and establish the Chinua Achebe Center for African Writers and Artists, following my recommendation that Bard institutionalize Chinua’s vision and honor his legacy through some type of institution. Chinua would remain at Bard until 2009 under the title of the Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Professor Emeritus of Languages and Literature. Upon retirement, he departed for Brown University where he remained until his death last month.

Those who have yet to read Chinua Achebe’s works in their entirety have no idea of what they are missing. He is a storyteller of the highest order; I highly recommend starting with Things Fall Apart. The novel has sold over 8 million copies and is translated into over 50 languages. It is a global masterpiece. The Daily Freeman quotes noted African scholar Kwame Anthony Appiah as once saying in reference to the impact of Chinua Achebe on African literature: “It would be like asking how Shakespeare influenced English writers or Pushkin influenced Russians.

Achebe didn’t only play the game, he invented it.”

On the passing of this literary great, I can only say rest well gentle giant and goodbye my friend.

To Read More: http://pmnewsnigeria. com/2013/04/02/achebe-deathof-the-storyteller/; accessed 4/4/13 http://brown.edu/ Departments/Africana_ Studies/video/103.html; accessed 4/4/13 http://www.dailyfreeman.com/ articles/2013/03/23/news/ doc514d157825128640980044. txt; accessed 4/4/13 http://achebecenter.bard.edu/; accessed 4/4/13 http://www.bard.edu/ academics/additional/ additional.php?id=1488776; accessed 4/4/13 http://iile.bard.edu/initiatives/; accessed 4/4/13 http://billmoyers.com/guest/ chinua-achebe/; accessed 4/4/13 http://www.vanguardngr. com/2013/03/chinua-achebeno-need-to-mourn/; accessed 4/4/13 http://brown.edu/ Departments/Africana_ Studies/people/achebe_chinua. html; accessed 4/4/13 ©2013 McClaurin Solutions Irma McClaurin, PhD is the Culture and Education Editor for Insight News of Minneapolis. A bio-cultural anthropologist, consultant, and writer, she lives in Raleigh, NC (www.irmamcclaurin.com) (@mcclaurintweets).

Most recently, she provided technical assistance to the Friends of Oberlin Cemetery to acquire Landmark status for an historic African American Cemetery in Raleigh, NC.

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Insight News • April 15 - April 21, 2013 • Page 7

Jackie and Me educates, entertains

By Alysha “AP” Price Theater Review Exposure to AfricanAmerican history doesn’t have to be limited to February.

The Children’s Theatre Company, 2400 3rd Ave. S, Minneapolis, provided an opportunity to educate while being entertained in “Jackie and Me,” a stage play based on the book by Dun Gutman.

The main character, Joey Stoshack (Brandon Brooks), is a determined young boy with the special power to travel through time by holding onto baseball cards. When his teacher gives the class an assignment to write a report

on a legendary AfricanAmerican, Joey naturally thinks of the great Jackie Robinson (Ansa Akyea).

Using his unique powers he travels to New York City in the year 1947 to meet the legendary Robinson. During his adventure back in time, Joey experiences segregation and racism first hand, as his “powers” transformed Joey, a white child, into an AfricanAmerican boy.

Not only did this play highlight moments in sports that helped shape American history, but it also delivered a message of bravery and determination.

“Jackie and Me” is sure to ignite healthy conversation among

families about topics such as prejudice, bullying and single parent households.

Filled with energy, the main characters played by Brooks and Akyea, displayed a heartfelt chemistry that kept the attention of even the youngest children. “Jackie and Me,” I’m positive, engaged both young and old patrons and provided a framework for helping families formulate their beliefs of equality in a non-threatening way.

“Jackie and Me” recently concluded its run at the Children’s Theatre.

For more information on future productions, visit www. childrenstheatre.org.

Jackie Robinson Essay Contest: How does the story of Jackie Robinson inspire you?

Editors note: In the Children’s Theatre Company’s play “Jackie and Me” by Steven Dietz adapted from the book by Dan Gutman, Joey Stoshack travels back in time to 1947 to meet baseball legend Jackie Robinson.

The Children’s Theatre Company launched an essay contest about the influence of Jackie Robinson in conjunction with the production of “Jackie and Me.” The winning grand prize essay submitted below by Hemetii SiAsar Apet.

Hi, my name is Hemetii Si-Asar Apet. I am seven years old. I love writing. It was hard thinking about what I would say, but easy writing it. I wanted to enter the essay contest because I’ve only gone to one Twins game, and I really wanted to learn more about Jackie Robinson.

I read the book called Jackie and Me by Dan

Ali From 5 Randy Hawkins, the tour manager is adjusting various knobs on some sound equipment. Everything has to be just right. Time is of the essence.

The trip is an eight-day excursion with two days of travel to, and two days from Cape Town.

“It’s really a long way to go for 75 minutes,” joked Hawkins, referring to the length of Ali’s set.

Ali continues to spit lyrics.

He run through “Freedom Ain’t Free” and discusses with the band how to transition to the next song. Something’s not quite right. Ali and Gray think the song is out of tune, so they change the key. OK, that’s better.

Ali is once again at peace. Peace is a perpetual state of being for Brother Ali. With everything to Ali’s liking, he presses on into the next tune, pushing the mic stand to the side and begins rhythmically pacing about.

Then Ali breaks into his unmistakable melodic flow.

With his voice barely above a whisper, his soul is yelling out.

“Even with (President) Obama killin’ people with drones/I’m going to jail with Occupy Homes,” spits Ali, before instructing Ylvisaker to go into a guitar solo. He later goes into a verse about being homeless and sleeping on friends’ couches to chilling on the couch with political icon, Dr. Cornel West.

Ali briefly interrupts his rehearsal to offer a reporter a sparkling water. He’s being a gracious host. Then he turns right back to the band and they run through the haunting tale of love gone bad in “Walking Away.”

It’s 2 p.m. and rehearsal time is up.

“I really wish we had one more day,” said Ali. “It’s good, but just want one more day to work.”

This is South Africa’s first taste of Brother Ali live and he wants everything to be just right. But conversation quickly

Rekhet Si-Asar

Hemetii Si-Asar Apet

switches from the show to going diving with sharks. Ali and good friend, Daniel Yang, are going to take the dive while in Cape Town.

“Daniel really wants to do it, so I told him I’d go with him.

I don’t want to do it, but he’s excited about it,” said Ali. “I don’t need to disturb their (sharks) natural order.”

But if Ali’s friends want him to do something, he’s there for them.

Following the rehearsal, Ali journeys to a nearby sports bar and sits down for a bite to eat. While Ali is seated, a 20-something white guy walks past Ali and does a double take. The guy interrupts Ali’s conversation – but not rudely – and excitedly said, “I thought that was you. I’m a big fan. I love your music.”

Brother Ali smiles broadly, thanks the guy, shakes his hand and then continues with his conversation. A reporter asked how does Ali deal with fame.

“Fame is an illusion,” said Ali. “But I don’t really think there’s that illusion of fame around me because my music is so underground. I’m not rich because I’m underground, but it’s a gift. Most people don’t think I’m famous. You know who thinks I’m famous? Older people think I’m famous.

My grandmother thinks I’m famous.”

A reporter reminds Ali that he’s famous enough to be headed to South Africa to perform in front of thousands of people.

“And maybe they know me, maybe they don’t,” said Ali, with genuine humility.

Chances are, they know him.

Brother Ali, born Jason Newman, has himself become somewhat of an icon. The 35-year-old hip-hop artist was born in Madison, Wisc. and later moved to north Minneapolis, with stops in several Michigan cities in between. Brother Ali, who converted to Islam as a teen, legally changed his first name to Ali. “Only a couple of people in my family still call me Jason.

There are a couple who have that Southern white attitude and

refuse to believe I’m Muslim,” said Ali. Ali is not the typical portrait of Islam. For starters, Ali is Caucasian. He’s also albino. In many ways, being albino lead to Ali’s Islamic conversion.

“Kids can be cruel and I lived in a lot of small towns and I got picked on for being albino,” said Ali. But Ali said while in the 2nd grade an older AfricanAmerican woman began to mentor him and began shaping his worldview. According to Ali, the woman explained that whiteness didn’t really exist.

After being spiritually mentored by the woman, Ali said he naturally gravitated to African-Americans and African-American culture.

“I just soaked it (AfricanAmerican culture) up. There’s a particular texture to Black culture, Black love; Black strength,” said Ali. “Now I’m not trying to say that my experience with Blackness is the Black experience, but almost all the important people in my life, for better or worse, were all Black.”

In soaking up AfricanAmerican culture, Brother Ali began rejecting the notion of his “whiteness.”

“White isn’t a skin color, it’s a sense of unjustified superiority,” said Ali. “Whiteness is a made up thing. God didn’t create it, but it doesn’t mean it can’t have a real impact on people’s lives. I don’t feel any loyalty to (being white) but I know socially, I’m considered white. White is a relative thing. It just means the top of the food chain. As a white person I practice racism every day if I want to or not.”

Ali said Dr. Cornel West helped him to embrace his ethnicity.

“He helped me to embrace my white brothers and sisters.

Dr. West said, ‘You can’t lead the people if you don’t first love the people,’” recalled Ali. Ali finished his lunch – a cheeseburger and fries, with a lemon-lime pop. His wife is waiting in a car outside. Ali is off to South Africa the next day.

“I wish we had one more day to rehearse.”

Gutman. It took me about four, maybe five days to read it. It was a fiction story but it was about Jackie Robinson, who was a real person. I liked the story, but it made me feel bad about how the grownups were acting. I also thought they should have more control of themselves, because they were out of control. Like in the parts when they would hit the ball at Jackie’s head, hoping they would hit him, but instead he would dodge it or hit it back with his bat. They (other ballplayers) sometimes tried to knock him off his feet, but he would pop right back up.

Jackie Robinson inspired me by making me try my best in everything I do like sports and school. He also inspired me by making me work hard, like in track. Last year was my first year in track and I made it to the Junior Olympics. It

was hard work because we had to go to Houston, where the other children run track all year because they do not have the same seasons as us. So this made me work harder. Also in school I mostly get 100 percent on my spelling tests. When I don’t, I tell myself I have to work harder. This is like how Jackie had to work harder at each game and he had to work harder to fit in. Like at my school there are only two girls in my class who are Black, but most of the school is white.

I learned that Jackie Robinson showed bravery and courage by not fighting back on the field and by being in control of himself. He also showed courage and bravery by ignoring threats, like, “We already got rid of several like you. One was found in the river just recently.”

In the book, they said that everyday, people would

write threatening notes saying they would kill him and his family. Jackie Robinson also showed justice by being fair.

He even loved the people that hated him. He was like the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was a leader and helped the country by fighting racism with his words and not his body. That’s why he’s (Robinson) just like Martin Luther King (Jr.) because he helped to have Black people play baseball and inspire them to play.

I recommend this book and Jackie Robinson’s story to be inspiring to those who love history, baseball, and our ancestors. Also because he was a really important man because he broke the color barrier for Black people to play baseball and other sports like track, soccer, or gymnastics.

EARTH IS A MEMORY WORTH FIGHTING FOR

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Page 8 • April 15 - April 21, 2013 • Insight News 1

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Rahsaan Patterson captivated the Dakota crowd in concert Thursday, April 4th at the Dakota

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Photos by Michelle Space

1 - 2) Rahsaan Patterson captivated the Dakota crowd Thursday April 4th at the Dakota. 3) Rahsaan Patterson, Harry Colbert, and Sylvia Williams. 4) O’neika M., Rickey Kinchen (Mint Condition), Paul Peterson (fDeluxe), and Starsha W. 5) Adebisi Wilson, Maya Bowie and Maurice Bowie. 6) Rahsaan Patterson and Tabota Seyon.

Tyrese releases new autobiographical documentary

By Alysha “AP” Price The young Black man with an electrifying smile and a raspy soul voice sitting on a bus singing about Coca-Cola has come a long way.

Now a best-selling author and sought-after movie star known for roles in blockbusters such as “Transformers and Fast & Furious,” Tyrese Gibson is taking

Tyrese Gibson his fans on a journey through his life in his documentary titled, “A Black Rose That Grew Through Concrete.”

The documentary details his upbringing, maturing from boy to man in Watts, Los Angeles.

Tyrese shares a story to which man urban youth can relate – being exposed to gangs, drugs, and crime.

However, that life was not his destiny. In the documentary Tyrese talks about the devotion that lead him to the success he has today.

In addition to his documentary that was released March 31 on his website,

www.TryreseOnline.com, the multitalented Tyrese is working on the Teddy Pendergrass biopic and the long awaited TGT (Tyrese, Ginuwine, and Tank) album. The trio has a single available on iTunes that definitely sets the mood for the bedroom.

Undoubtedly, Tyrese has beaten the odds but what makes him exceptional is his yearning to share with others that they too can rise up from the concrete.

Watch the “Black Rose That Grew through Concrete,” trailer online at www.vimeo. com/62490486.