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Celebrating Black History Month
Black History Month is a Celebration of Black Joy in the Arts
Students and faculty celebrated Black History Month by learning together through a series of student presentations and facultyled artist interviews based on the theme of “Black Joy.” Programs highlighted the Harlem Renaissance and the contributions and accomplishments of Black artists in the visual arts, literature, film, television, and music. The celebration concluded with a virtual mini-concert, featuring students in The Frederick Gunn School Music Program, directed by Ron Castonguay, Director of the Arts and Music Director.
Over the past several years, students at The Frederick Gunn School have participated in a national Day of Service, and the school has hosted guest speakers and film discussions, all to honor the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This year, rather than limiting programming to a single day, the goal was to offer continuous, interactive programming from Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January through the end of February.
“We wanted to look at what it would be like for all of us to engage in a more meaningful experience, rather than just an event for a day,” said LaDarius Drew, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, who shared with the community two interviews he conducted, one with visual artist Imo Imeh, Ph.D., and the second with Otoja Abit ’04, an actor, writer, producer, and director.
Drew noted that in their lifetime, students have seen the Black Lives Matter protests, the criminalization of Black people and nonwhite citizens, Black people being hurt, and being treated unjustly. They have talked about oppression and racism. “But we never talk about the good part. We never talk about Blackness outside of the pro-Panther party and Barack Obama. To start that conversation, we need to talk about some of the more accessible ways to understand Black people as creators in fine art, dance and music,” he said.
Visual artist Imo Imeh, Ph.D., who was interviewed during Black History Month, created the drawing “Breathe” (on facing page) for an exhibition titled “For Freedoms,” at the University Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
The possibilities of where we can go
Drew interviewed Imo Imeh, Ph.D., at his studio in Springfield, Massachusetts. A visual artist and scholar of African Diaspora art, Imeh is an associate professor of art and art history at Westfield State University and has been using art, music and writing to frame what he has experienced during the pandemic and this time of political change. “I’ve been doing art for as long as I can remember. I’ve always fallen into the rhythm of making something,” he said. “In the last decade, my inspiration has been really the various deficits that I’ve seen in my community as an African man, as a Black man. I am a student of history to a degree. I enjoy understanding where we come from as a people and maybe imagining the possibilities of where we can go.”
LaDarius Drew, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, interviewing Otoja Abit ’04 (right) on stage in the Tisch Family Auditorium.
Imeh recently created a piece titled, “Breathe,” inspired by events he witnessed during the pandemic. “I think Black joy sits in the intersection of great striving over pain and trauma, realizing that there’s always something beautiful in the mix,” he said, adding that right now, “There are these moments of hypervisibility that happen for Black folks in the midst of the craziness, where if nobody else sees us, we see us. I think that’s beginning to happen more and more and more.”
Waking up with joy
Drew’s second interview, with Otoja Abit ’04, was conducted on stage in the Thomas S. Perakos Arts and Community Center. Abit discussed his trajectory from his post-graduate year at The Frederick Gunn School, which the New York City native described as “the most important thing I’ve done in my life,” to his first role on Broadway, his work as an independent filmmaker and the global debut of his first feature film, “A New York Christmas Wedding,” on Netflix in November 2020.
Abit came to what was then The Gunnery to play basketball and had always wanted the opportunity to act, so he decided to try out for the lead role in the fall play. He got the part, and that experience encouraged him to pursue acting as a career. “The Gunnery gave me that type of validation that, ‘You are this leading actor in our world here, in this community.’ From there I felt like this was something I really wanted to do. I had the acting bug. I wanted to do it more,” he recalled.
After graduating, he went on to study and play Division I basketball at St. John’s University. His big break came in 2011 when
Otoja Abit ’04 (first row, left) gets a hug from fellow actor Kiefer Sutherland in this photo of the cast of the 2011 Broadway play, “That Championship Season,” which also included Jason Patric, Brian Cox, Jim Gaffigan, and Chris Noth.
– Anjavie Thompson ’21
Anjavie Thompson ’21 (above) and Jayla Stack ’21 (below) both took on leadership roles in the Black Student Union this year.
he was cast in the Broadway play “That Championship Season,” where he had the opportunity to act alongside Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Patric, Brian Cox, Jim Gaffigan, and Chris Noth, and under the direction of Tony Award-winner Gregory Mosher. “This is the world of the arts at a high level. My other comparison to theater in my life was at the EPAC, and then my next theater job was on Broadway. That doesn’t really happen,” he reflected.
Abit went on to roles in film and television and wrote, directed, produced and starred in an award-winning debut short, “Jitters.” He spoke about that experience during the interview, as well as his debut feature film, “A New York Christmas Wedding,” which he wrote, directed and starred in, before answering the question of what Black joy means to him:
“Black joy to me is just being able to wake up and be fulfilled in the idea that the day before, the night before, I went to bed giving it my all,” he said. “I’m an artist, I’m going to keep on growing, I’m going to keep on trying to do what I can do, and I’m going to keep on spreading the word and being an example of, ‘If I can do it, you can do it, too,’” he said, telling students: “I’ve sat in these seats. I walked around here and I had dreams and I’m still trying to do it every single day. I’m still trying to do the work, go to bed and wake up with joy.”
We’re all learning together
Students played a central role in this year’s Black History Month celebration. Anjavie Thompson ’21 and Jayla Stack ’21, who are both members of the Black Student Union, gave presentations during all-school meetings and were interviewed about their experience for the new Highlander Podcast on Spotify, which is produced by the writers and editors of the student newspaper, The Highlander.
“The programming itself has completely changed. In previous
Audrey Richards ’23, Erin Whitney ’24 and Erin-Elizabeth Ryan ’21 were among the students who performed in the virtual mini-concert celebrating Black History Month.
years we weren’t doing this at School Meeting. BSU was not getting up and doing presentations about various aspects of Black culture ... Now we’ve gotten a little bit more engagement in that area. And also I feel like the topics are a little bit more relatable,” Thompson said on the podcast.
Thompson noted that members of BSU have been more willing to “put themselves out there” this year and speak to the entire community. “Just talking during School Meeting can be very hard but we’re all ready to push ourselves and do that just because we want the community to learn, but at the same time for all of us to learn together. I feel like that’s the most important part of the programming, that we’re all learning together,” she said.
Thompson said she did not know about the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and ’70s, a period of artistic and literary development among Black Americans conveying Black pride, until she researched it for her presentation on African American Art in February. She highlighted LeRoi Jones, who founded the Black Arts Repertory Theater/School in Harlem, along with Black artists from other periods and genres, such as photographer Gordon Parks, Broadway actress Ethel Waters, tap dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, and Aretha Franklin, the “Queen of Soul.”
Stack gave presentations on the art of hair braiding, a longlasting and important tradition for those of African descent that can be traced back 5,000 years to the Himba tribe in Namibia, and on the Harlem Renaissance.
“The Harlem Renaissance encompassed poetry and prose, painting and sculpture, jazz and swing, and opera and dance. What united these diverse art forms was their realistic presentation of what it meant to be Black in America,” Stack said, noting that Alain Locke, a Harvard-educated writer, critic and teacher who became known as the “Dean of the Harlem Renaissance,” described this period as “a spiritual coming of age in which African Americans transformed social disillusionment into race pride.”
“Following the end of slavery in the United States, white supremacy forced many Black Americans into a low social status. However, in the 1920s, Harlem, New York, became a destination for African Americans of all backgrounds, and they shared common experiences of slavery, emancipation, and racial oppression as well as the determination to forge a new identity as free people,” Stack said. “Most importantly, the Harlem Renaissance instilled in African Americans across the country a new spirit of self-determination and pride, a new social consciousness, and a new commitment to political activism, all of which would provide a foundation for the civil rights movement.”
Embracing the theme of Black joy
The school’s monthlong celebration concluded with a concert, featuring select students in String Ensemble, Vocal Ensemble, and Concert Jazz Band performing sacred and secular music interspersed with poetry.
The repertoire included a performance of “Amazing Grace,” featuring violinists Aria Trotta ’23 and Eujin Shin ’21, with Thompson reciting Robert Hayden’s poem, “Frederick Douglas.” Erin Whitney ’24, Audrey Richards ’23, and Erin Ryan ’21 of the Vocal Ensemble performed the hymn, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” often called “The Black National Anthem,” and two members of the Advanced Jazz Band, drummer Jonathan Nichele ’21 and bass guitarist We want to look at what it would be like for all of us to engage in a more meaningful experience, rather than just an event for a day.”
– LaDarius Drew Joe Zhu ’21 were featured in a performance of “The Memphis Blues,” written by W.C. Handy, the father of Blues, with a reading of the Langston Hughes poem, “I, Too,” by Alex Warren ’22.
The finale was an uplifting a cappella performance of the spiritual, “Ain’t-a That Good News,” arranged by Mark Hayes, featuring Maggie Xiang ’21, soprano, Yolanda Wang ’21, alto, Drew Sutherland ’21, tenor, and Dayne Bolding ’23, bass. Castonguay selected that particular piece for the concert because it celebrates Black joy.
“It’s such an awesome arrangement and the four of them just hit it out of the park,” he said of the vocalists. Listen to the concert at frederickgunn.org/arts
Anjavie Thompson ’21 recited Robert Hayden’s poem, “Frederick Douglas,” during a virtual performance of “Amazing Grace,” featuring violinists Aria Trotta ’23 (top left) and Eujin Shin ’21, at left.
