Content warning: This story contains mentions of suicide.
When playwright Ntozake Shange was a graduate student, she saw a double rainbow, a beacon of light in her depressive state. From this, her choreopoem was born, a play that is still widely produced today and explores Black identity.
Associate Artistic Director of the Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre Bria Walker discussed Shange’s work and legacy in an event hosted by the theatre Tuesday night.
During the lecture, which was a part of the theatre’s 24/7/365: A Legacy of Greatness series this month, Walker discussed the significance of Shange and her work in the broader context of Black culture and legacy.
For Liana Wallace, spoken word poetry means vulnerability.
A Georgetown University sophomore and a 2019 Evanston Township High School alumna, Wallace said a club she joined in middle school introduced her to spoken word poetry. There, she drew inspiration from her peers, who freely described their personal struggles and views.
“I was really drawn to the depth at which they were talking about things,” Wallace said. “It’s just the ability to break down typical things you’re learning, and really profoundly describe those things and talk about them fearlessly.”
She said as someone who was developing her own racial consciousness, it was “beautiful” to see and participate in poetry that communicated her feelings and let her be completely vulnerable.
Dr. Elisha Hall is neither a stranger to the recording studio, nor to storytelling. He released his first instrumental album last month, and his three children often clamor for bedtime tales, which he draws from his thesis work on West African storytelling. Now he’ll bring the two passions together to make his storytelling debut on air.
“Storytelling is a genre, yes,” Hall said. “But before it is a genre, it is a way of living, it is a way of being.”
Hall will join Evanston’s Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre as the group kicks off its Black history project called 24/7/365: A Legacy of Greatness. The series features ten-minute broadcasts by local Black chefs, musicians, storytellers and visual artists.
Coming together is more important now than ever. Three arts organizations are turning that philosophy into reality. Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre, The Musical Offering, and Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre have formed the Evanston Performing Arts Collective.