PAGE 6
Festival plagued by ups and downs again
Allen H. Johnson
Arts Editor
An analysis
The Black Arts Festival is a strange
animal.
Approximately 10 audience members
enjoyed an “Evening of Dance” in Great
which conflicted with festival events on
March 20.
Another is the wait involved in confirm
ing Black Arts Festival events while the
Campus Governing Council decided
whether or not to fund the package.
Still another bugaboo which has affected
Black Arts Festivals time and time again
is, as Montgomery mentioned, a lack of
The BSM will have to learn that it can’t expect the campus to
support activities that the organization itself will not support.
Hall featuring the Opeyo Dancers and a
visiting troupe from Shaw University.
"The performers outnumbered the spec
tators.” said one Opeyo.
Two days later, a full house apparently
loved the "Freshman Bloc Show" to death.
It was the only full house the festival
would see.
Wanda Montgomery, coordinator of the
festival and newly elected BSM cultural
coordinator, mulled over the lack of atten
dance at festival event following the end of
it all on March 23. "Communications was a
big problem," Montgomery said as she
pondered plans for the 1981 festival, which
she also will coordinate. "One of my major
goals will be to dissolve communications
problems.”
There are a number of possible explana
tions for the sparse turnouts at all event
except the "Freshman Bloc Show" and the
Fats Waller tribute "Ain't Misbehavin’."
One is "Ain’t Misbehavin’.” Ironically,
although the Broadway production was a
part of the festival, its evening per
formances also conflicted with other
festival events.
Another is the speech department pro
duction, "To Be Young, Gifted and Black,”
communication.
And finally, the BSM will have to learn
that it can’t expect the campus to support
activities that the organization itself will
not support. Very few Central Committee
members made the time to attend ac
tivities. That does not make good logic,
good common sense or good public rela
tions.
Despite the problems, however, the
Black Arts Festival 1980 offered a good,
solid variety of programs for those who
took time to attend them.
Freshman Bloc Show
More than three hundred people filled
Great Hall on a Saturday afternoon to see
an impressive display of freshman talent.
Acts ran the gamut from baton twirling
to dance to music to drama to that reliable
old common denominator, the step show.
Particularly notable performances in
cluded Renee Branch’s rendition of “Be A
Lion,” a series of comedy skits depicting
freshman life and Greg Jones’ “Summer
time,” a tune from “Porgy and Bess” sung
a capella.
"I thought it was very impressive,” said
Freshman Renee Branch shone
twice in the festival — with the
BSM Gospel Choir and the
Freshman Bloc Show. Photo by
James Parker.
Anita Foster, a freshman and a partici
pant in the show. “(The program)
reflected things that we like to do.”
Concerning the skit, which included
among its scenes Dean Hayden Renwick’s
Pre-Orientation address to freshmen,
Foster said: “I think it encourages
freshmen to continue. Not to give up. No
matter what.”
BSM Gospel Chou-
Sensational Aires
Later the same day, a handful
(numerically about 30) people witnessed
the Black Student Movement Gospel Choir
and the Sensational Aires, a gospel group
from Lexington.
The audience received a special treat
when Gospel Choir soloist Elijah
Freeman, at the request of audience
member Phil Woods, gave a stirring per
formance of “I Don’t Feel No Ways
Tired.”
“It was in the Lord’s hands,” said
Freeman, who had not planned or ex
pected to sing the song.
The Sensational Aires, on the other
hand, appeared to be out of touch with the
audience which obviously had little taste
or enthusiasm for the music of gospel
quartets.
Undaunted by the relatively cool recep
tion and the small crowd, the Aires kept
right on singing, though.
An Evening of Dance
One might have expected things not to go
quite right for the evening when a lemon of
a Union record player refused,to play the
Opeyo Dancers’ music. ,
“It was so embarrassing,” said Opeyo
Director Pam Perkins.
The Opeyos, with the help of a techni
cian, finally got the record to play and
treated the audience to two group dances
and two couples dances. The Shaw dancers
followed with a long disco number.
Perkins said following the performance
that one problem with the Black Arts
Festival is a lack of priority or attention
given by the BSM to its own cultural
groups. “They have to give some kind of
respect to people on campus that they’re
asking to perform,” Perkins said. “If they
want us, they need to support us.”
(Continued on page 8)
‘Day of Absence’ ends BSM drama drought
Allen H. Johnson
Arts Editor
The drama "A Day of Absence” ironical
ly ended a year of absence for Black Stu
dent Movement drama.
And not a minute too soon, says
"Absence” director Margaret Brew-
ington.
"The Ebony Readers-Onyx Theatre has
so much power that it can use through
drama and readers’ theater,” says Brew-
ington, a first-year graduate student in
drama. "A lot of students on this campus
have the talent to do things but they don’t
have enough confidence.”
Brewington adds that the budding ac
tor’s demand for dramatic productions at
UNC far exceeds the supply.
"So many students wanted to be in the
V
Pointed satire
Curtis Sutton as the Mayor in “A Day of Absence.” Daily Tar
Heel photo by Jay Hyman.
play,” she says, “that we didn’t have
enough roles to go around.”
“Day of Absence” brought back BSM
drama in style. Black actors in whiteface
pondered their fate in a town in which all
blacks suddenly had disappeared. The one-
act play was performed twice in Great
Hall on March 16.
Brewington says that she was pleased
with the Onyx production of the play but
refused to single but any individuals for ex
ceptional performances. “So many times
just as much hard work is involved in a
very small part as in a bigger one,”
Brewngton says. “If I were to name so
meone I’d just about have to name the
whole cast.”
Tod, Brewington was pleased at the
coverage given to the play by the DaHy
Tar Heel, including a front-page photo. “I
was glad and surprised to see that pic
ture,” Brewington says.
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Brewington added, however, that she
was curious as to why the Tar Heel did not
review the play. -lodrp^..
“I don't know the general policy of the
DTH,” she says, “but I wonder why they
didn’t review it. I was curious to know how
they felt about it.”
As far as the future of black student
drama is concerned, Brewington sees a
“very good outlook.”
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