INMEM T
MY TUNE
by
Obataiye B. Akinwole
When Columbus, of “I discovered
America” fame, arrived in the
Caribbean in 1492 he “passed ships
filled with merchandise and manned
by Africans returning from the West
Indies to their homeland.” As early
as 1310 Mansa Abubakari I believed it
possible to “sail to the limits of the
neighboring seas [the Atlantic
Ocean].” The Indians were here
when we got here. So much for being
discovered.
Over the years many Africans
came to this country. Many were
explorers, some were craftsmen,
some were savants and of course
many were slaves. Of course with us
came our art. It is both a blessing and
a curse that many others consider our
music, dance and art to be our most
significant cultural contribution to
America. Take some time, as I often
do, to research the many
contributions we made to every facet
of life in America.
Of the many song forms brought to
America by Africans, the form that
eventually became the blues is
perhaps the most distinctive. My wife
is a blues “fanatic,” I mean thai
literally. I hear the blues almost
every day. My weekends are filled
iwth the sound of the blues, even
when I want to hear something else.
Not surprisingly, we talk a lot about
the blues. We come to some
conclusions often. Sometimes we
don’t arrive at the same conclusion.
To me the blues has grown out ui
the confusion and violence of our
times. African-Americans are
literally caught between two worlds.
On the one hand, we are Africans with
proud heritages. On the other, we are
Americans trying to accept a culture
that is not and will never be ours. The
blues is a unique song style. It is not
only a musical expression. It is also a
social statement. Again, our songs
and song stylfes are evidence of our
separateness from the larger culture.
Even those of us who think we have
arrived discover it difficult to find our
niche. This kind of existence gave us
the difficulties and pain that provided
much of the materials for this music.
My wife says, “The blues is
spiritual, akin to one’s soul. It is
derived from low self-esteem brought^
on by slavery.” Of course my next'
question to her was, because the
blues is so popular today, does that
mean slavery still exists? She quickly
responded, “We suppress our feeling
for the blues today l ecause of our
newly found social status. In other
words, we’ve arrived and can’t relate
to the blues. The only problem is that
we are in reality nobetter off than our
forefathers.”
We have quite a few of these
discussions. They are often very
intense. Both of us try as we may to
get our points across. Most often they
end with us coming to the same
conclusion. Then we put some more
blues on the stereo.
Richard II To Appear
In TIP, Latin Setting
Theatre in the Park’s
executive/artistic director, David
Wood, discovered long ago that
Shakespeare’s works transcend all
boundaries of time and place. The
verse always remains the same,
pure, lyrical Shakespeare while the
setting could be anywhere, anytime.
“Hamlet,” TIP’s first
Shakespearean production, was
produced 19 years ago in modern
dress in an outdoor amphitheatre.
“The Taming of the Shrew” was set
in the “Roaring ’20s.” Both were
great successes. It comes as no
surprise, then, to find Richard II
leaping forward to the 1960s in a
“Latin-American tropical” setting.
Wood chose this era for its striking
political parallels and to enable
audiences to readily identify with
Shakespeare’s universal themes,
encasing them in a familiar
framework.
Wood recalls the ’60s as a turbulent
time when the idealistic generation,
who hoped to change the world, was
stunned by the assassination of John
F. Kennedy. “It was this generation’s
first brush with death. Many had
a mounting fear that the United
States was deteriorating into a state
of terrorism prevalent in the so
called ‘banana republics.’ I don’t
think there ever was a sense of
closure to this period. By reflecting
on the past, we can gam a greater
understanding of the future and
possess the necessary tools to cope
with whatever lies ahead. Richard II
(transposed to the ’60s) gives us an
opportunity to do this. ’ ’
American society’s experience
with political conspiracy can be
related to Shakespeare’s England of
1595 when Richard II was first
presented. At the time, every
Englishman feared the chaos that
might ensue if Queen Elizabeth died
without an heir leaving the fate of the
kingdom to quarreling favorites.
Shakespeare could not foresee
when he wrote Richard II that six
years later the Earl of Essex would
lead a rebellion against Elizabeth,
just as Henry Bolingbroke does in
Richard II.
“Richard II” is actually the first of
four plays dealing with the reign of
the inept King Richard. The series
continues with “Henry IV,” parts 1
and 2, and “Henry V.” Shakespeare
did not intend to present the story of
England’s past in historical
sequence. For example, “Richard
III,” a play about the reign that
ended the War of the Roses,” was
written before “Richard II.” But
once all the historical plays were
completed, Shakespeare had created
consecutive works which dramatized
the background of the Tudor age.
The time span in “Richard II” runs
from 1398 to 1400, leading to the end of
Richard’s rule. The play opens at
Windsor Castle with a hearing of a
dispute between Henry Bolingbroke,
Duke of Hereford, and Thomas
Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. King
Richard resolves the conflict by
banishing both. Upon the death of
John of Gaunt, Bolingbroke’s father,
Richard confiscates Henry’s
inheritance to finance the Irish war.
While Richard is in Ireland,
Bolingbroke boldly invades England
and upon Richard’s return, imprisons
him. After Bolingbroke’s coronation
as Henry IV, Richard is murdered b>
Sir Pierce of Exton, acting on a hint
from the new king. Professing horroi
at the deed, Henry plans a pilgrimag*
to the Holy Land to do penance.
Scholars have argued about whicl
sources Shakespeare most likely
used. The majority agree, however
that Raphael Holingshed’s “Th<
Chronicles of England, Scotland an<
Ireland” (1577) was the priman
source.
Performances will be held June 7,1
13-15,20-22at 8:15 p.m., with a June!
matinee at 3 p.m.
Gary Hooker Performs with UN Co
Summer Theatre *91 Season.Three Acts
BY STEVE GILLIAM
Special To Hw CAROLINIAN
GREENSBORO-Gary Hooker has
put aside his radio jazz broadcasts for
the month of June in order to
entertain a different kind of audience.
Fans can catch him on stage in
Taylor Building at the University of
North Carolina at Greensboro, where
he’s performing in three of the five
productions in the UNCG Summer
Theatre ’91 season.
A junior communications major at
North Carolina A&T State University,
Hooker and three other Aggie actors
have joined the UNCG troupe for the
summer theater schedule. Until he
started rehearsals earlier in May, he
had been a regular DJ for the “Sunset
Jazz” program broadcasts from 6-9
p.m. Tuesdays on WNAA, the A&T
campus radio station.
“I really love jazz and the ‘Sunset
Jazz’ program is something I realy
enjoy doing,” said Hooker. “I hope to
get back to broadcasting after the
summer program at UNCG is over,
but I’m taking a break from it right
now.”
Hooker has a lead role as Seth Holly
in “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,”
August Wilson’s powerful drama
life among black people migrating
from the South to the industrialized
North in 1911. The play opens
Tuesday, June 11, with 8 p.m. show
times through Saturday, June 15, in
Taylor Building.
Tickets are $7 each Tuesday
through Thursday, $8 on Friday and
Saturday. Reservations can be made
through the Summer Theatre box
office (334-5546) in Taylor Building.l
Hours are noon to 5:30 p.m. weekdays
and 7 p.m. on performance dates.
Coming productions for UNCG
Summer Theatre ’91 will be: June 18
22, “A Midsummer Night's Dream;”
June 26-29, “What I Did Last
Summer;” June26-28 (10 a.m.), June
29 (2 p.m.), “Rumpelstiltskin.”
Hooker’s role as Seth Holly ag
UNCG, -he says, is among the
meatiest he has held in a student
“JOE TURNER’S COME AND 60NE”-August Wilson’s powerful drams, “Joe
Turner's Come and Gone,” which focuses on the Mack experience In America,
wll run Tuesday to Satunlaip. June 11-15, hi UNCO Summer Theatre ’91 at The
University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Pictured above are Junior Gary Hooker
of Raleigh and graduate student Donna Raldwin-Morrow of Greensboro as Seth
and Oertha Holly. Curtain times wM be at 8 p.m. in Taylor Building on campus.
Reservations can be made by calling the Summer Rep box office at 334-5546 in
Taylor Building. Hours are noon to 5:30 p.m. weekdays and at 7 p.m. on
performance dates.
acting career that has brought him
honors at N.C. A&T. There, he’s been
named a member of the All-Star Cast
during the annual “Robie” Awards
ceremony held by the Paul Robeson
Theatre. He’s also received an acting
excellence award and been named
best actor for a studio production.
“Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,”
Hooker explains, is a drama of black
THE REVIVAL—Tlw members of music group “Tony!
Toni! Tone! reveal why the singles on their album “The
i Revival,” are songs that wil be played “tor four or five
years,” rather than tunes, which they describe as
t “something that you get up and shake your butt to”
i Natives of Oakland, CaMomia, the three members Raphael
Wiggins, Timothy Christian and Dwayne Wiggins are
credited with changing tlw lace of Black music in the
1990s with their unique hip-hop twist on 1960s and
1970s rhythm and blues. Their current album sizzles with
the No. 1 hits "Fools Good” and "It Never Rains (In
Southern California,” although group members achieved
superstardom with their 1980 platinum LP “Born Not to
Know.” __
people who sought a Deuer n«® »»
they migrated North. The play te set
In a black boarding house, owned V
Seth and Bertha Holly, in Pittsburgh
in 1911. While many of the characters
are new arrivals in a big city, each
seeks his or her own Identity in a dark
and distant past. The boarding house
serves as a cultural crossroads.
Seth Holly, Hooker said, is a black
man who was born of free parents. He
has a trade, making pots and pans,
and the boarding house is inherited,
left to him by his father, making him
a man of property.
“My character already has
a»rived,’ and is not really searching
for himself,” said Hooker. “He learns
more about himself through other
people. He’s about 60 years old, kind
of a grouchy old man who’s so
grumpy that he’s funny. Maybe he’s a
little like Redd Foxx as Fred Sanford.
But he’s someone who doesn’t go for a
lot of foolish-’ss around his boarding
house.”
Hooker and the rest of the 15
member Summer Theatre cast have
been busy with the morning
afternoon-evening rehearsal
schedule. During the last week of
May, Hooker was rehearsing three
plays daily.
In his other two roles, Hooker has
experienced a couple of firsts. The
season opener, “Cotton Patch
nn«npi ” had him Dlavine the role of
Jesus in a musical seting of the
Gospel story in rural Georgia. In the
coming June 18-22 production of “A
Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Hooker
is tackling his first Shakespearean
role as the carpenter, Peter Quince.
“I was kind of in shock when I
found out I’d be portraying my
savior,” said Hooker. “I didn’t know
they had me in mind for that role
when I auditioned, but it’s one you
have to do your best with.”
Hooker is the son of Mr. and Mrs.
Daniel L. Hooker, 609 Juno Court,
Raleigh, and a graduate of Sanderson
High School.
Black Music
Month Tribute
Honors Legends
Dionne Warwick, Philip Michael
Thomas and Diahann Carroll will
host a special Black Music Month'
tribute honoring living legends in
R&B/soul music in a two-hour
nationally syndicated television
special. The first annual “Celebrate
the Soul of American Music” was
taped before a live black-tie audience
at the Pantages Theatre in Los
Angeles June 4.
"Celebrate the Soul of American
Music” will feature all-star salutes to
legendary performers Etta James,
Little- Richard, Ella Fitzgerald, the
Shirelles, Bo Diddley, Dizzy
Gillespie, Charley Pride and the
Dells. Many of today’s top
contemporary music artists will
perform. One of the highlights of the
show will be a special
commemorative tribute to musical
treasures Nat King Cole, Sarah
Vaughan, Sammy Davis, Jr., and
Rev. James Cleveland.
“Black Music Month has become
an important annual milestone for all
African-Americans,” stated
executive producer Don Jackson,
president of Tribune/Central City
Productions. “It not only recognizes
black artists and all forms of black
music, but also the influence black
music has had on music as a whole.
We felt there was a need to create a
vehicle through which some of the
pioneers who are responsible for the
strength of black music today could
be honored for their contributions.”
“Celebrate the Soul of American
Music” will be syndicated to more
thaii 85"percent of black television.
1
New Filmaker Is Only 19-Years-Old
NEW YOKK, N Y. (AP)-The
tough-looking teenager with the gold
front tooth hugging his grandmother
in her apartment in the Red Hook
projects in Brooklyn doesn’t look like
one of the hottest new filmmakers in
the world.
When he walks around his old
neighborhood, he points out the bench
where his brother was beaten Into a
coma. He gets angry when he looks at
the small asphalt courtyard and
remembers Ms six friends from
childhood, all of whom are now dead.
Matty Rich, now 19, was only 17
when he wrote, cast, directed,
produced and acted in the new film,
“Straight Out of Brooklyn.” The
movie does not open nationwide until
next month but he already has an
offer of nearly $15 million to direct his
next movie.
“Straight Out of Brooklyn,” a raw
story about a Made teenager from the
projects and his troubled family, was
drawn from Rich’s life. He financed
the film on a shoestring, using Ms
mother’s credit cards, some
community donations and a lot of
chutzpah.
“My mother saved my tile Dy
helping me do this,” he said.
“Without her, I’d be another one of
the dead ones.”
Rich hopes the film will inspire
other black youths and show people
“another side of the black people,
someone who uses his brain, not
someone who robs people.”
Rich said he made the film because
he was angry about the struggles his
friends and relatives faced when he
was growing up.
“It’s all about seeing your fathei
stripped bare and having nothing anc
feeling like a failure and wondering
‘What do I do? How can I keep fron
H«ing the same thing?”’ Rich said
“People always told me, ‘Matty
you’re not going anywhere,’ but I’m
proof of how far you can go if yot
stay focused and positive.”
Rich said his inspiration came as j
result of watching reruns of the 1970
TV show “The Brady Bunch” whei
he was 10 years old.
“You know, when Peter droppe
his ice cream on the floor, Mr. Brad;
would just say, That's okay, Pet*
get another one,”’ Rich said. “If
dropped ice cream, I get slapped in
the face by my father and he'd yell at
me, ‘That’s $1.50 worth of bad-assed
ice cream you just dropped.' "
Rich has not seen his father, a
Vietnam War veteran and alcoholic
who verbally abused his mother, in
nine years. His brother, who was
beaten with bate by a gang several
years ago, is following in his father's
footsteps, he said.
On Rich’s 14th birthday, both his
aunt and uncle died. His aunt was in
the hospital where she had just had a
heart attack. His uncle was robbed
and fatally shot on his way to the
hospital to see her before she died.
“We got a phone call before I even
blew out the candles on Imy cake,”
i Rich said. “I got so upset thinking,
i ‘Why does everyone I love get
killed? ”
i His best friend, Logan, died in a jail
i cell when he was 15. His five other
i friends from the projects dealt drugs
and were killed mostly during bad
I deals.
i Rich said he never used drugs or
, guns when he was growing up.
i He said his dream was always to.
have a life like the kindle saw on
television. V ‘
"I told my mother, ‘I want to make a
family like the Bradys,’" he sakf ”1
wanted my parents to be like Mr. and
Mrs. Brady. I wanted to float in a
bubble bath like Alice I the
housekeeper 1."
As he stands near his old apartment
in the projects, he gestures in the
direction of the Manhattan skyline, as
do two characters in a sceae from the
movie.
“That’s what you see from over
here, the American dream," he said.
"That’s what people in this
neighborhood are killing themselves
over. They Want a piece ofthat dream
but they don’t know how to get it."
Everyone knows Rich in Red Hook
They shake his hand when he goes to
buy his favorite egg and pepper
sandwich at a local deli- Drug dealers
come up to him, give him the “high
five" and wish him luck.
"I’m the real McCoy,’’ Rich said.
"I’m from here. I ain’t no middle
class buy."
Rich said his mother encouraged
him
"'V • V