Brooklyn we did it!!!!
In my completely biased opinion - the show was excellent! EVERYONE worked hard and started to find not only the JOY in performing and the power of their words, they were moved and inspired by their peers too. I couldn't ask for more. I can't tell you how many people stopped me in the halls of the arts center last week to tell me they were in the audience and enjoyed the show. My Mom (who has seen everything I've done for the last 15 years) thought that the show should be it toured and performed. Everyone was impressed with your talent and the power of your words.
I have always believed people say the most amazing things if you just take the time to listen.
The class is over. I'm in the process of grading the course. Reflecting on the highs and the lows, reading blogs, checking attendance records and weighing that info against the passion, confidence and swagga that EVERYONE delivered at the show.
I will be posting video clips of The Release in a week or so, along with other material of relevance to the class. Show pictures will be posted very soon. Check my FB for the complete album.
Finally, it's not over.
We're about to enter level 2.
I will be in touch about the next step.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Go See: ANGELA'S MIXTAPE
Presented with New Georges and Hip-Hop Theater Festival...
ANGELA’S MIXTAPE
By Eisa Davis
Directed by Liesl Tommy
April 6 – May 2, 2009
Mondays through Saturdays at 8 PM
At the Ohio Theatre
66 Wooster Street
Soho
ANGELA'S MIXTAPE
Using the rhythms of music and memory, Eisa tells the story of her radical upbringing -- in a family that includes her aunt, professor, and activist Angela Y. Davis. With a legacy like this, what do you take, and what do you leave behind? The title itself forges an unusual theatrical form: just like a mixtape, pace is primary, flow is foremost, and the text is not just spoken, but danced and sung. Time shifts between the 70s, 80s, and 90s as smoothly as a DJ fading from song to song. Crossing cultural borders as it scratches through time, the play moves from Angela's hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, to the House of Detention where she was once held prisoner, to the playgrounds of Eisa's Bay Area public schools, the dorm rooms of the Ivy League and the shores of Senegal. The music crosses styles and decades, but it's Hip-Hop and a b-girl stance that keeps the piece bouncing in the present.
Tickets:
Premium (Reserved) Seating - $35
General Admission/Seniors/Students - $20
To Purchase Tickets - CLICK HERE
About Eisa Davis
Eisa Davis's plays include BULRUSHER, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2007 (Urban Stages, Shotgun Players fall 2007, published in New Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2006), WARRIORS DON'T CRY (Cornerstone Theater Company), HIP HOP ANANSI (Imagination Stage), ANGELA'S MIXTAPE (Synchronicity Theatre, 2008), SECRETARY OF SHAKE (in Point of Revue, Mixed Blood), PAPER ARMOR, SIX MINUTES, UMKOVU, and THE HISTORY OF LIGHT (commissioned by the Geva). Eisa is a resident playwright at New Dramatists. She is also the winner of the Helen Merrill Award, the Whitfield Cook Award, the John Lippmann New Frontier Award, and has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Cave Canem, and the Van Lier and Mellon Foundations. Her work has been developed by the Hip Hop Theater Festival, New York Theater Workshop, New York Stage and Film, LAByrinth Theater Company, the New Group, Soho Rep, the Flea, Rattlestick, the Cherry Lane, Portland Center Stage, Hartford Stage, Cleveland Playhouse, Seattle Rep, Yale University, Nuyorican Poets Café, the Schomburg Center for Black Research, and the Culture Project, among others. Eisa's writing has been published in American Theatre, The Source, To Be Real, Everything But The Burden, Step Into A World, Role Call, and Total Chaos. As an actress, Eisa's recent work includes the rock musical Passing Strange at the Public Theater, the films Robot Stories, Apparition of the Eternal Church, Happenstance, Confess, and The Architect, television appearances on The Wire and Law and Order, as well as numerous theatre credits in New York, regional theatres, development centers, and in her own plays.
ANGELA’S MIXTAPE
By Eisa Davis
Directed by Liesl Tommy
April 6 – May 2, 2009
Mondays through Saturdays at 8 PM
At the Ohio Theatre
66 Wooster Street
Soho
ANGELA'S MIXTAPE
Using the rhythms of music and memory, Eisa tells the story of her radical upbringing -- in a family that includes her aunt, professor, and activist Angela Y. Davis. With a legacy like this, what do you take, and what do you leave behind? The title itself forges an unusual theatrical form: just like a mixtape, pace is primary, flow is foremost, and the text is not just spoken, but danced and sung. Time shifts between the 70s, 80s, and 90s as smoothly as a DJ fading from song to song. Crossing cultural borders as it scratches through time, the play moves from Angela's hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, to the House of Detention where she was once held prisoner, to the playgrounds of Eisa's Bay Area public schools, the dorm rooms of the Ivy League and the shores of Senegal. The music crosses styles and decades, but it's Hip-Hop and a b-girl stance that keeps the piece bouncing in the present.
Tickets:
Premium (Reserved) Seating - $35
General Admission/Seniors/Students - $20
To Purchase Tickets - CLICK HERE
About Eisa Davis
Eisa Davis's plays include BULRUSHER, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2007 (Urban Stages, Shotgun Players fall 2007, published in New Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2006), WARRIORS DON'T CRY (Cornerstone Theater Company), HIP HOP ANANSI (Imagination Stage), ANGELA'S MIXTAPE (Synchronicity Theatre, 2008), SECRETARY OF SHAKE (in Point of Revue, Mixed Blood), PAPER ARMOR, SIX MINUTES, UMKOVU, and THE HISTORY OF LIGHT (commissioned by the Geva). Eisa is a resident playwright at New Dramatists. She is also the winner of the Helen Merrill Award, the Whitfield Cook Award, the John Lippmann New Frontier Award, and has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Cave Canem, and the Van Lier and Mellon Foundations. Her work has been developed by the Hip Hop Theater Festival, New York Theater Workshop, New York Stage and Film, LAByrinth Theater Company, the New Group, Soho Rep, the Flea, Rattlestick, the Cherry Lane, Portland Center Stage, Hartford Stage, Cleveland Playhouse, Seattle Rep, Yale University, Nuyorican Poets Café, the Schomburg Center for Black Research, and the Culture Project, among others. Eisa's writing has been published in American Theatre, The Source, To Be Real, Everything But The Burden, Step Into A World, Role Call, and Total Chaos. As an actress, Eisa's recent work includes the rock musical Passing Strange at the Public Theater, the films Robot Stories, Apparition of the Eternal Church, Happenstance, Confess, and The Architect, television appearances on The Wire and Law and Order, as well as numerous theatre credits in New York, regional theatres, development centers, and in her own plays.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Go See This Show
Self (the remix)
Written & performed by
Robert Karimi
w/ DJ D Double
National Poetry Slam champion, Robert Karimi, mixes together stories, movement, and music to tell the tale of a first generation child of Iranian and Guatemalan immigrants, struggling to learn about manhood, nationhood, and neighborhood. With the voices and music of his environment helping him along, the sound design is a masterful soundscape of 80’s hip hop, 70’s disco, house music and punk rock.
**YOU CAN SEE THIS SHOW FOR YOUR PAPER**
- Thursday March 19 8:00pm <-- Pay what u will
- Friday March 20 8:00pm
- Saturday March 21 8:00pm
- Sunday March 22 2:00pm
Touchstone Theatre
321 East 4th St.
Bethlehem PA, 18015
www.touchstone.org
Thursday, January 29, 2009
A show you should see...
The Seven
by Will Power
Freely adapted from "The Seven Against Thebes" by Aeschylus
“The sins of the father are visited upon their sons.” The legendary Greek Oedipal curse, so powerfully dramatized by the great Greek tragedian Aeschylus over 2500 years ago, still haunts the mean streets of Philadelphia today.
Hip Hop theater specialist Will Power transforms Aeschylus’ provocative tragedy of brother warring against brother, living under the curse of kin, into a highly theatrical and entertaining fable. The Seven is an audacious, dazzling, street-wise, seamless musical blend of pop harmonies, rap, rhythm, slam poetry, Greek legend and dazzling hip hop movement.
The play was hailed as both an audience favorite and a critical success, and called everything from "brilliant" (The Village Voice), to "exhilarating" (USA Today), to "a spectacular offering to the theater Gods" (Time Out New York).
Performance Schedule:
Thursday, February 5 at 7:30pm (Preview)
Friday, February 6 at 8:00pm (Preview)
Saturday, February 7 at 8:00pm (Opening)
Sunday, February 8 at 2:00pm
Monday, February 9 at 8:00pm (Special Alumni Gala Performance)
Tuesday, February 10 at 7:30pm
Wednesday, February 11 at 7:30pm
Thursday, February 12 at 7:30pm
Friday, February 13 at 8:00pm
Saturday, February 14 at 2:00pm and 8:00pm
Monday, February 16 at 7:30pm
Tuesday, February 17 at 7:30pm
Wednesday, February 18 at 7:30pm
Thursday, February 19 at 7:30pm
Friday, February 20 at 8:00pm
Saturday, February 21 at 2:00pm and 8:00pm
Sunday, February 22 at 2:00pm
Tickets:
$5 Temple Students with ID
$15 Students, Seniors, Temple Employees & Alum
$20 General Admission
Sold at: www.BrownPaperTickets.com
or the Tomlinson Theater Box Office
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
What's OLD is NEW again
Performing & rhyming? What!!! It's not as easy as it looks. Yesterday was the 1st performance project of the course. The 3rd generation got their verses & gear together and took their first stab at performing.
The assignment: Perform 1 verse & hook from an assigned old school rap artist.
LL Cool J, Salt n Pepa, RUNDMC, Rakim, Roxanne Shante, Queen Latifah, Slick Rick, Kurtis Blow, MC Lyte & more came through to move the crowd...or try to remember their rhyme depending on the act. The 'artists' got mad love from the supportive crowd no matter what. It was cool to see all of the creative outfits & fun everyone had manifesting their artist. (Big up to Fran aka RUN of RUNDMC walking across campus in his Addidas with a boom box on his shoulder.)
The outcome: Grades will be given and students will bring this rhyme back again and again throughout the semester. It's not over!!!
The assignment: Perform 1 verse & hook from an assigned old school rap artist.
LL Cool J, Salt n Pepa, RUNDMC, Rakim, Roxanne Shante, Queen Latifah, Slick Rick, Kurtis Blow, MC Lyte & more came through to move the crowd...or try to remember their rhyme depending on the act. The 'artists' got mad love from the supportive crowd no matter what. It was cool to see all of the creative outfits & fun everyone had manifesting their artist. (Big up to Fran aka RUN of RUNDMC walking across campus in his Addidas with a boom box on his shoulder.)
The outcome: Grades will be given and students will bring this rhyme back again and again throughout the semester. It's not over!!!
- Some folks need to redeem themselves preformance-wise
- Hopefully this assignment proves that a good performance takes time & actual rehearsal
- And for those who have have the above issues in check, we will bring back the old school throughout the semester because it's only right to remember & honor those that have paved the way.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Happy Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Happy Birthday - Stevie Wonder
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - The Urgency of Now
Thursday, January 15, 2009
1st Week Gone
They came, they saw, they read the syllabus...
and decided to stay.
We had a very productive 1st week of class, some high expectations are set & students seem poised to jump over any obstacles put in their way. What did we do this week?
Comment back.
and decided to stay.
We had a very productive 1st week of class, some high expectations are set & students seem poised to jump over any obstacles put in their way. What did we do this week?
- Everyone got to know each other by name
- Played some fun theater games and Musical chairs to Hip Hop classics like Dwyck & It Takes Two
- Everyone learned a couple of verses to The Message by Melle Mel & The Furious Five
- Everyone has a composition notebook that they're starting to write free writes, free styles & class notes in
- Student's did their 1st group performance
- Everyone has created their own blog on the class
Comment back.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
2006 article on the class
Hip hop course builds “performance muscle”
The theatre course developed by Professor Kashi Johnson explores the 30-year-old art form that “gives voice to the voiceless.”
With the start of the Spring ’06 semester, hip hop became more than an art form, a culture, an attitude, or a state of mind – it’s now a class at Lehigh featuring the performances of undergraduate students from disciplines that span the university.
“Act Like You Know: Hip Hop Theatre,” is a theatre course (cross listed with Africana studies) that draws from the history and influence of hip hop. It will examine the art form not only as entertainment, but also as a form of self expression, says Kashi Johnson, the associate professor of theatre who developed the class and is offering it to Lehigh students for the first time this semester.
“I’m a product of hip hop’s second generation—not the pioneers who invented it, but the age bracket who shepherded the culture into global importance, political significance, and artistic richness,” Johnson says.
“I appreciate hip hop’s value, which is evident in the stories it tells, the wisdom it imparts, and the emotions it allows us to express. At its best, hip hop begs us to listen as it gives voice to the voiceless.”
Johnson's course follows a sociology course taught by Andrew McIntosh for several years: "Pass the Peas: Mapping the Blueprint of Hip Hop Culture," which traces the roots of the hip hop movement.
Johnson's ultimate goal with her new Lehigh course, she says, is to “empower Lehigh students to not only learn about hip hop music and culture, but to find their voice in doing so.”
Nurturing hip hop culture in the Lehigh Valley
Johnson will be aided by two assistant teachers: Teniece Johnson, a Pittsburgh native and a graduate student who earned her masters in sociology from Lehigh, and Meryl Glinton, a senior philosophy and psychology major who came to Lehigh from the Bahamas. The only prerequisite for the class, Johnson says, is that students remain open to the hip hop experience, and are daring enough to take risks as they create their own interpretations of the art form.
“The focus of the course isn’t solely to teach the history of hip hop,” she says. “While that is covered broadly, the aim of the course is to learn about the creative process as students create their own original work. By dissecting current lyrics and videos, as well as looking at the broader historical evolution of hip hop culture, students will develop a new perspective on the music and images that surround them. Simultaneously, I am calling on the expressive aspects of their personality, to build their performance muscle and strengthen their artistic voice.”
For those who may be somewhat reluctant or insecure performers, Johnson assures them that her classroom is a “safe space that gives people the security to speak their truth.
“I want students to know that what they have to say is important and valued,” she says. “I want them to know that they are amongst people who ‘have their back.’”
Watch a video interview with Kashi Johnson on theatre at Lehigh.
Johnson’s class is the latest in a series of her exploratory adventures in the process of nurturing the development of hip hop culture in the Lehigh Valley. She is also involved in the development of RedSun Productions, which describes itself as “a driven production company committed to developing and showcasing original, cutting-edge hip hop theatre artists for the stage.”
The production company’s intent, Johnson says, is to utilize hip hop theatre to inspire, cultivate, challenge, astonish, educate, and empower artists and audiences to explore new ideas and new forms of self-expression.
RedSun has been instrumental in staging “The HipHopCollective,” a part of South Side Bethlehem’s Touchstone Theatre Firehouse Friday series. The show provides Lehigh students, such as Brooklyn native and aspiring hip hop/spoken word artist Shaun Redwood ’07, and other fledgling artists an opportunity to join more accomplished and well-known performers on the stage.
Johnson is also in the planning stages of the “Say Word! Hip Hop Theatre Festival,” that will kick off the theatre department’s 10th anniversary season in September. The festival will feature established and emerging artists, joining together to celebrate hip hop and the power of the word. The festival will feature a revolving series format that will include cutting-edge drama, spoken word, music, dance, open mic performances, panels, workshops, and more.
“I am very excited about collaborating with the many academic departments and student organizations here at Lehigh, and other LVAIC colleges, to put together the best festival possible,” she says. “Thankfully, I will be working closely with theatre professors Drew Francis and Pam Pepper to garner support for the festival and help get the word out.”
Although university classes on hip hop have proliferated across the country over the past decade (there are now more than 100 being taught, she says), Johnson feels that the art form is still misunderstood by many.
“If you think hip hop is just bling bling, sex, and violence, you have a lot to learn,” she says. “Hip hop is a valid art that has been around for more than 30 years. It empowers artists to share their voice and their experiences, and I think that right here—at Lehigh and in the Lehigh Valley—we have important stories to tell.”
--Linda Harbrecht
Posted on Wednesday, March 01, 2006
The theatre course developed by Professor Kashi Johnson explores the 30-year-old art form that “gives voice to the voiceless.”
With the start of the Spring ’06 semester, hip hop became more than an art form, a culture, an attitude, or a state of mind – it’s now a class at Lehigh featuring the performances of undergraduate students from disciplines that span the university.
“Act Like You Know: Hip Hop Theatre,” is a theatre course (cross listed with Africana studies) that draws from the history and influence of hip hop. It will examine the art form not only as entertainment, but also as a form of self expression, says Kashi Johnson, the associate professor of theatre who developed the class and is offering it to Lehigh students for the first time this semester.
“I’m a product of hip hop’s second generation—not the pioneers who invented it, but the age bracket who shepherded the culture into global importance, political significance, and artistic richness,” Johnson says.
“I appreciate hip hop’s value, which is evident in the stories it tells, the wisdom it imparts, and the emotions it allows us to express. At its best, hip hop begs us to listen as it gives voice to the voiceless.”
Johnson's course follows a sociology course taught by Andrew McIntosh for several years: "Pass the Peas: Mapping the Blueprint of Hip Hop Culture," which traces the roots of the hip hop movement.
Johnson's ultimate goal with her new Lehigh course, she says, is to “empower Lehigh students to not only learn about hip hop music and culture, but to find their voice in doing so.”
Nurturing hip hop culture in the Lehigh Valley
Johnson will be aided by two assistant teachers: Teniece Johnson, a Pittsburgh native and a graduate student who earned her masters in sociology from Lehigh, and Meryl Glinton, a senior philosophy and psychology major who came to Lehigh from the Bahamas. The only prerequisite for the class, Johnson says, is that students remain open to the hip hop experience, and are daring enough to take risks as they create their own interpretations of the art form.
“The focus of the course isn’t solely to teach the history of hip hop,” she says. “While that is covered broadly, the aim of the course is to learn about the creative process as students create their own original work. By dissecting current lyrics and videos, as well as looking at the broader historical evolution of hip hop culture, students will develop a new perspective on the music and images that surround them. Simultaneously, I am calling on the expressive aspects of their personality, to build their performance muscle and strengthen their artistic voice.”
For those who may be somewhat reluctant or insecure performers, Johnson assures them that her classroom is a “safe space that gives people the security to speak their truth.
“I want students to know that what they have to say is important and valued,” she says. “I want them to know that they are amongst people who ‘have their back.’”
Watch a video interview with Kashi Johnson on theatre at Lehigh.
Johnson’s class is the latest in a series of her exploratory adventures in the process of nurturing the development of hip hop culture in the Lehigh Valley. She is also involved in the development of RedSun Productions, which describes itself as “a driven production company committed to developing and showcasing original, cutting-edge hip hop theatre artists for the stage.”
The production company’s intent, Johnson says, is to utilize hip hop theatre to inspire, cultivate, challenge, astonish, educate, and empower artists and audiences to explore new ideas and new forms of self-expression.
RedSun has been instrumental in staging “The HipHopCollective,” a part of South Side Bethlehem’s Touchstone Theatre Firehouse Friday series. The show provides Lehigh students, such as Brooklyn native and aspiring hip hop/spoken word artist Shaun Redwood ’07, and other fledgling artists an opportunity to join more accomplished and well-known performers on the stage.
Johnson is also in the planning stages of the “Say Word! Hip Hop Theatre Festival,” that will kick off the theatre department’s 10th anniversary season in September. The festival will feature established and emerging artists, joining together to celebrate hip hop and the power of the word. The festival will feature a revolving series format that will include cutting-edge drama, spoken word, music, dance, open mic performances, panels, workshops, and more.
“I am very excited about collaborating with the many academic departments and student organizations here at Lehigh, and other LVAIC colleges, to put together the best festival possible,” she says. “Thankfully, I will be working closely with theatre professors Drew Francis and Pam Pepper to garner support for the festival and help get the word out.”
Although university classes on hip hop have proliferated across the country over the past decade (there are now more than 100 being taught, she says), Johnson feels that the art form is still misunderstood by many.
“If you think hip hop is just bling bling, sex, and violence, you have a lot to learn,” she says. “Hip hop is a valid art that has been around for more than 30 years. It empowers artists to share their voice and their experiences, and I think that right here—at Lehigh and in the Lehigh Valley—we have important stories to tell.”
--Linda Harbrecht
Posted on Wednesday, March 01, 2006
The birth of a course
In the spring of 2006, I decided to teach a course that would merge my passion for theatre with my love of Hip Hop. What resulted was a big, fun, messy, exciting, class full of all types of students with varying levels of performance ability & knowledge of Hip Hop. The class was over 30 students large with 2 assistant teachers. Can you say organized chaos?! The class did things like performing Hip Hop in a chapel, rehearsing group projects outside, rockin' open mic shows and learning what it express oneself.In 2007 we were back at it again. This time around the class was smaller in size - 20 students deep. This time around class assignments were more refined and the academic study of Hip Hop was more integral to the class. Like the first class, students kicked their final performances before a packed audience in the Diamond Theater at Lehigh. Students also performed off campus at local open mic events and went to see regionally produced Hip Hop Theater shows like The Seven & No Child among others.
It's 2009 and were gonna give this thing another whirl. This time around students have auditioned and interviewed to be in the class. We are 20 deep and ready to see how we can do it bigger & better than before.
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