by Ernie McCray
I just had
one of the nicest experiences
of my lifetime
via a dramatic piece,
“Day of Absence,”
a Douglas Turner Ward
masterpiece
of a play
on Zoom,
each actor
sitting
at their own place
in a room
facing a Mac
or a PC,
scrolling scripts
on a split screen
against a green screen,
performing in a
reverse minstrel show
with some parts,
as with the role I portray,
“Luke,”
played in white face
like Al Jolson
in black face
in Vaudeville
decades ago,
the gist of the show:
White townsfolk
gone batty one day
with no
Black folks
anywhere to be seen
that day,
the playwright placing
status quos
under a microscope
as when the curtain falls
to a slow fade,
we as a society,
have to question
whether some of our ways
can be swayed
down loving paths
not traversed
in many ways
and I can’t wait
to see
what magic
we might
have weaved
in our betrayal
of this
soul searching piece.
But I know,
It’s going to be
something to see
because it was a pleasant
undertaking
steeped in
love fun and history –
in honor of a month
dedicated to
Black History.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
My local independent non-profit community radio station is putting the last installment about slavery on this Sunday at 1pm PST. It’s been an ugly eye-opener for a lot of white people I’m sure. There is SO much actual history that just isn’t taught in public schools… Why is the ship the Mayflower celebrated as some kind of monumental event when the ship the White Lion isn’t even mentioned in the school textbooks? We grow up so ignorant in a society as all children are trained by these standards in textbooks and testing by the state institutions, one that lives in myths that never existed to hide the reality we don’t want to face. Or address. Wake-up calls but so many want to stay asleep in those dreams. Cognitive dissonance at its strongest when you see idiots waving Confederate battle flags that were the enemy of the United States calling themselves ‘patriots,’ but people with those sentiments get to choose your child’s history textbooks.
Streaming on KYRS.org for those that are interested. The other segments have been very very informative and interesting to learn. And damned uncomfortable so often making me shake my head at the violent sickness so prevalent throughout US history. This segment is about how slavery of old ties directly into current events that so many white people pretend doesn’t affect them. That so little has changed, from the madness of the first state-sanctioned armed Police ‘Runaway Slave Patrols’ to the current racist cops standing on their necks to economic, social, and political dis-enfranchisement…
kyrs.org at 1pm this Sunday.
sealintheSelkirks