OK, imagine that you are really into the theater. Then imagine that you read plays and some of those plays – that really added value to your life – were written by two living authors. And imagine that those playwrights produced the first incarnations of their work at a theater in New York and you went to this theater to see the work of your favorite playwrights. Then imagine that within a year, you get a chance to perform at this theater. Ok that’s where I’m at right now. Click link for schedule.
Maui Review of the play that I’m touring with “Word Becomes Flesh”
‘Word Becomes Flesh’ becomes awesome
November 17, 2011
By MICHAEL PULLIAM (mauibackstage@gmail.com) , For The Maui News
Wow! Just wow. That’s a pretty mundane comment, but I’m literally speechless over Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s “Word Becomes Flesh.” Though the attendance was sparse, the Sunday night audience at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s Castle Theater was a veritable who’s who in the Maui art world. Essentially it was a performance for artists, writers and performers. The collective consensus of those creative types was complete awe, a silent exit as everyone contemplated what it was that we had just experienced.
Not to slight Maui theater, but Joseph’s production is the kind of quality Maui should aspire to. From the perfection of all things technical to the another-level performers themselves, “Word Becomes Flesh” may be the most impressive show presented on the island in years. Joseph describes his new medium as a “choreo-poem,” which is a good summation except that the effect is much richer than poetry combined with dance. It is sort of like a hip-hop opera, but without any singing if that makes sense. It also attacks hip-hop music and its culture, even while utilizing them.
“Word Becomes Flesh” is poetic prose and political statements surrounding a black male expecting his first child. Five actors play that one man: Dahlak Brathwaite, Daveed Diggs, Khalil Anthony, Michael Wayne Turner III and B. Yung. Dion Decibels DJs from onstage, providing the soundtrack to each “choreo-poem.”
The dialogue and subject matter of the play are highly controversial and much of what’s said can’t be put in print. The power of African-Americans criticizing themselves in a politically incorrect way is at times shocking and it was only fitting that excerpts from a Malcolm X speech were used as an audio accompaniment as the talented cast explored racism. Powerful words are presented as a dance with a rhythmic score of beats and bits of melody. Each performer is an independent star in his own right, but the troupe melds into one being. By show’s end it became difficult to remember who did what; it truly became one man with five aspects of his journey into fatherhood.
Considered Joseph’s seminal work, “Word Becomes Flesh” has been touring the United States since 2003. He describes “Flesh” as “confronting the intersection of the physical reality and mythology about the black male body, from the cotton field to the athletic field and all the spaces in between.” The former Broadway star of the Tony award- winning “The Tap Dance Kid” was honored in 2007 by Smithsonian Magazine as one of America’s top young innovators in the arts and sciences. He spoke briefly before the performance to acknowledge the MACC’s diverse season and its commitment to presenting new works.
The powers that be at the MACC have made some bold choices this season from Sheetal Gandhi’s “Bahu-Beti-Biwi” to Ben Vareen to February’s Martha Graham Dance Company. If you didn’t already know, tickets for most events at the MACC start at just $12, so don’t let price scare you away from the groundbreaking New York-quality performances happening this season at Castle Theater.
I feel like I’m posting more of this group’s work than of my own. Well, this time, it’s a post for DLRN and myself. You enjoy their music and my acting at the same time. Plus, I’m practicing for all the videos I plan to hit you with next year. For now…
This week, we have been doing workshops, building with staff and students at the University of Vermont to promote new ways of organizing and engaging community. Tomorrow, we rock out. More info at iLL-Literacy.
Leaving in 6 hours for this show. Trying to finish recording one song and pack in that time. Full tour schedule soon. I love ANYONE who continues to check up on this blog and I. You are awesome!
“Like Scarface and Freud learning to zumba in my subconscious/ a gangster and his discontents underwriting my manhood/ they psychoanalyze their presence then sniff a line of coke from my id to my superego/ Freud says, ‘Your little friends are shining examples of repressive desublimation’/ Tony says, ‘Who gives a fuck. Say hello.’”
- Nico Cary
O.A., your comments were in the back of my mind as I wrote this. Very happy about how it came out. Thank You!
And it’s been a long time
Since wrote rhymes with an album in mind
On everybody else’s CD bout time to be on mine
I dig into my archives
find a part of myself
I recognize
But recognize that I parted with that part
Or it departed it died
I reckon I been in part post partem
Part post mortem
Pardon for the postal like delivery
Slow like I am
AM I don’t rush mournings
Pontificating in my post modern post
Postulating pondering
If it’s possible for poets to propel people forward
If not then
Why should I make it
Stripped my soul so vulnerable
The closest ones to me scoffed at me while I stood there naked
Shall I pause it?
For the homophobic non-progressive adolescent
Adults adding on to us descending
Still I wanted to make you move
But it was too hard
So I lost direction
And ever since I been trying to find it
Another way
Until God’s spear hit me
I combined it
And what it’d say
Spirit
I’m trying
It’s come to my attention that this blog is being read by members of my family. And being the beautiful people they are, they caringly inquired about whether I was okay. Also, made me realize that this blog, being posted on the world wide web, could be read by anyone, which of course will undoubtedly have an effect on the honesty of my expression. It made me even worry about some of the people closest to me learning in my music what they didn’t know before and what they might not like. I don’t want to sacrifice the integrity of this journal or my music. At the same time, I don’t want to portray myself as something that doesn’t represent me completely. I’ve wondered myself why most of my entries reflect such sadness but if you asked me “how are you doing” I would probably say that I’m blessed. At the moment, I have a couple of answers. The one that I thought of right now, is that readers and listeners are witnessing “Dahlak the poet”, “Dahlak the songwriter”, or “Dahlak the thinker”, which all believe, stem from a very big part of me – “Dahlak the philospher”. You are witnessing the boy who mentally wrestled for months with the idea and the inevitability of dying when he was 6 or 7. This one question, I believe, propelled my hunger to understand what this life is and what I am doing here. I know we all do that, but it appears to me that I might have started earlier and I pursue that question, not simply ask it, but toil with it more intensely than most people. And this philosopher, who intensely, and meticulously rips to shred all that which disables me and so many others from fully appreciating this gift of life through the form of distraction, manipulation, abuse of power, lies, and forced perspective that breed self doubt and fear, is who you are witnessing on page and on stage. It is probably the only person you will ever experience as a listener or a reader because it is that very hunger and that determination to make sense of it all that drove me to pick up a pencil and start writing in the first place.
I am beginning to realize that maybe I put too much of the work on myself. Slowly, I am beginning to give more to God – to listen, discover and be shown, rather than dig, and dig and dig. But I still want to be active about this pursuit because I don’t believe I can just sit and wait for the answers to come. Part of that pursuance are these journals, where I can begin to document so many of the doubts and fears that not only make up too much of who I am, but from what I have observed, too much of what too many people are. I want to lead by example. Confront the moments where my ego is battling me for domination. And when I can’t battle back, those moments that I know we all go through, I write. I write and I come back and read and begin to understand. So when it comes again I can remember that not only have I been here before but I have observed everything that was here with me, and I can choose to either remove them, adjust them, or just ignore them. I am TRYING. And it seems that when I try this hard, people worry about me, I guess, because no one seems to try that hard unless they are close to breaking. Well I’m not as close as you think I am but I believe we all are a lot closer than we think. So I prepare and I practice. I am changing my mind and that is not an easy feat. I don’t take the task lightly. I thank you SO MUCH for your concern. I won’t say don’t worry about me because the company helps. But I don’t deserve it more than anyone else. Whether they express it or not, so many of the people close to you (you included) are struggling through as well, and I hope we remember to express that care onto them and as well as ourselves.
