Finding solidarity in artistic expression

JULIA TIERNAN/YH Steppin' Out's members Yetsa Tuakli-Wosornu, TD '01 (center), and others

This year's Fourth Annual Black Solidarity Conference will provide a forum for college students, professionals, and community members to articulate their visions of the black experience through participation in the arts, community service, and mediated discussion groups. The Conference, which organizers hope will help participants find kinship through similarities and potential in diversity, has its roots in A Day of Absence, a Douglas Turner Ward play which suggests what the world might be like without the presence and contributions of the black race. The play prompted the establishment of Black Solidarity Day--a day on which blacks are called to remove themselves from their classrooms and workplaces to remind the world of the black community's political, artistic, and cultural influence. Four years ago, Lorelei and Andrea Williams, BK '98 and DC '98, twin sisters and co-presidents of the Black Pride Union (BPU), took this idea a step further and organized the first Black Solidarity Conference. It was a one-day event that targeted mainly the local black community and featured prominent author, attorney, and pundit Lawrence Otis Graham.

The Conference now spans four days and includes a wide variety of campus groups. Planning for this year's Conference began last January. The Black Student Alliance at Yale (BSAY) and the BPU sponsor the event, leading a coalition of student groups which includes the Yale African Students' Association, the Caribbean Club, and the National Society of Black Engineers. This year, Conference participants will engage in a number of community service projects in the New Haven community and in workshop discussions that will explore and question different aspects of black identity. Perhaps the most widely anticipated event of the weekend, the Intercollegiate Talent Showcase, will give participants the chance to share their artistic gifts with others and to appreciate the talents of their peers. The Conference will culminate in a banquet and keynote address given by renowned poet, playwright, and political activist Amiri Baraka.

Every year, the Conference's organizers select a theme concerning an aspect of solidarity and its benefits for the black community. This year's theme is "Renaissance of a People: Solidarity in the New Millenium." It simultaneously suggests the rebirth of a black community akin to that which existed during the '60s and '70s--united by a common cause--and asks participants to look ahead to the coming millenium, seeking black unity in the context of the 21st century.

JULIA TIERNAN/YH YaleDancers' Pamela James, JE '01, Elana Aquino, SM '00, and Sidra Bell, SY '01

The always-successful Student Talent Showcase will give participants the opportunity to display their artistic, creative, and expressive gifts. It promises an impressive lineup of both Yalies and students from other participating schools--each school sending representatives has been asked to send at least one performing group, soloist, or work of art to the showcase. Yalies will present step performances, monologues, poetry readings, and vocal and instrumental musical performances. A Yale student DJ will spin, and members of YaleDancers will present pieces inspired by a variety of different cultures and styles. Other students, travelling from as far away as North Carolina, Arizona, and California, will bring similar acts.

This evening of creativity promises to be much more than just a good time. Many students slated to perform feel that their artistic works greatly contribute to the theme of the Conference and promote black solidarity. Sidra Bell, SY '01, a member of YaleDancers, said, "I feel that my piece is very relevant to the Conference. The first movement is a comment on black women who cannot see their beauty and glory, [and] the second is the celebration of being a black woman."

Kevin Quinn, SY '01, a member of the a capella singing group Shades, commented on the power of artistic performance. "Shades attempts to represent different eth-nicities, and [the Showcase] gives people from other colleges the chance to see that which is not necessarily what one thinks of when one thinks of Yale. I also think Shades represents the pervasive nature of black musical art, which is unmistakably identifiable. A lot of the music we perform allows our audiences--in this case, mostly people of African-American descent--the chance to feel that sense of community among themselves."

Organizers of the Conference also believe that an artistic event like this one brings people together and creates a sense of community among colleagues and peers. "One of the most important [goals] of the Conference is to create an atmosphere in which we can be proud of what we've accomplished [in] the arts, whether in a gallery or up onstage performing," Anana Charles, ES '00, co-president of the BPU and a performer in the Showcase, said. "We look around and see a group of diverse young people from across the country and call them our peers." As a celebration of the arts as a source of cultural identity, and of the artistic riches of the black student community, organizers hope that the Showcase will at once honor student artists and foster the solidarity engendered by artistic endeavors as well as cultural unity.

JULIA TIERNAN/YH Shades

The keynote address, by Baraka should prove highly relevant to the themes of the Conference. Baraka, who found greater inspiration in meetings with writer and jazz enthusiast Sterling A. Brown than in the world of academia while at Washington, D.C.'s Howard University, then moved to Greenwich Village and became an integral part of the New York Beat scene.

Originally named LeRoi Jones and nicknamed "King of the Village" by his colleagues, Baraka remained unscathed by those who challenged both his convictions and his art, calling him a cowardly, bourgeois individualist. He maintained that his play, Dutchman, for which he won an Obie in 1964 for Best American Play, was "about the difficulty of becoming and remaining a man in America."

Adopting the doctrines of black nationalism and dedicating his life of writing to the creation of a new black aesthetic after the tragic assassination of Malcolm X, Baraka said he feels that demonstrated the powerful way in which politics and the arts often inform and influence one another. In addition to Dutchman, Baraka has published 13 volumes of poetry, two books of fiction, and several non-fiction works.

The parallels between Baraka's life and the Conference's themes interest many prospective participants. Tameka Moss, TD '00, said that Baraka "reflects the theme of the Conference through solidarity and the concept of rebirth. He gave thought to basic meanings--what it is to be black, what it is to be a man, what it is to be a black man. He went through an entire transformation and evaluation and decided [to share] the answers he did eventually discover with the rest of the world."

The Conference follows Baraka's example, questioning and reshaping black identity through activism and the arts, and focusing on positive action to improve the situation of the black community.

One of the most compelling ways an ethnic group can unite to remind itself of its overall strength and significance is through the power of arts, expressing and celebrating shared cultural values. In this way, Conference performers are both artists and activists. Contributing to a long-standing legacy of black creativity and applauding the gifts of their peers, they successfully reinforce solidarity within the black community, and they're sure to have a great time while they're at it.

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