Racism! It’s a word that most are afraid to utter and even more are afraid to discuss. But this word has been a vital part of the Black culture and experience, and it has bound us with fear, hatred and kept us from the simplest part of humanity…equality.
It is very important for ALL Americans to know something about the “Black experience” that played a massive role in shaping the American culture and politics of this nation.
We all must also understand that being oppressed is a horrible stain within the Black race and culture, and many wish oppression was no longer a part of our history, even if this type of servitude has provided free labor to help build the world as we know it today.
Writer, Director, Producer, and Founder of Black Ensemble Theater Jackie Taylor delivers with a stellar performance of “The Black Renaissance” to open souls to see “what color is your mind?” This question was composed into one of the 9 fantastic songs that Jackie wrote to expose the question around racism.
The musical score in “Black Renaissance” is nothing short of entertaining and uplifting.
“The Black Renaissance” takes you on a voyage of “The Black Experience” in two eye-opening acts in which Taylor puts the truth on stage. Her passion to educate the audience is clear as she seeks to enlighten everyone about the type of world we live in, and what type of hidden and open racism we face on a daily basis.
The play features an evolving process from Africa to America, with music that makes you feel and reflect on life today and in the past for Blacks who had to live, survive and fight to be free. But what does it mean to be free?
This play is more than a moment in history that enlightens, educates and inspires. It is a musical resistance against that very powerful and unspoken evil called racism.
“The Black Renaissance” is about Black Lives Matter and it is a MOVEMENT of our reality told through song and dance to help us understand the systematic process of racism and oppression. This thought-provoking production exposes the truth of racism by getting to the root of what it is and why we must remove this horrible stain from our society.
“The Black Renaissance” takes us through hundreds of years of Blacks constantly developing a culture of love and self-worth within a society of hate, while trying desperately to fit in a world with people with whom they should have been considered as equals, yet were mastered over and controlled by whippings, punishments, slave codes (the law) and the ungodly use of religion.
The play explores the great “divide and conquer” in order to keep Blacks enslaved to their masters in hopes of slaves turning on each other through colorism for years to come and the lack of respect by calling a slave “boy” and “girl. It also shows how racism affects us even now when our president constantly promotes racial hatred and commands separatism and glorifies oppression.
So what is in a name? Can a name define your worth? Or in this case your race? The Black race has been broken down in so many different ways, which includes what we will be called and what we should answer to. This is evident by searching our subscribed documented names to describe Black Americans in census surveys as Colored, Negro, Black and African American, which does not begin to describe the Black race as a part of the human race and all that we have been through.
However, even though we have lived “The Slave Syndrome Blues,” our hope has always been “Oh Freedom.”Â
“The Black Renaissance” is another one of Jackie Taylor’s great works on creating a strong institution committed to eliminating discrimination by allowing us to get a closer look at the context of racism. Although Blacks have only been free for 152 years, the race still carries the multiple burdens on their backs with lashes of pain and broken dreams of hope.
We highly recommend that you see this wonderful production with your family so that you will be moved to join the resistance and help fight racism.
Black Ensemble Theater Continues 2017 Dance Theater Season With the World Premiere of the Black Renaissance (A Musical Resistance Against Racism)
Written and Directed by Jackie Taylor
October 14-November 26, 2017
The Cast Includes:
Michael Adkins, Brian Boller, Jana’ah Coates, Rueben Echoles, Lemond Hayes, Wendell Jackson, Dwight Neal, Linnea Norwood, Rhonda Preston, LeKeya Shearrill, Henri Slater, Lynn Solar and Levi Stewart.
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