Art Exhibit: 28 Days Explores Black History

Art Exhibit: 28 Days Explores Black History

27 February 2012 No Comments

A Toronto art exhibit brings together a mix of multi-dimensional Canadian and International artists to creatively explore the meaning of Black History Month.
By Anya Wassenberg

Striking in its diversity of medium and mode, the art exhibit 28 Days: Reimagining Black History Month, offers a broad spectrum of contemporary visual art from Canadian and international artists.

Radcliffe Bailey’s Black Ark, a shimmering black model boat, plays with dual notions of the iconography of black history. The ship serves as both a symbol of the forced Atlantic crossing of slaves and the Ark as a means of surviving the storm. This piece, located near the entrance of the Georgia Scherman Projects gallery in Toronto, sets the tone for the show’s multi-dimensional, multi-media approach.

Many of the works in the show use historical and traditional imagery. Jamestown Masquerade, a 2006 video by London-based Ghanaian artist Godfried Donkor, features masked revellers in Victorian garb. Canadian artist Stephen Fakiyesi’s Kings and Queens is a partial house of cards that leans perilously against the gallery wall. The cards feature African royalty and African-inspired geometric designs on the back. Sometimes, the reference to history is more oblique, as in Dance of Belem, a video triptych by artist Sonia Boyce. In the video dancer Vania Gala dances in public places in Belem, Portugal to draw attention to that country’s often ignored history in the slave trade.

The 1996 animated video Go West Young Man by British artist Keith Piper, a member of the BLK Art Group, is considered a classic. In it a father and son talk about the stereotypes they face as black men in spoken word narration over chanting and drums and a flow of imagery. The title itself (I first heard that joke 400 years ago – I died laughing) is part of the message.

Curated by Pamela Edmonds and Sally Frater, and presented by Third Space Art Projects, the 28 Days exhibit at the Georgia Scherman Projects gallery also features works by Sandra Brewster, Delio Delgado, Rob Pruitt, Dionne Simpson, Mickalene Thomas and Nari Ward and runs until February 29.

Ethiopian talent takes centre stage at Glenn Gould Studio

Ethiopian talent takes centre stage at Glenn Gould Studio

13 February 2012 2 Comments

By Anya Wassenberg
Ethiopia: a musical perspective
Presented by Batuki Music
February 11, 2012 at the Glenn Gould Studio

From traditional songs through the Golden Age of Ethiopian funk and beyond to today’s innovative Ethiojazz and pop, a driving bass line and irresistible rhythms were common threads in Ethiopia: a musical perspective, a unique showcase presented by Batuki Music Society for Black History Month. The elegant Glenn Gould Studio was full for the show, whose line-up drew on the city’s rich depth of Ethiopian talent and included five vocalists and both traditional and modern instrumentalists. Several of the musicians were graduates of the renowned Yared School of Music in Addis Ababa and popular performers in their native country as well as among the city’s thriving Ethiopian community.

Toronto is home to tens of thousands of people of Ethiopian and Eritrean descent and the song selections showcased the music of several generations and the evolution of their uniquely funky sonic heritage.  The music is based on four versions of the pentatonic scale in various modes, sometimes bright and sometimes minor and moody. Each of the singers brought a different flavour to the mix, from the often haunting traditional styling of Fantahun Shewankochew Mekonnen and his krar (a six-stringed lyre) to Martha Ashagari’s classic Ethio funk songs that featured her nimble vocals over an irresistibly hypnotic rhythm section.

Husband and wife duo Abebe Fikade and Eyerusalem Dubale are Azmaris, an ancient tradition of improvisation, storytelling and social commentary they brought to life in playful songs that hit home with the Ethiopians in the audience. What translated into any language was their warm stage chemistry and the expressive power of Eyerusalem’s voice as she sang to Abebe’s masenko, a single stringed bow lute.

The ensemble also played strictly instrumental selections where the tenor sax duo of Girma Woldemichael and John Maclean held down the melodies over the churning rhythms. Girma is a composer and musician whose career began with a stint in the Ethio Stars Band and includes recording and playing with some of the industry’s best, like Mahmoud Ahmed and Aster Aweke. The more contemporary songs featured classic jazz structures and in young singer Henok Abebe, a bouncy pop sensibility. Underneath it all was the bedrock of Daniel Barnes on drums and Yared Zeleke on bass, with keyboardists Dawit Tesfamariam and Bereket Gebredemn (aka BK) adding to the harmony. Dancer Saba Alemayehu lit up the stage with both traditional and contemporary Ethiopian dance styles, conveying not just the moves but the joy of the music.

Ethiopia has a proud history as the only African nation to successfully resist European colonization efforts and has a rich culture which includes a written language, the Ge’ez script whose earliest examples date back to the 5^th century BC.

With Fantahun Shewankochew Mekonnen (acoustic krar, vocals, composer), Henok Abebe (vocals, composer), Martha Ashagari (vocals, composer), Girma Woldemichael (saxophone, composer, arranger), Daniel Barnes (drummer, composer, arranger), Dawit Tesfamariam (keyboards), Bereket Gebremedn (keyboards), Yared Zelenka (bass), John Maclean (saxophone), Abebe Fikade (masenko, vocals, composer) and Eyerusalem Dubale (vocals) and dancer Saba Alemayehu

The show will be broadcast on CBC Radio:
Big City Small World with host Garvia Bailey on Feb 25^th on CBC Radio 1
Canada Live with host Andrew Craig on February 28^th on CBC Radio 2

Music Africa presents Fojeba at the Gladstone

Music Africa presents Fojeba at the Gladstone

6 February 2012 No Comments

Fojeba
Presented by Music Africa for Gladstone’s African Liberation Month
February 3 – the Melody Bar at the Gladstone Hotel
Featuring David Woodhead on bass, Walter Maclean on drums, David Maclean on guitar and Wayne Brewer on sax.
By Anya Wassenberg

The stylish new décor of the Melody Bar was about filled to capacity by the middle of Fojeba’s first set on Friday night, with people taking to their feet on the dance floor during the sound check – never mind the first song. Passers-by were lured in from the sidewalk by the shimmering guitars and compelling polyrhythms, joining the laid back crowd.

A native of Cameroon, Jean-Baptiste Foaleng, aka Fojeba, takes the hip shaking roots music of central Africa and adds a jazzy sophistication for dance inducing results. You can hear the outlines of various types of Cameroonian and central African music in Fojeba’s original songs, including makossa, a rhythmic musical style akin to soukous with the addition of the sax, and zouk, a bouncy dance style that originated in the Caribbean and again melds with singing soukous guitars in its African version.

The crisp, sure drum work of Walter Maclean underpins the complex interplay of melody and rhythm. Each instrument plays its own different melodic line, all of them woven into a tightly knit pattern. Bass solos were as melodic and compelling as those of the talented young guitarist, David Maclean or sax player Wayne Brewer, with Fojeba providing lead guitar and smooth vocals.  Whether you understand their roots or not, his songs have a spontaneous and undeniable kind of appeal.

He sings in French, Bamiléké (a language of Cameroon), Lingala (a language of Congo) and sometimes Pidjin English and writes all his own material, including Au Canada, a song to his adopted land. Some of his lyrics are topical, including songs dedicated to peace and U.S. President Barack Obama, while others are inspired by personal events and memories of Cameroon. He’s been playing in the Toronto area for about the last eight years and began hitting local clubs with a solo act.  Word got around quickly about the talented guitarist and songwriter. “Other musicians came to me and said, ‘We like your music, we’d like to play with you,’” he recalls.  Today he plays with some of the city’s most talented musicians, including David Woodhead, who’s long been a fixture on the roots music circuit. Fojeba’s low key and affable nature no doubt helped secure his place in the local scene.

Fojeba began his second set playing solo, captivating the audience with guitar and voice alone before bringing the rest of the band up to fill the dance floor again. He is currently working on a new CD that he’s hoping to release before the end of the year.

You can also catch him Saturday February 18^th at The Music Gallery, where he’ll be performing with dancers and a number of guest musicians.
www.musicgallery.org

Free concerts continue for Black History Month Fridays at the Gladstone Hotel (all 9-11pm):
February 10 – Sonia
February 17 – Kush Ensemble Feat. Daniel Nebiat
February 24 – Youth Night with Concept Books, Yusra Khogali, Run’s T, Quabena Maphia & more

Review: Caroline, or Change

Review: Caroline, or Change

30 January 2012 No Comments

Caroline, or Change
Book & Lyrics by Tony Kushner
Music by Jeanine Tesori
Produced by Acting Up Stage Company in association with Obsidian Theatre Company
Continues at the Berkeley Street Theatre to February 12, 2012

Neema Bickersteth, Alana Hibbert, Arlene Duncan, Sterling Jarvis, Jewelle Blackmanv (Photographer: Joanna Akyol)

By Anya Wassenberg

Put your faith – and clothes – in me

Caroline the maid is down in the basement doing laundry and the washing machine is a singer in a satin gown and sparkly jewellery. As she turns on the radio, it becomes a trio of ladies in hot fuchsia pink singing in Supremes-style harmony. When the clothes are done washing, the dryer is a sexy male crooner. In the middle of it all, unsmiling, Caroline tends to the family’s clothes. You know you’re in a Tony Kushner musical when…

The play between the mundane and the whimsical is one of many contrasts that animate the story in this Tony-nominated musical. The solitary life of Noah Gellman (Michael Levinson), the child in the Jewish family who lives upstairs, contrasts with the warmer familiarity of Caroline’s brood of three, the comfortable middle-class household vs. the struggles of a single mother – among others.

Change come fast, change come slow. Even the “change” of the title takes on several dimensions in this story that takes place on the weekend in 1963 that JFK was shot. It centres on Noah, struggling with a distant father and new stepmother along with Caroline as a 39-year-old divorcee with four children and a $30 a week wage. When Noah starts to leave his change in his pockets and well-meaning step mom Rose (Deborah Hay) suggests that Caroline keep it to teach him a lesson, it sets off a downward spiral in the life of the glum and humourless woman who’s sacrificed so much just to survive.

Kushner’s book and lyrics add politics and social commentary to the mix. Our almost friend is gone away sings Dotty, Caroline’s friend and a fellow maid, as JFK’s legacy is seen through various eyes. Caroline’s oldest daughter Emmie (Sabryn Rock) adds to her grief with a revolutionary spirit and talk of rights she never had the opportunity to claim.

Image: Arlene Duncan, Michael Levinson (Photographer: Joanna Akyol)

Flashes of clever humour illuminate what is essentially a story about loss, and not entirely an upbeat one at that. The real highlights are the engaging and melodic score and an overall sparkling performance from a very talented cast. Various musical styles converge in this piece, including gospel, RnB and soul. The set design ingeniously recreates the three levels of the house, furnished with period furniture and household items. Meticulously detailed costumes add a sophisticated visual appeal to the production.

Arlene Duncan is a stand out as Caroline, making her sympathetic even as her character is sullen and disappointed with her lot in life. She gets by on a kind of grim autopilot, and we get why in her multi-dimensional portrayal. She adds a powerful and expressive voice to her acting ability. There were no weak links musically from vocals to musical direction and the live band.

Tony Kushner has said in interviews that this is his most autobiographical piece; he grew up in the South with an African American maid for whom Caroline is dedicated. This production is a Canadian premiere.

Direction: Robert McQueen
Music Direction: Reza Jacobs
Choreography: Tim French

Featuring: Arlene Duncan, Neema Bickersteth, Jewelle Blackman, Deborah Hay, Alana Hibbert, Sterling Jarvis, Kaya Joubert Johnson, Londa Larmond, Michael Levinson, Cameron MacDuffee, Mary Pitt, Nicholas Rice, Derrick Roberts, Sabryn Rock & Shawn Wright
Orchestra: Karen Graves (violin), Brendan Cassidy (clarinet/sax), Reza Jacobs (keyboards), David MacDougall (percussion) & Erik Patterson (guitar/bass)
Find out more online: www.canadianstage.com
Over the phone: 416-368-3110.

When Sisters Speak hits home with the ladies

When Sisters Speak hits home with the ladies

23 January 2012 One Comment

12^th Annual When Sisters Speak
St. Lawrence Centre – Toronto
Featuring: Keisha Monique, Dr. Naila Keleta-Mae, Dasha Kelly, Devon The Split Jones, Truth Is… & Queen Sheba. With DJ Mel Boogie
By Anya Wassenberg

Brothers, don’t fear our strength for it is us who made you strong. (Devon The Split Jones)

Black men, white society, fathers, sex and other weighty matters were the targets of a sextet of talented spoken word performers who took the stage Saturday night at the 12^th Annual When Sisters Speak event.

“Are you guys here to take in some female empowerment?” asked event organizer Dwayne Morgan to a roar of approval from the crowd. “This is not like one of those poetry shows where you feel like you’re in church.” And then some.

The amphitheatre setting of St. Lawrence Centre and its perfect size allowed for a big crowd that still retained its sense of intimacy. This was very much an audience participation show, with the near capacity crowd noisy and responsive when the lines really hit home. A hefty percentage were returning fans of the annual event, which made for a laid back vibe. Each of the poets offered a different flavour, a different take on what it means to be a black woman today.

Opening act Devon The Split Jones’ best work was lit up by her intense delivery and some pointed truths. Next up was Dasha Kelly, from Milwaukee, an accomplished performer whose theatrical performance really connected with the audience. This is for all the little girls who were told, “you talk too much!” definitely hit a chord. Her work is thoughtful, clever, funny and entertaining all at once, finding the magic inside small, everyday moments, like the piece about finding herself thinking about the object of a crush while she’s outside with the dog in the middle of the night and, while a quarter moon looks down on my goosebumps. Her take on sex was both erotic and literate. Having an orgasm is like catching a fly… you hear it before you see it. And later in the same work, This hunger is stronger than etiquette.

Toronto native Keisha Monique combines singing with spoken word that’s both keenly observant and passionate in its approach. It points out subtle truths like ..the bruises on the knees of overqualified women, and tells her father, Words are cheap when bellies are empty and the rent is due. A bright sense of humour also colours her poems, and she brought the house down with: My momma is so gangster that she stole superman’s cape and turned it into a head wrap!

Truth Is… started the second half with her ardently sincere observations and a deceptively low key style. She began in a gentle voice, but her delivery went from low key to rapid fire and urgent, and her poetry is inspired by personal events like her recent marriage to her partner. She offered observations on love and relationships with a genuine sense of emotion – and an often intriguing point of view. To die alone can be done with ease – living together takes work.

Dr. Naila Keleta-Mae, who recently received her doctorate degree, began and ended with a song that the audience joined in on. In between, she wove autobiography and personal anecdotes with poetry that touched on a range of subjects from encounters with rude bookstore clerks to the role of women in the world. You go, girl – to the grave. What we need are women. She linked disparate ideas with a fluid and imaginative sense of language; a poem that began with a take on women boxers transformed into a meditation on the nature of sacrifice. Strong work combined with a theatrical sense of movement and it made for a dynamic performance.

The show ended with a bang and Queen Sheba, a favourite at last year’s When Sisters Speak. She’s a lady who doesn’t mince her words or her approach, hitting an instant chord with her first piece – about periods. When I am getting to heaven, I’m kicking Eve’s ass. God said don’t touch the mother f**king apple! she roared. Her dynamic delivery matched her blunt truths in tone, all of it laced with a wicked sense of humour. Some of her work meanders into engagingly surreal journeys, dealing with break ups, life and love in general.

Whatever black women have to say, it’s clear they can say it with eloquence and grace.

André Alexis’ The Decalogue

André Alexis’ The Decalogue

17 January 2012 No Comments

André Alexis

By Anya Wassenberg

The Decalogue is a long-term project – to say the least. Its genesis as an idea came about some three or four years ago, according to writer André Alexis, during a period when he was doing a show on CBC Radio called Tapestry. Tapestry features philosophical and spiritual themes of various kinds, and André was asked to write a show based on the 10 Commandments of the Old Testament.

The show ended up written as a series of segments that examined each of the Commandments in turn. When it aired, it caught the attention of Richard Rose, Artistic Director of Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre, who suggested that André adapt the piece for the stage. The idea intrigued him but posed a number of issues.

“I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do what I had (already) done, which is to look at the 10 Commandments playfully.” What emerged was a desire to do two things at once. “Through the lens of morality, to explore theatre as ritual,” he explains. It serves a twin purpose: a meditation on morality and the classic themes of ethics, and a chance to write for and in various theatrical forms and conventions.

The subject matter held its own appeal. “I’m kind of obsessive when it comes to the visualization of the godly,” he admits. He describes himself as agnostic. “We only have our perspective as humans,” he explains. “We don’t have the tools. But – the imagination of God is fascinating. I’m happy to play with ideas of God.” He holds up the Bible as a marvel of English literature, replete with the fundamental themes of human existence and written as poetry. “You can’t really be a writer of English and not be fascinated by the King James.”

Each of the ten pieces will take a different form. The first, Name in Vain (Decalogue Two), took the stage this past October. Set in a monastery, the play features only two spoken words – the Lord’s name taken in vain when one of the monks breaks his vow of silence.

“It’s a take that’s centred on creating tension and forward movement with the body,” he says. “It’s a meditation on our relationship to the land.” The play’s choreography involves gardening movements, for example, and he talks about Trinidadian vs Canadian views of the earth and land.

The second, Leporello in Gehenna (Decalogue Six), was presented in Tarragon’s Workspace in December, examining the sixth commandment: thou shalt not commit adultery. It’s a musical production along the lines of the Three Penny Opera with both spoken and musical segments.

“It was set in hell,” he explains. “The songs were painful reminders of earth.” It’s an approach that looks at melody and rhythm as central factors to the overall effect of the performance. “It’s thinking rhythmically.”

It’s clear he has a multi-year project in mind. “I’d like to get all ten done,” he says, “to allow myself a prolonged thought, all the way to the end.”

Future pieces include a Shakespearian take on ‘honour thy father and thy mother’ in a reworking of King Lear, and he’ll use puppetry to talk about false idols. He’s stretching his creative muscles with each new Decalogue, starting from scratch over and over. “I invite criticism of both the work and the attitude,” he says. “It’s theatre as meditation.”

Olive Senior’s ‘Dancing Lessons’: Review

Olive Senior’s ‘Dancing Lessons’: Review

22 December 2011 No Comments

Review: Dancing Lessons (Cormorant Books, 2011)
a novel by Olive Senior
www.olivesenior.com
By Anya Wassenberg

In Dancing Lessons, Jamaican-Canadian author Olive Senior gives us the story of G, a remarkable character whose story unfolds in the form of a series of meandering notebook entries.

The story ranges from the present day, where she’s an old lady stuck in a posh retirement home, and back and forth to various periods in her life. She runs away from a cold and affectionless childhood raised by her father’s sister and mother straight into the arms of a charming womanizer and a loveless and abusive marriage. The eldest daughter leaves to be raised by a rich white couple, and the womanizing husband simply moves out one day. She’s left with three children to raise on her own in the country, children who gradually drift away from her both emotionally and physically. Her experiences have left her guarded, with a sense of unfairness over her fate.

It was as if I was always two people. The one who was visible: plain, awkward, and shy. And the other inside my head: well-dressed, fashionable, and in command.

The genius of the novel is that we see both sides of G clearly by the end of the book through the flux of present day occurrences and remembered scenes. To the outside world, she’s paralyzed by an acute shyness, her very voice squashed by the unenviable life of poverty and emotional neglect. On the inside, however, she’s just as acutely observant, an intelligent and resilient survivor who’s learned to keep her head down and do what it takes to get by. We can also sense the emotional damage, the fragile psyche that hides underneath her resolve to carry on.

G’s voice is infused with a wry and understated sense of humour that often comes out in her observations of the other residents of Ellesmere Lodge.

Ruby was an impressive if incongruous sight in the garden, the gold chains around her freckled and wattled neck glinting through the V-neck of her cream silk blouse with the billowy sleeves, her wrists and fingers flashing with jewellery, her fake fingernails long and ruby red, her stork-like legs emerging from her too-short linen skirt to totter on the heels.

As she ruminates over the past, she’s forced to realize that her own children in turn have paid the price for her often prickly and uncommunicative nature. Grinding poverty and anger over her fate spill out, along with a blind jealousy at the realization that her children have drifted away from her and back in contact with their father, who went on to make a good living and live a prosperous life. She feels the separation with Celia, her daughter, and doesn’t know what to do about it.

I couldn’t help thinking, and not for the first time, how animated she seemed when we were with other people, how lacklustre with me, as if I was always the pinprick that deflated her.

She begins hostile to the upscale home Celia is paying for, keeping herself apart from the rich clientele who she imagines look down on her, but a funny thing begins to happen as time passes and she starts to open up.  It’s not a steady road uphill but despite the bleakness of much of her past, G’s is a story about hope, about the ties that bind no matter what and a kind of redemption for which it’s never too late.

Olive Senior’s novel is beautifully written in a voice that is itself keenly observant of social strata and background politics. The book is much like G herself – shrewd, telling and likeable.