Speaking on Our Thoughts...

the Mass of Christ has come and gone, and i'm still in the midst of trying to figure it all out. what's a young, culturally-aware brotha to do? this mass of Holy-daze had me in a bit of a whirl, and i'm sure i'm not all alone. here's the bottom line:

when i was a child, i behaved as a child, etc....
i have pretty darned fond memories of being a kid at Christmas time. i remember egg nog, boughs of holly, the good old tree, and waking up to presents under the tree. i remember singing all the songs and hanging all the lights, and even the little manger scene under the tree. i recall the feel-good energy when everyone greeted everyone in peace, at least for a few weeks of the year. even people who didn't like people treated those people nice at Christmastime. what a miracle.

when i became a man, i put away childish things...
ah...adulthood. no Santa Claus/Clause/Klaus, et al. no reindeer or claymation specials. and cultural awareness that made me question the psychological aftermath of placing African-American children into the lap of a mythology that looks nothing like them, then giving those icons credit for the year of hard work and sacrifice that went into filling a living room with gifts at the yuletide. yeah, i was jaded for a while. then i had a kid.
then i remembered the magic of my childhood.
then i desired something special for her.
then i was stumped.

i came up with many things, including elaborate efforts to return the focus of Christmas to CHRIST, which is an uphill battle in the commercial American culture we live in now. i mean, let's be honest, my best buddy JC is having a tough time with old Saint Nick. The patron saint of pawnbrokers is levelling the Son of God at the mall, online, at eBay, and even in a lot of tree-and-light-adorned churches. i was like...man, what's a brothaman to do? how can i make magic for my daughter so that she can have fond memories that also affirm who she is as a little black girl? is it at all possible? i was stumped.

then i found Kwanzaa...
Kwanzaa was a lot of fun back in the day. we'd have community feasts and activities for the kiddies. each night of the seven, there was a different gathering at someone's residence. i looked forward to this time of year, and even through tough times with my relationship and the accompanying "offspring's mother's theatricalness," i sensed the beginning of a ritual that would invoke good memories all around during this season.

but somehow, Kwanzaa got away from the community. you could now find Kwanzaa gift packs in the major stores. there were Kwanzaa kits online. then, the unthinkable happened: Kwanzaa events started costing money to attend. AHHHHHHH!!!! i screamed inside my skull: Kwanzaa has become Christmas II. i was hurt. i ran into some young adults who were raised fairly nationalist in thought and they had a wonderful, giving spirit with Kwanzaa, but they had a pointed negativity toward EVERYTHING Christmas, including Christ. that's not what i wanted for my daughter.

will this madness end?

so now, i'm at the Crossroads once again. last year, my young one and i celebrated what i call "Christ-Mass," a celebration of everything Jesus (Birth, Re-Birth, Sacrifice, Giving). i made a display of lighted staffs, three of them. one with an Ankh (key of life), one with a Mogen David (two inverted pyramids), and one with an Ethiopian (Coptic) Cross. underneath, i placed a basket that represents The Ancestors. i gave out a dollar per year alive for a year of good conduct, a nice gift, and promise of a shopping spree. it was pretty nice. i suppose i was trying to find a middle ground. i still want to. i want to raise any kids i may ever have to be respectful of all others' beliefs they encounter, while being grounded in ours. i want them to understand the facts, and yet not lose the mystique of dreaming.

it's like reading fiction. i used to not read it. i was with the brothers who agreed that we needed non-fiction to solve our people's problems. then i realized that fiction helps us to dream, and by dreaming, we create and re-create our world for a better tomorrow. so that's where i am right now. i don't know if i'm alone or not, but i get the feeling that i'm not. so if you're out there, chime in a little on what you do, so that i won't feel too all alone in this quest to be merry and magical.

have a great holiday season either way...
love and peace
joc

today, i learned the value of not talking too much.

we did the roundtable this morning. on point today was George Currey, E.R. Shipp, and yours truly hanging with Ed Gordon, who was broadcasting from his home town of Detroit. We were scheduled for a few topics, but ended up talking mostly about the pending supreme court nominee and how the Congressional Black Caucus has stated their opposition. click on the NPR link if you want to tune in to the discussion for today.

we actually rolled into the topic right after some cat named Michael Massey totally made any conservative look horrible. not only did he launch into the tired old "O.J./Michael Jackson-as-travesty-of-justice" card tirade, but he got so caught up in what he was saying that he totally tried to take over Ed's Show. He had to basically just cut the microphone off after 4 or 5 attempts to respectfully end the segment. i was wondering if this cat realized that he would've made a better point by just sticking to the issue at hand, the nomination of a Supreme Court Justice. no wonder the far-ended spectrum of the so-named conservative population has a bad reputation for being reactionary, xenophobic, and paranoid.

needless to say, we had a pretty spirited conversation afterward. Massey was like comic relief. and--once again--i learned that sometimes you say so much by saying so little, something i'm working on more personally.

i just got through paying some bills (ouch!), and so the rest of the day will be filled with their delivery. i do have, un-read, a copy of Tananarive Due's latest book, "Joplin's Ghost." i'm going to crack it open as a present to myself. i've been waiting a long time for it. i have devoured all of her other works and i've also just completed Octavia E. Butler's "Fledgling." i've devoured her work also. those sisters can flat out FLOW! i quoted Tananarive's husband's book today on Ed Gordon. as i jet out to keep the lights on, i'll leave it for you. it's from Stephen Barnes' "The Lion's Blood" (A great book about reverse slavery, i might add):

"Fear turns people into sheep; and sheep respond to a strong shepherd."

peace
joc

i'm at a holiday/cast party for Black Nativity. we just had a successful run of the play to some pretty packed houses, so i feel pretty good about what Amun Ra Theatre has been able to do over the last year since our first production of the show.

i am not really being anti-social. we all talked, ate, and shared. now everyone is watching the video of the show for the first time, and i snuck-ded away to do a little research on tomorrow's topics for News and Notes with Ed Gordon on NPR. i'm going to be on the roundtable, so stop in and check out the audio file and see how it goes.

as the holiday cheer abounds, i find myself wondering exactly what i'm going to be doing this weekend. i'm no longer a Santa man, so the lure of that jolly old fella isn't particularly strong anymore. i do get to go and pick up my daughter for the holidays next week. i am looking forward to that. she's getting so tall now at 11, i think she might give 6'2" me a run before she hits 18.

more than anything, i am looking forward to a bit of a break before i get out on the road to do promotions for The Second Chance Movie. looks like i can fit in some performances of "How Blak Kin Eye Bee" in between. i miss doing that show, but in order to do my best, i'm going to have to get something i haven't seen in months...

sleep.

i really don't want to go to sleep most nights. i feel kind of guilty if i haven't labored so hard that my face hits the computer, and i'm told that i shouldn't feel guilty about sleeping. i don't buy it (well, sometimes i do). i just know that in order to do what's necessary to tell the stories i want to tell, i have to put in the time that most people aren't willing to. there has to be a sacrifice made.

however, as i've gotten older, i've been faced with the crossroads of health. if i take the time to get some sleep, then i can add some years onto my life as opposed to shortening it. i guess when it's all said and done, a few hours wouldn't kill me, eh?

i'm going to go ahead and finish some articles, go catch the end of the play on video, then go home and sleep...maybe. before the holy-daze disappear, i'll have to blog a little about the meaning of the season.

peace and love

joc

The holiday spirit is pouring out all over the current production of Langston Hughes' Black Nativity. I'm even thinking about writing a post or two from the production booth during the show, but I don't know when I can do that. It seems like my audio technician will be out tonight, so yours truly is going to have to put on another hat and just hope I don't have any feedback in the microphones.

As I was saying, I'm looking forward to the second weekend of Black Nativity. It has become quite a fascinating piece to direct. Last year, our inaugural year of producing it with Amun Ra Theatre (www.theamunratheatre.org), it was a challenge also, but I had some dead ringer singer/actors on board. We started out with 12 and ended up with a cast of 19, including dancers. This year, we're hovering around 30, so the challenges got multiplied. But the magic came in last weekend, and that baby is sailing now. We've got seasoned professionals, first-timers, and the Orchesis Dance Company from Fisk University mixing up the creativity. It's a special time, for real.

Dr. Peter A. Fields, our choreographer this year and last, is what I call the Mad Scientist of Movement. I don't think you'll find a production of Black Nativity that actually portrays Mary giving birth to Jesus on stage, complete with a three person body bag, blood, the Sun becoming the Son, and Joseph stepping into his earthly daddy hood. It's in this show and it draws applause just by itself.

I'm so fortunate to get the credit for directing this talented crew of people. Alex Stadaker and Terrance D. Brown are musicians that make people fall out, and each night, this group finds something new. Next year, I'm already planning something even more off the chain. Stay tuned…

My manager told me today that things are really gearing up for movie promotions on The Second Chance. I'm actually starting to get a little excited about the prospects of my first starring role in a motion picture. The movie website is growing every day, and the buzz is getting out. I really want to see this thing grow, because it will open the door to many more positive films being made if people turn out on February 17th, 2006.

Well, I gotta jet for now. I have to get to a reception and then set up the mics for tonight's play. See you soon.

joc

i now have a website that's beyond functional, thanks to the technical geniuses at redxi.com. those cats rock, and i'm honored to know them.
i plan on getting on this journal more often, and allowing anyone that's interested to see what's really happening inside this thick head of mine. i'm not an expert on the world's affairs, and i'm not the sharpest nail in the fencepost, but i do my best--in everything i do--to represent the views of the regular folk. i suppose it's because i'm regular folk, so i just can't do otherwise.
so check back, let's dialogue, and let's grow...together. tune in via radio or internet to News and Notes with Ed Gordon. it's one of the most insightful shows--bar none--in the media today.

joc