good morning, internet family,
i have been blessed to know a lot of good people. as of late, i've been doubly blessed to work with many of them in the cozy confines of The Amun Ra Theatre, in Nashville, Tennessee. i guess you could call it my baby. the baby's getting bigger though, day by day.
many of you have asked me what i've been up to. the short answer is: building the dream. we're in the midst of doing a production of Robert Alexander's "I Ain't Yo' Uncle: The New Jack, Revisionist Uncle Tom's Cabin" that has sold out every weekend. we only have a few seats left for the closing show. this is phenomenal because support like that enables us to reach out to a whole new generation of creative artist.
the long answer is at the link below. i'm sending a web shout out to Johnathan Martin of Nashville's WSMV Channel 4. this young brother is out in the Neighborhoods tracking down the news like reporters used to. he found our program, and did a wonderful story on it. below is the video.
check it out and let me know what you think.
http://www.wsmv.com/video/19862123/index.htmlLabels: Amun Ra Theatre, Performing ARTs Academy
People (and Actors) Get Ready...see you soon
So it's finally here: the official casting call for my first Independent Feature film. leave it to me to take on something controversial, right? (if you don't know, read the bio page, LOL). i can promise you one thing--we're all in for a wild ride.
i won't be talking much about this particular film until i have most of it "in the can" as we filmmakers say. it's a delicate subject with some difficult component parts, each part depending on the other to pull off something amazing.
let's not kid around here. if it's not amazing. if it's not excellent, it will have to go into the ashcan of modern film history. if we're going to do this, we're going to do it right.
so in many ways, i seek not an army, but a committed group of skilled soldiers who are prepared to take up the charge of artistic excellence. if you want to be "famous," that's fine, but don't come expecting to wear a crown if you cannot bear a cross. this project is going to be hard and tireless WORK; it will require a boldness and fearlessness heretofore unheard of in the making of film. don't try to get on board if you like to be artistic "just for fun," because you will be, to quote a line from "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" "r.u.n.n.o.f.t.!"
so examine yourself and your friends, Friends. and if you know of those who are prepared to step up, then let's make some magic happen, and put Nashville on the map for more than music.
click below for details on casting. all the questions i can speak on are answered there.
the Rev Dr carr
PledgeesCastingNotice.pdfLabels: casting notice, the pledgees
confession time: i got going on 20 kids, by 20 different women.
all different shapes and sizes. boys and girls. ranging in age from 9 to 13. every one of them is creative in their own way. and i'm proud of them all.
they are the children of my Summer ARTs Program.
the expectation is that black men don't take care of their kids; i write, however, about how not only do we take care of our own biological ones, but we take care of OTHER folks' kids, too.
every morning at 8 a.m., the kids of the Performing ARTs Academy start working with their Professors. unlike in the school system, our teachers are over-qualified in their areas, they love kids fiercely, and they push them out of a deep and abounding belief in their inner abilities.
and half the staff are black males. strong ones.
sure, in the morning, i drive by brothas standing on the corner, who are there when i leave in the morning and there when i take lunch and there when i come home at night and there when i take a late night run.
on any given day, i can look out the window of the theater and see in the not-so-far-distance other brothers who seem to have had Tallboys of Colt 45 surgically bonded to their left hands and black-n-mild cigars sewn into the spaces between the fingers of their right ones. their mouths are pits of obscenities--black and brown pots of spittle, where semblances of words are formed in diseased dances between malt and salt, before being spewed forth into the stale surrounding atmosphere; loud proclamations of mis-placed manhood desire: "Fuck ya'll muufuckaas!" "Bitch, don't fuck wit' me...i'll...i'll...hey, man, lemme hold a dollar..."
sure i see it. sure i hear it. yes, it's a reality.
but not my own.
and not the reality of the men i see every day: an Adam El-Amin, who sits like a master teacher on a stool in front of these young people, commanding the black box space with the experience that only a man who weathered the storms of South Central L.A. to build on an acting dream could share; Lwellyn S.A. Peter, who developed an uncanny ability to play the piano and fool listeners into thinking that he was born--perhaps--with a third hand that appears only in accompaniment. this wizard who pulls sounds out of his young singers even they didn't know they had is no joke; and there is Mike Mucker, a gifted-to-sickening artist whose work adorns churches and galleries, even though he was told by a white teacher at 11 years old that he "would never make it as an artist." Mike weaves his magic with these young folk in a way that makes them flat out CHEER when he walks in the room for his class.
these are the black men i'm blessed to see every day; to interact with; to share with; to learn from. most of us have kids that we biologically sired.
but we all have kids that belong to us.
and i speak to say to those ills that threaten our community disproportionately; to drugs and to hustling, to crime and to criminality, to negro-tude and nigga-dom:
YOU CAN'T HAVE US. DO YOU HEAR THAT??
YOU.
CAN'T.
HAVE.
US.
and that's because, well, we're grown. and we've learned. and no, we're not perfect. we'll get pissed when we get pulled over; we'll snicker under our breath when the teller at the bank asks us for extra ID for our own money; we'll look at the seemingly impossible task, and yeah, we might shake our heads a minute.
but in the end, we'll get up, and take on whatever is in front of us. and we'll take the energy that comes from the frustrating struggle and we will use it to build beautiful things, and beautiful ideas, and beautiful institutions. and beautiful...people.
beautiful. little. people.
the other day, i put out a call on Facebook. i asked all my "Friends" (as friendly as the cyber world can be, of course) to help me help our kids out. i wasn't disappointed because i didn't have 50 people step up. the Cyber-world is basically like the real one: many people talk, few act. it's not the former who make the difference in their patent inactivity; it's the latter who make things happen.
and have they.
black, white, old, young, college student, sports fan have come by this place of artistic refuge we call Amun Ra Theatre. they have brought snacks, water, paper products, soap, games, pencils.
all the things kids need to help them learn.
so yeah, i'm grateful for where i am these days; i'm grateful to have kids that ain't mine to look after. more than that, i'm grateful to have so many co-parents.
ain't family just grand?
* * *
so tell me, which do you believe is more powerful: 1) a lot of people doing a little; or 2) a few people doing a lot?
is it so finite? are there in-between spaces?
what do you think about the concept of "it takes a Village to raise a child?" (the real ancient African proverb, not Hillary Clinton's rip, that is)
