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Friday THE MAROON TIGER September 6,2002 Page 6
ARTS & FNTF.RTA INMF.NT
‘Da Noise and ‘Da Funk come to Atlanta
Bamboozled star makes Alliance Theater rock
James Britton
Editor-In-Chief
If you thought the
show was just about music,
song and dance, you missed
it all together. Bring In 'Da
Noise, Bring In 'Da Funk is
much more than an expres
sion of rhythm and coordi
nation; it is a history lesson
In a few words, the
show is both wonderfully
simplistic and simply won
derful. Aided by a small jazz
ensemble, the cast, starring
Savion Glover, ("Tap" and
most recently "Bam
boozled") brings to life
through song, dance and
spoken word a history of Af
rican Americans since sla
very.
In the second scene of
the performance, the audi
ence is met with a woman
singing out of what we
come to find to be the infa
mous "Door of No Return"
off the Island Of Goree in
Senegal, West Africa. The
singing is accompanied by
Savion's soulful dancing.
The show is wonder
fully simplistic because it
does not employ any elabo
rate stage props. The props,
if one finds them, are raw,
household buckets, chains,
and the occasional har
made by the soles of the
dancers. Each time though,
I was proved wrong as he
casually sipped on bottled
water or flipped through the
next piece of music.
“We just started bringing
up stuff.. .like how we
can't get no cab no mat
ter how we look. ” —
Savion Glover
That's
e x a c
tly
what
the
show
makes
you
thin
k —
that some
of this
has
to be
un-
real.
But
arm
e d
only with
m i c :
r o -
phones ei-
monica. The audience is not
inundated with a light spec
tacle, rather you are forced
to pay attention only to the
beat, the word, the song.
At times I found my
self, as I have done since I
was a small child, looking to
the percussionist just to see
if he was at all an accom
plice to the powerful sounds
ther in their socks or very
sensitive ones placed in the
stage, the ten-member cast
provides sounds that you
have to see and hear to be
lieve.
Sounds—that's what
the show is really about—
sounds. And how they dif
fered from slavery until
now. From the African
Jacob Lawrence ‘Goes Over the
Top’ at the High Museum of art
Many great things came
from the Harlem Renaissance,
and one of them is Jacob
Lawrence. His paintings are cur
rently being shown at the Atlanta
High Museum of Art until Sep
tember 8. His artwork is color
ful, powerful, and a
beautiful representation
of life in its many forms.
Jacob Lawrence
(1917-2000) grew up in
impoverished New York
city, and through his
paintings he shows the
joys and struggles of
those around him.
Lawrence, who studied
with many of the promi
nent painters during the
Harlem Renaissance, is
known for his use of color. He
used bright, vibrant colors in
paintings depicting the sadder
parts of life showing how rich
these experiences can be. In The
Visitor a man is in the back
ground lying on his death bed
with a minister standing over
him. His friends and family are
gathered together in the next
room and the painting is set off
by the bright reds, greens, yel
lows, and blues. His use of color
really brings the scenes to life.
Lawrence also spent
much of his time painting narra
tives. He paints primarily the
stories of great African Ameri
cans in pieces that can be over
forty paintings long. He has
done narratives of Toussaint
L’Ouverture, Frederick
Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and
the migration of the Negro. His
narratives as a collective tell a
depictive story of each person
with a story for each picture to
accompany it. All of the paint
ings together create an incredible
work of art, but each painting it
self could stand alone.
Towards the end of his
career Lawrence spent much of
his time focusing on the issue of
race relations. Instead of paint
ing depictions of lynchings or
hate crimes he painted pictures
of black and white men work
ing together equally. Unlike
many of his earlier pairOings,
these paintings are more ab
stract and focus less on the
color used and more on the
representation of what is
happening. His paintings
give hope for what things
are like in many places,
and for what it can be like
everywhere
■ Until a few days before.
his death, Lawrence was
still painting. He was truly
dedicated to what he did
and he excelled at it unlike
many others. It is unfortu
nate that he is no longer
with us, but we should be thank
ful that he left us what he did.
Jacob Lawrence is
truly an American treasure, but
unfortunately, is not widely
known as he should be.
Lawrence was deemed at one
time to be the greatest African
American painter, and it is a
great opportunity to see .his
work in Atlanta. Time is run
ning out since his work will
only be in town until Septem
ber 8 so go see it.
drum to pots and pans,
spirituals to synthesized
rhythms and sampling, the
show itself does not miss a
beat in chronicling much of
our history.
When asked how the
concept of the show came
about, Savion Glover had
this to say:
"We (other members of
the original cast) just started
bringing things up . . .differ
ent events—generational
(sic) stuff, like how we can't
get no cab no matter how we
look ."
"We were just bringing
things like that up and the
next thing you know we
have this whole history, this
whole world of our history."
Bring in 'Da Noise,
Bring in 'Da Funk is most
enjoyable no matter who
you are. The show will run
through September 29, 2002.
For ticket information, con
tact the Alliance Theater box
office at 404.733.5000 or visit