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Augusta : “Tyrone Butler speaks with great reverence’
Continued from page 10
the performances staged through the
Augusta Mini Theatre. “Our roster is gen
erally between ninety to more than one
hundred students,” She asserted. *
All of the Mini Theatre’s productions
have life lessons integrated in the plots to
give the students a chance to play out real
scenarios. Buder stated that he has been
writing since childhood. “I write and pro
duce to inform children, youth, and fami--
lies about universal, local and social issues
facing these groups each day.”
The couple list as one of their personal
achievements the ability to nurture their
students’ ardstic and survival skills. This
remarkably innovative duo and the expert
faculty have an uncanny knack for discov
Bookhart : ‘I come from a line of creative people’
Continued from page 10
NWB- Growing up in Wilson,
North Carolina in abject poverty was
very impacting for a nine-year old.
What my eyes absorbed, my mind did
nt comprehend, but my heart was
exposed to. The experiences as a child
eating food off the ground, chewing on
sweet grass, and flowers for suffice an
empty stomach, bearing water vessels
from the neighbors back home to fill
them because the water would be shut
off the next day, and sitting in the dark,
stilled, because there was no light. I sat
there many nights in that three-room
house. Ten children occupied the mid
dle room, , where there were two bunk
beds, not full size. The six girls lay on
one with their legs dangling to the floor,
and across the room, the four boys lay
sandwiched against each other vertically,
uniformly.
How has your environment / upbring
ing colored your art?
NWB- There are no pastel colors in
poverty, no lighted places, and just
empty promises, breech of contract-that
all men are created equal. My pallet is
dulled, and my voice is loud, solemn,
and grave, as if insisting to be heard. We
didnt exist then, only in the mind of
God, and that is where we found our
refuge from the pain of poverty.
How did you come up with the title
Jor your collection?
NWB- Everything about the work,
ering the hidden aptitude in the budding
performers. The school seeks to raise the
vision of its students and encourage the
development of their full potendal. “Our
students who have been enrolled in the
school for three or more years dont drop
out of school, but go on to technical school,
college, the Armed Services, and become
productive citizens. Presently, we have four
professional actors in Hollywood and one
in New York, and another former student
who is a dancer with the Dayton
Contemporary Dance Company. We are
just as proud of our students that have
become scheol teachers, engineers,
plumbers, marketing directors, etc.,” he
beamed.
Tyrone Buder speaks with great reverence
concerning, the momentum behind his suc
“The Lost Scrolls of Poverty,” is about
me, about the nine-year old child who is
working through the invisibility of her
youth, and the muted position she was
put in. The work is in direct correlation
with my family structure. There are
seven houses represented in my work
called House of the Seven Chords.
Each house represents an aspect of the
history of personal poverty and
estrangement. The works in the present
exhibition are from The House of Bereth
-House of Tales and Stories, and The
House of Tekoa-House of Prayers.
What genre are you most comfortable
in art?
NWB- The style used in reminiscent
of quilt, or collage style, pieced together.
Mediums and items directly relates to
my personal experience in poverty. |
utilize fabric, safety pins, clothespins,
kraft paper, cardboard, string, much
writing, cryptic words, indiscernible
because they are spoken to a higher
power. When I am articulating the
work, I project myself back into my past
wounds, so that I can pull some of the
emotions along with the work. I want
the viewers to feel what I felt, see what I
saw, and be spiritually taken to the place
reserved for the poor-the place of deso
lation and depravity, of disillusionment.
Does anyone in your family paint or
have your talent?
NWB- I come from a line of creative
people. I am the only member present
ly who has pursued visual arts as a pro
AUGUSTA FOCUS
cess. “My mother, Mariah Buder; the late
Dr. Charles L. Buter, my elementary
school principal at Ursula Collins
Elementary School; Gwendolyn
Cummings, librarian at Wallace Branch
Library; and Paine College instructor J. C.
Taylor influenced me greatly. The late J.C.
Taylor directed me in my first adult play,
“Purlie Victorious.”
Albany State University Graduate’s plays
have been published by Pioneer Drama
Service and Heuer Publishing LL.C and he
has received numerous awards for his work.
The school’s original works are well pro
duced on a slender budget. The typical the
atergoers to their productions are com
prised of youth with no or limited artistic
experiences. That is why community sup
port is vital. “Our greatest challenge is rais
session. Even though I have been doing
art for the last thirty years, [ have not
come into myself until now. My works
then are a combination of sequestered
areas of my life, including my ethnicity
and womanhood. I am a singer and
songwriter, which I will begin to incor
porate in my performance work in con
“junction with my visual images.
What was your impetus to obtain
your education?
NWB- If there was no food, my
mom stressed education. If the lights
were cut off, my mom stressed educa
tion. If there were no running water,
and the only thing keeping us warm was
the clothes on our back, and the clothes
stuffed in the broken glass at the front
door, Hattie stressed education. She
had dropped out of school in the ninth
grade to marry my dad-to get away from
home. My dad was illiterate. My mom
taught us lessons in silence, lessons
while praying, and lessons while crying.
She returned to school when the
youngest daughter Sharon entered
Georgetown University. She received
her GED, then her associate. She
matriculated at Howard University and
Spelman. She has been and always be
my mentor.
What inspires you to choose your sub-
Jects and why did you to fabricate these
particular works?
NWB-— My inspiration is the nine
year old standing in the back of me, on
the side of me, pushing me, urging me,
ing adequate funding to operate the arts
school,” Butler stated. The modest fee for
each student is only twenty-eight dollars per
month. However, “No student has ever
been denied admission to on the Mini
Theatres performances, nor the dasses
because of the inability to pay,” he revcaled.
He added that the response from the com
munity, especially the Augusta-Richmond
County Board of Commissioners and
Mayor Copenhaver, have been good.
Donations from individuals to the school
are fully appreciated. For more information
on the Augusta Mini Theatre, please visit
their website: www. www.augustaminithe
atre.com.
and speaking really soft. She is me, and
[ am her-and together we will continue.
Bookhart is married and lives in
Augusta, Georgia where she completed
her BFA at Augusta State University,
Augusta, Georgia, and her MFA at
University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia.
Ms. Bookhart exhibited locally for
eight years before returning to school in
1995. She was commissioned for a
painting of T.W. Josey High School
founder. She has donated work to the
Child Advocacy, of Augusta, Georgia,
and donated work to a charity auction.
Her work was selected over fifty artists
to be featured in Augusta magazine’s
1993 issue. She has been featured in
Augusta Chronicle. As recent as 2005
her work was selected by Professor of
Education, Dr. Richard Seigsmund,
University of Georgia to be structured
into a curriculum for elementary school.
It was taught at Chase Elementary in
Athens, Georgia where there is a ninety
five percent poverty rate in the school.
She petitioned the city of Wilson,
North Carolina to declare March 11,
2005 The Day of the Poor.
Mprs. Bookhart will be featured in a
Joint exhibition at the Lucy Crafi Laney
Museum along with Mr. Samuel Guilford
from Atlanta, GA. The unveiling of each
of their collections and reception are sched
uled for Sunday, July 15, 2007, from 3
PM until SPM. Their works will be on
display until August 30.