Black Nouveau

(gentle music) (upbeat music) - Hello, everyone, and welcome to the August edition of Black Nouveau.

I'm Earl Arms.

This month we're celebrating Black theater.

Later in the program, we'll have an interview with veteran actor Glynn Turman, who began his career in the original production of Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun."

But most of our program is dedicated to Black Arts MKE, which kicks off its annual Black Theater Festival this week.

I'll be joined by festival directors who will tell us what attendees can look forward to during the three weeks of the festival.

But first, this year, the festival will feature a poetry set with two artists.

One is Cedric Dale Hoard, who you may remember from last year's production of Black Nativity.

With a little help from our friends over at Rhythm Cafe, Alexandria Mack offers a preview of what you can expect.

(upbeat music) - My name is Cedric Dale Hoard.

I am a spoken word artist as well as a therapist, licensed professional counselor.

Born and raised in Milwaukee, still live in Milwaukee.

In my poetry style, I like to take the audience on a rollercoaster, I would say.

So if you think of a rollercoaster how it kind of has this slow kind of build up, as soon as it gets to the top, it's like this big kind of rush and you don't know what's gonna come at you twists and turns.

I really like to have that rhythm in my poetry, just because I think it keeps the audience engaged, and I think it's just a creative way of being able to communicate a message.

The poem I'm gonna share with you all today is a poem entitled, "Dear Poetry."

Dear Poetry, our relationship has been sort of a love-hate thing.

It's been a seesaw of liberation and rejection, a tennis match between peace and resentment, a tug-of-war between the sweet sound of God's assurance and the never-ending quest of earning others' acceptance.

See, happy were those days, when I would write poetry and not be concerned about who would know me.

Those days when I would write beautifully-written eulogies to my past, when ingenuity and fluency gracefully danced without scrutiny of anyone watching.

When my rhetoric truly reflected my passion for Christ because my private journals wouldn't be recognized in public spotlights when a platform was merely something to stand on before it became an object of elevation.

The year was 2014.

Days after one of my poems went viral, a fellow poet told me, "Cedric, your writing doesn't deserve its views."

I felt like the little kid getting kicked off the basketball court.

Their words teleported to my heart like manipulated-telephone gossip, whispering to my self-esteem that I didn't belong.

It was then when my authenticity was auctioned for their applause.

It was then when poetry transformed from being a lifeline to now a blueprint on how to gain approval, I attached myself to narratives, concluding that I wasn't enough.

See how many of us have paid mortgages to live in boxes constructed by insecure people?

How many times have you allowed the expectations of others to sign leases in your heart, only for your authenticity to vacate the premises?

People pleasing, perverts perceptions of purpose, pursuits of popularity, pickpockets peace, rejections, reality, restricts, resilience, crazy, our criticism clouds clarity so we can't comprehend or call it for too long.

I fought too hard to be carved on people's Mount Rushmores when my God it's the one that can move mountains.

So artist, creative, this is a reminder that the moment your trembling hands dead to touch a pen was evidence that you were worth listening to.

And the moment your breath mustered the courage to crescendo from a mic was evidence that your story was worth telling.

And the moment they heard you is when they saw hope as their mirror that said they could make it too.

See, your gift is not a mask.

It is a lens to help others see, even if some fail to see you.

How many of us have fallen deaf to the sound of God's promises, only to press play to the soundtracks of people's opinions?

See, I finally learned, I finally learned to pawn off the broken records of their assessments, making peace with the sound of my instrument.

For too long, I've waited for people with bigger names to say that I belong at the one whose name is above every name.

Birth, belonging in my lungs the day that he found me.

And these lungs have finally made friends with its creator.

See, Poetry, our relationship has been sort of a love-hate thing.

And I'm starting to think I'm beginning to remember what love felt like.

With me being a therapist, I like to try to get to the core of maybe deeper things that people don't usually talk about.

And I think with poetry, it's more digestible for the listener.

It's more digestible for those to talk about things related to mental health, emotional health, addiction, you name it.

Some of these taboo subjects, I think really propels me to do the artform and to write in a way that I write.

I always say that when I'm writing, I have this person in mind, whether that's one of my clients, whether it's this person I'm trying to reach, whether it's the person that I'm trying to reach just in this conversation, usually have this person in mind that I'm speaking to directly when I write.

"Dear Poetry" it's really near and dear to my heart.

You'll hear in the poem, but there was actually a time in my life where I wanted to stop poetry completely, just dealing with a lot of the, I guess, politics behind it.

And I think as an artist, you can sometimes fall in this wanting to gain approval from different people and different platforms.

And my love for the art really begin to kind of die off, if I'm honest.

But this poem is really just kind of a love letter, so to speak, to poetry and me finally getting back to really what's important.

I want the audience to feel hope.

If I could say it plain and simple as that, hope is this ability to see the light even in the midst of darkness.

It's to say that, "Hey, my circumstances are difficult.

My circumstance may not be able to change in this one moment, but hearing this piece today, it gave me a little bit of hope.

It allowed me to see the light in the midst of my dark situation."

So if I'm able to do that, if the audience is able to leave with a glimpse of hope, glimpse of perspective, then I feel like I've done my job as a artist.

Joy to the world The Lord has come Let Earth receive Her King Let every heart prepare Him room And Heaven and nature sing And Heaven and nature sing And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing - That was a clip from last year's production of Black Nativity, the annual Christmas musical, produced by Black Arts MKE.

And now joining us to talk about the festival and what it has to offer are Kyndal Johnson, one of the Black Arts MKE Festival directors, and Marti Gobel, who's directing "Mud Row" for the festival.

Thank you so much for joining us, both of you.

- [Marti] Thank you for having us.

- All right, so we got a few things going on, right?

Number of events, you got two plays, right?

"Mud Row" and "The Meeting."

Also a poetry set by Cedric Dale Hoard and Jasmine Sims, an event at the Wisconsin Black Historical Society, right?

Auditions for this year's production of Black Nativity.

Right?

And some sessions for aspiring performers.

But let's start off with the plays.

We'll start off with you, Marti.

Talk about the play you're directing with "Mud Row."

Who's in it?

Where's it being staged?

Any details we need to know?

- Yeah, it's Dominique Morisseau is one of our leading African-American playwrights.

She has honed and is offering of the community a pitch-perfect offering of what we sound like and what we look like when we're dealing with each other.

And this particular play is about two generations of sisters and how we deal with generational trauma, gentrification, race issues within the race, or intra-racism, also addiction, and simply family, which is just wonderful.

Have some rockstar cast members, Marcus Causey, Malana Moore, Ibrahim Farmer, and et all.

We have just...

Some of the top Black talent in Milwaukee are in this production, and I'm very excited.

- It sounds like it sounds wonderful, right?

So, alright, we'll go to you Kendall now.

So talk about "The Meeting."

Same thing.

Who's in the play?

Where's it being staged?

All that good stuff.

- The meeting is directed by Denzel Taylor.

It'll be at The Table.

It is a venue that is kind of offbeat.

It's in the middle of our city.

The point of this play is to talk about Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, two pillars in our community, in our culture.

People who have led us in direction.

Some people see it as a split, but this story is supposed to bring it together to make it one big story.

Yeah, it's gonna be really, really interesting to see it and not see them as gods almost, and see them as people.

So yeah, I'm really excited about that play.

- And then a couple other events.

We have the poetry set, right?

So talk about that.

- So the poetry set is something very relaxed.

Everything in the festival is...

There's ups and downs.

There's like family events, there are plays, there are conversations.

The poetry set that is like a place for the young, Black hipster, I wanna say, the very relaxed person, yeah.

If you wanna just come and get a drink, you wanna just come and mingle and like hear about the city and not feel pressured to be a part of theater.

I know that this festival is supposed to open doors.

We're trying to open doors to people outside of the theater community because the big thing about Black people in theater is that they don't feel welcomed.

And that is one event that everyone should feel welcomed too to come.

Yeah, it's very chill, very relaxed, no pressure.

It's gonna be at the North Avenue market.

We're really excited about that partnership.

Yeah.

- And you mentioned family, so when you talked about the friends and family event too.

So talk about that as well.

- So we have Youth and Family Night that'll be at the Indaba Band Shell on North Avenue.

It'll be open to all ages.

So it's supposed to be like our kickoff.

It's on November 9th.

People for all ages.

There'll be food, there'll be activities, there'll be literally performances from kids.

It'll be just something like an overview of what Milwaukee creatives are doing just to bring in the festival.

- Okay.

So Marti, let's go to you now.

So there's some activities for some aspiring performers.

Talk about that as well.

- Yeah, I'm very interested in supporting the emerging artist, particularly the artist of color, and helping them get their resumes together, have some really nice audition pieces, and to really help them and aid them in understanding the protocol of theater.

I don't doubt the talent we have in this city, but how do you operate as it gets bigger and higher up the chain?

And I want to give them the tools to be able to do that.

So we'll be working that day on all of those little crunchy bits of theater production as well as offering a means to get some headshots, and really step into the professional arena with confidence.

So yeah.

- Those headshot always important, right?

- It is important - For sure.

So before we wrap up, let me go back and talk about "Mud Row" again.

Talk about where that's gonna be again.

- Yeah, we're doing a partnership with Marquette University.

So we're gonna be at the Hail Fair Theater on the Marquette campus.

And they are supporting us in a lot of ways, and we are using their stage, a lot of their crew.

And then bringing in some artists that come in so that we can be in the university, have great parking, a lovely theater space, and we're thrilled to be involved in this collaboration.

- All right.

Anything else we need to know or talk about?

- I would say just don't be afraid.

I know this is a lot of information, it's a lot of things happening.

And as a young creative in Milwaukee, it can be intimidating to say, "Theater."

Come in, we're welcoming you.

Even if you don't have a background in theater, just come and check things out.

(upbeat music) - Where you going?

- I'd like to get through to the washroom.

- Let the lady pass.

- Hey mama, go walk someplace else.

- Why don't you gamble someplace else?

- Because we're gambling here, sweetie.

- This is a restaurant, not an alley.

- Hey, hey, keep on stepping, baby.

If we wanted to be preached to, we go to church.

- Y'all need to go to church.

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah Hallelujah - That's a scene from Milwaukee filmmaker, Michael Schultz's "Cooley High," a 1975 film that became one of the change agents in American and Black cinema.

For me, who was then a product of Sandtown in Baltimore's west side, it was one of the first times I saw someone like me accurately portrayed on screen.

And that actor joins us now, Mr. Glynn Turman, who's also added producer, director, and writer to his credit since then.

He's gonna talk about "Cooley High" and the Legend of Glynn Turman, which is his new project.

Welcome to Black Nouveau.

- Hey, Everett, how are you?

Long time no see.

- How about that?

We did meet earlier live.

When you were making "Cooley High," were you aware of the potential the film held?

- Not at all.

We had no idea it would become an icon.

- Well, it did more than that.

I mean, for my generation, you portrayed something we hadn't seen on screen for a while.

That was very important to a lot of people not just like me, but a lot of folks.

- Well, it gave us a vehicle in which... And when I say us, I mean we as a Black people.

It gave us a vehicle in which we could be proud to share with the rest of the world in telling our narrative in a way that had not been delved into before.

And so it made it stand apart for that reason, I think.

- That's true.

And a number of the next generation of filmmakers after "Cooley High" talked about how important that film was to them in making those decisions.

One of my favorite memories from that film, though, is Walter Benton's poem, "Were I Pygmalion or God, I would make you exactly as you are in all dimensions."

That was really very powerful and potent stuff and spoke to a side of us that a lot of people hadn't seen before.

- Absolutely.

That's the genius of Eric Monte.

And that's who he was and is, a poet, an educated man, an aware man.

And you hadn't seen that side of us in a motion picture ever before.

And especially in a love story, which it has stood the test of time.

- Yeah.

Absolutely.

Now, the film was not the first time that you worked with Michael Schultz.

He had also directed you on a stage play before then.

- Correct?

We had done a, a stage play at Lincoln Center.

A Ron Milner played called "What The Wine-Sellers Buy."

And so we had worked together from that point and then collaborated again with "Cooley High."

- [Everett] "The legend of Glynn Turman," do you talk about your start as a stage actor actually going back to the original production of "A Raisin in the Sun"?

- I do, I do.

I give an insight as to how that occurred.

How fate or kismet or whatever you wanna call it just made that happen.

How my mother was a single mom, moved she and I from Harlem, New York down to the West Village in the late fifties.

And some of her friends became some of the greats of all time who were in the village at that time.

From James Baldwin and Odetta and Charlie Bird Parker to Lorraine Hansberry, who was a neighbor and a dear friend of my mother's, and lived around the corner and informed my mother that she had written a play and that there was a part for a little boy in it, and would I be interested in trying out for this part.

I didn't know that when trying out there would be other young boys there trying for the same role because I had never auditioned for anything before.

So I went to the meeting thinking that the part was mine, and had no idea what those other kids were sitting in the hall waiting for, because it was my part, they might as well go home.

But that started me on my career in acting.

- And you've done a number of plays, some of them actually translated into films.

I mean, you in the film version of "Five on the Black Hand Side" and "The River Niger."

You even did "Ceremonies in Dark Old Men" for television.

- Yeah.

Oh, you've done your homework, right?

Yeah.

Yes, you're absolutely right.

Fortunate to be a part of some of those wonderful, wonderful productions.

- That was a very creative time in the community, though.

I mean, there was a lot of stuff going on.

Talk about that a little bit, and relate that to your documentary.

- Well, we were in the middle of a revolution.

We were really in the middle of a revolution on many fronts.

And so some of the warriors of that revolution on our part were extremely aware author, writers, who came up with all kinds of stories that reflected what our struggles were about.

And I just happened to be of an age and a part of that time in which I was able to land a lot of the parts in those plays that spoke of this.

So I actually speak of my being a part of a revolutionary renaissance in American history.

And our weapons were our words and our performances in plays that depicted what the times were about.

- And you did a number of television specials, "Minstrel Man," for example, with... And "Thornwell," which you did with a friend of mine, Howard Rollins, which was a really harrowing story.

- Two of those two I talk about that play, that motion picture, especially "Minstrel Man" in the documentary and how revolutionary it was.

It was actually banned.

It had a one airing.

And I think then it was banned.

I think you can see it now on YouTube a production of it now on YouTube, but it never aired again because of its daring stance and daring portrayal.

But I talk about that in the documentary and what it meant as far as I was concerned at that time.

Of course, Howard was a dear friend of mine as well, wonderful actor.

And the "Thornwell" piece, I don't go into so much in the documentary about "Thornwell."

But that was a piece that was aired on 60 Minutes as a news project depicting the life of this man, James Thornwell.

So yeah, it was quite a time and I was fortunate to be a part of all of that.

- I remember you dancing with Debbie Allen on an episode of "Fame."

Is that what led to you getting the role of Colonel Taylor on "A Different World"?

- Well, I don't know if it directly led to that, but yes, she and I were became dear friends as a result of that experience.

We were actually neighbors at a time in Hollywood and we had a great time doing "Fame."

I actually went to the high school of performing arts.

"Fame" is what that show was all about, our high school.

And again, once again the documentary goes into that and what Debbie's part was in making "A Different World" and "Fame" and so on, so forth.

So yeah, it lent a wonderful hand to that.

- Just talk a little bit about Colonel Taylor and how important that role was for another generation of people to see that character, that older gentleman molding young minds.

That was really very powerful on "A Different World."

- That was in tribute to my uncle, Jim, who was the father figure in my life.

My aunt's husband, my mother's sister's husband.

James Robinson, who had been in World War II and who had been a part of the Canonball Express, The Red Ball Express.

And you probably know, Everett, that the Red Ball Express was instrumental in keeping Patton, General Patton and his brigades moving because they supplied them with gasoline to keep the tanks going.

One of his favorite sayings, "Man, we were in the war, we were flying around, going through hell with gasoline draws on."

- Right.

So tell us now what's gonna happen with the new documentary.

How are we gonna be able to see it and when?

- Well, we'll be able to see it.

You can pre-order it now where it's streaming on different streaming venues and/or you can buy the Blu-ray and/or DVD if indeed you want to have it as a collection of yours personally.

And also I would suggest that it might be a vehicle for acting classes and schools to have that have an arts department.

This might lend some value to that arts programs.

So it's out now and it airs on streaming.

- Well, thank you very much.

Is there anything I haven't asked you that you wanted to talk about?

- No, man.

We just can't let it be another 30 years before we hook up again together, okay?

- Okay.

Absolutely.

Take care.

Thank you very much for joining us.

- Thank you, Everett.

(protesters speaking and chanting) - 60 years ago this month over 200,000 American citizens marched in Washington DC to demand that the federal government do its part to guarantee every American access to freedom, equal opportunity, jobs, education, fair housing, and the right to vote.

It became a watershed moment in American history.

Two weeks from tonight, on August 24th, we'll look back at the great March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in two half-hour programs that will air from 7:00 to 8:00 PM here on Channel 10.

At 7: 00 PM we'll repeat our award-winning documentary "For Jobs and Freedom," a Black Nouveau special, which we first aired in 2013.

Immediately following that, stay tuned for the March at 60, a Black Nouveau special, which looks at some of the challenges African Americans still face 60 years later.

We hope you'll join us.

And don't forget to check us out on social media at milwaukeepbs.org.

For Black Nouveau, I'm Earl Arms.

Have a great evening.

(soft upbeat music)