Theater - The Stranger: Seattle playwright, actor, and dancer Kamaria Hallums-Harris didn't know what she was going to write for her senior thesis project at Cornish College of the Arts. But when George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin, her mission clarified.
2 comments:
I’ve been doing a lot of racial/diversity type articles and comments lately, but I made a quick connection with this one. This article really reminds me of the time in 11th grade, where I was in a history class and we had a few classes about lynching and I even wrote an essay on lynch mobs. I remember I listened to many versions of “Strange Fruit”, and after I wrote that essay I painted (I’m not a painter) this weird picture of black and white figures both being hung from the same tree and then blood was pilling up under the tree and sinking into the roots. But I found it interesting the scene described in the article where the man is recounting the events of Mary Turner’s lynching, while Luna is simultaneously remembering and pleasurably moaning at her first queer experience. This got me thinking of how wonderfully sick the privilege I have to be writing these comments in my warm bed, while listening to music. How marvelous it is to be up this late, and having to worry about tomorrows drafting and home work load. How weird it is for me to be sitting her right now. And at the same time how frustratingly sad it is for people to still be dying. It makes me wonder if we have reach a ceiling point, a tip which, because of old blood holds us back from reaching further, and if the opinion of a public can really get rid our historical subconscious prejudice and preconception we have for one another.
The work of Kamaria Hallums-Harris is truly incredible, extremely meaningful and impressive. The article gives a great insight into the thought process that occurred for this play to become a reality. Just like CMU's decision to produce Ragtime, Harris' play echos the same meaning. The article takes into account the contemporary racial injustices happening constantly all around us in killings like those of Trayvon Martin. While reading the article, considering the struggles of POC in the last century while living under the amendment that states they are "free," and considering all of the influences on her process (like "Strange Fruit"), my imagination went wild thinking about the full potential of this piece. The show is packed deep with information and there better be a good dramaturg to help communicate the show's meaning, history, and relation to the modern world because of how much it tells in such a short amount of time.
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