Theatre Development Fund – TDF: Ngozi Anyanwu was born in Trenton, New Jersey, and had what she describes as a typical American childhood in the suburbs of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Her parents, in contrast, grew up in small villages in southeastern Nigeria. Every time Anyanwu, now 35, traveled there to see relatives, she experienced the mixture of familiarity and foreignness that many first- and second-generation immigrants feel when visiting their ancestral homeland.
4 comments:
Art produced by African artists and artists who are affected by the concept of African diaspora needs to be more important. The way that the world views Africa is directly related to the harmful affects of colonization which then also directly effected those who are effected by this diaspora.
This play seems incredibly interesting to me. I really enjoy plays about places that I'm not familiar with because it gives me a more humanized look into those plays. I often feel that when I read articles about places the media skews all of the information based on a conservative and single story based stereotype. Because I'm from Chicago, I know the damaging affects that these dangerous portrayals can have on a place and its people.
Plays that strive to capture the essence of a cultural group and a place often offer the truth of the place. The solemnity of some of the plot points in The Homecoming that were mentioned reminds me of a Nikki Giovanni poem where she describes what many would describe as a very hard childhood and then reminds the audience that she was true happy despite it all.
People in Africa obviously experience tragedy but we as a people need to dispel the thought process that it's because they live in Africa and not just a result of being human.
I get the idea very clearly here, she comes home to her father and her country in Nigeria and she realizes that all the trauma she had from living in a place with poverty and grief was bottled up so deep that even she couldn't feel the incredible impact it had on her livelihood and her memory. The title is correct when it says that it dispells African stereo types, this production doesn't just decide to ignore the stereotypes altogether, it instead addresses the stereotype then crushes it's very existence. There needs to be more productions like the Homecoming Queen, where it puts all races in the hot seat, not only the group of people that it usually stereotypes. There's something to show for white western people who have put off Africa as a rather savage continent for centuries, and it says something for people of color, this is their roots and their realities. Ultimately I believe that this play aims to blur those lines and find a cumannconnecgion between wanting to be home and wanting to be free of home.
This is a powerful article about the separation of African Americans and their African ancestry’s and relatives still in the homeland. We always talk about the struggles of African Americans, and how they were pulled from Africa and enslaved, and how they have struggled ever since. But we rarely hear actually stories of the fairytale or true life stories of how actual Africans live and lived in the homeland. I think its a wonderful idea to explore the world that we haven’t really ever got to really understand. I want to hear more stories of the African kingdoms, and for more African history to become more mainstream. We need to change the narrative of how we think about Africa. Wouldn’t it be amazing for black girls and boys to be inspired by Kings and Queens that they actually look like. I think the closest thing we will have to look forward to in mainstream is the up and coming movie Black Panther
I am really interested to see the reaction that the audience has to this show. I imagine that many will find it relatable, and the others will find it eye-opening. The concept of “familiar and foreign” is very intriguing to me, and crucial to dispelling the African American and African stereotypes that are very much alive in American culture and media. African Americans and Africans have been solidly defined as certain things, dangerously so. I am so glad that there are people in America that are opening their eyes to the fact that background and identity are important, but NOT LIMITING. And I am also very happy to know that there are people actively and successfully attempting to open eyes to that fact. Art and theatre is definitely the way to do this, as anyone and everyone can be moved by a piece of art. Art is our common ground.
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