Pollstar: Fitz And The Tantrums singer Noelle Scaggs, for much of her 20-year career, was already painfully aware of the many times she’d performed and been the only woman, and often the only Black person, on or behind the stage. By the time the nation was convulsed in May after the police killing of George Floyd, it was even more acute.
2 comments:
Can we please talk about Noelle Scaggs and her concept for Diversify the Stage in a freaking class? I’d love to see this plan and break it down. Especially in some courses where we talk about the importance of having an equitable hiring structure, her work could be amazing to learn from. I also have never heard of Never Famous (inherently I guess that’s the point?). I love that there is already a place on the internet that is concatenating a group of seasoned touring professionals who are also people of color. It just sucks that the excuse of “we don’t know where to look for people of color who are professionals” still exists in the entertainment industry. Like grow up and start looking. I really like that Diversify the Stage has an educational element, because that means this is not for all the old roadies, but young industry professionals too.
This article really stuck out to me and I think that Noelle Scaggs is really brave to face this issue head on, and create the change that she wants to see in the industry. Noelle took the time during the pandemic and from witnessing the racial outrage in this country, decided she needed to step up and do something to diversify who she was working with. I think this is courageous, but I do want to mention it should not have been a job that a BIPOC person had to take on in the first place. It is vital to the future of the performing arts industry that when we reopen, we reopen with equality and equity in how we hire and who we bring to the table. As the article states, her work is already paying off the and touring industry is using this downtime to pause and reflect on how it can do better.
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