I invited in Iyatunde Folayan as a collaborator and we are planning to extend my original study "Indians" (section 3a below) into a duet that will include section 3b below as well as some new spoken word and multimedia ideas.
What:
Aside from the performance aspect, we intend to create a two-part interactive process for families: Part one will be just for the parents to witness the performance piece, share their own relationships with the song and discuss ways to find language to engage children when faced with the violences on black and indigenous communities. Part two will include both the parents and their kids and we imagine it looking something like this:
What:
Interactive, inter generational, non-traditional family-centered creative process to examine and re-frame the 10 little song.
When:
Nov 5, 3pm.
Where:
Manazar Gamboa Community Theater 1323 Gundry Ave, Long Beach, CA 90813 (currently reserved but may consider an more lighted art gallery - the theater is dark).
Why:
The intention of this piece is to examine the story/song Ten Little Indians, also known as Ten Little Niggers, in an effort to re-frame, decolonize and humanize storytelling and the messages within. The goal is to work together with an inter generational community including Native American and African American individuals and families to create an alternative to the Ten Little Indians. This new collaborative story, song or chant will intentionally nourish our children’s imaginations with positive imagery that stems from personal family stories rather than carelessly indoctrinating them with supremacist ideas about race. The impetus for this was a response to the Post Natyam Collective’s creative process “Re-Imagining Citizenship.”
How:
FEEDBACK GROUP: in early Oct. we will gather artistic and activist individuals, especially from the Native American and African American communities, to share our ideas with and get feedback from to strengthen the experience. This will either be at the venue or in an informal home space with snacks.
INTENTIONAL INVITATION: will be sent to 10 individuals with their chosen families (each one will be encouraged to bring a child)
Invitation will include some background on the “10 little...” song as well as the purpose of the gathering.
GATHERING:
- Name Gesture Rhyme intro:say your own name, intro all in your "family" and do name gesture game with child's name: say name and a little phrase that rhymes with name and a gesture to go along with it, like "Roshan, Roshan rides on the ocean." Everyone repeats. Add in all the kids names till you have a little chant.
2. storytelling (each group shares an object that represents their family, legacy, history, something they want to pass on to their kids and a story that goes with it.)
3. a. optional: perform the "10 little" portion of Shyamala's study "Indians"
Indians from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.
Indians from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.
password: citizenship
(not the This Land is your land part)
3. b. One or several people Sing/or hum “10 little, 9 little, 8 little (pause instead of saying Indians), 7 little 6 little 5 little (pause), 4 little 3 little 2 little (pause), 1 little (Pause)”
The song or hum will be repeated starting loud and getting quieter as each group stands to “Say their name. “ Ideally there are 10 groups in total and we will include children’s names, as well as African Americans, and Native Americans lost to current police violence. The purpose is to match the current situation to the historical roots of the song but not say outloud to the kids what either is about, the background will be in the invitation, and parents of older kids may choose to explain or not)
Ex: Number (1-10), Name, place (of death), age, and maybe one piece of info to humanize their identity
1. Aiyana Jones (Detroit, 8 yrs old, ?),
2. Tamir Rice (Cleveland, 12 years old, ?)
3.
etc.
3. Circle debrief:
-what did it feel like to juxtapose the singing and say say their name
-or what is your memory/experience/feelings about the song? Who passed this on to you?
4. Walking rings, sounding and inward meditation moment, clearing
-Carrying their object, groups will walk around in one large maze of ring circle paths made with stones or drawn on paper the floor. The ring circles are inspired by ritual objects by the KRU people (see info below) (perhaps juxtaposed with a medicine wheel, 4 stages of life, 4 directions) in a clockwise direction. As each group adds into the circle they add in a vocal sound to repeat until a group sound score is created. Purpose to clear our minds of the “10 little…” and to meditate on our object stories.
Here are examples of the rings:
Information on the KRU rings:
"A society that loses its symbols loses it's identity and in the process loses touch with itself." These are ritual objects created and used by the KRU people of West Africa (Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria) region. They are known for being expert seafarers and these were considered both ritual objects and currency. The KRU people refused to participate in the TransAtlantic Slave Trade and were known by the Europeans if captured to have less value because they refused to be slaves, fought or would kill themselves. The power these rings carry in meaning include the ability to stop wars, heal the sick. They can be called 'tien' and be protectors or guardians.
5. Art making (visual and rhyme)
-Each group will find a personal space within the ring (can spread to join others) to place their family object. Once there the group sound score will end and we will play recorded live drum to provide a beat.
-The children will be provided fingerprint pads and paper to create finger print art that tells the story of their family object, or that is a rendition of the object itself (the thought is to create something positive out of our identity markers rather than fingerprinting by the state), and/or crayons to color within the ring, or books with positive messaging (ex. A is for activist, Counting on Community, etc.) If they are too young, perhaps they run around within the ring, or play and move the rocks.
-Adults create a 2- line rhyme or couplet for the number they said for their “say their name section” inspired by the family legacy object story.
Ex.
6. sharing of the childen’s art and adults rhymes
All learn the chants in order of the numbers and create new chant together!
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Questions:
1. What interests you most about this process?
2. Does anything confuse or you/need clarification?
2. Does anything confuse or you/need clarification?
3. Are all the steps of the process ok for kids? If not, how might we modify them or should we take them out?
4. Is it too complex? If so, how might it be simplified without loosing the connections to the 10 little song?
5. What red flags exist that might be misinterpreted or taken as offensive?
6. Is it useful to include all or a part of Shyamala’s study “Indians” (perhaps under a different title) either as a link in the invitation or done live before the “say their name” portion? https://vimeo.com/163181158 password: citizenship
1. What interests you most about this process?
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in SAY THEIR NAME being a contemporary chant instead of 10 little. I'm interested in ancestor personal stories and people having this chance to create their own mythologies (#2 and #5c). I think the first meeting be with the parents is a great idea.
2. Does anything confuse or you/need clarification?
With the intentional invitation that goes out, people will be asked to bring an object as well?
I like the idea of families creating a 2-line rhyme or couplet in 5c, but I'm confused about the numbers?
3. Are all the steps of the process ok for kids? If not, how might we modify them or should we take them out?
Feels ok for children in my opinion. There are always multiple layers of meaning in the process.
4. Is it too complex? If so, how might it be simplified without loosing the connections to the 10 little song?
I don't think it's too complex. I had to re-read it multiple times to get a sense of the flow. But oftentimes (for me) writing down a score (and trying to understand a score from writing) is more complicated than facilitating and doing the actual tasks and activities!
5. What red flags exist that might be misinterpreted or taken as offensive?
I don't see any red flags in this score. Would be wonderful if Native folks were also part of this dialogue. In the southern Los Angeles area this includes Xicanx folks. I think the one red flag I could see is use of words as related to 10 little song. For example in my experience (Canadian context) Indian is used within Native communities but non-Native folks shouldn't use the word. Some of these words are used WITHIN communities but are not ok used outside or otherwise, specifically related to the words used in the 10 little song. Maybe use of language and what is ok/what is not ok can be part of the adult meeting prior to the intergenerational meet up?
6. Is it useful to include all or a part of Shyamala’s study “Indians” (perhaps under a different title) either as a link in the invitation or done live before the “say their name” portion? https://vimeo.com/163181158 password: citizenship
To me, it feels a bit like a tangent to include Shyamala's study in this live score. I like the the idea of it being a link in the invitation to show where this began. This study also makes light to me of the tension between the different uses of the word Indian in a colonial context, but is specific to Shyamala's positionality as a South Asian woman. Unless maybe there is a way to FLIP the original meaning of the song but smake it specific to people's identity and history?
1. I like the intergenerational aspect and the active replacing of harmful hegemonic views of marginalized peoples with stories, rituals, cultural traditions from those people's perspectives. I also like the community-based and process-oriented nature of it, which seems to offer ways to both draw on the specificity of one's own heritages (i.e. through the object stories) while bringing those heritages together in solidarity (through the communal rhythmic chant).
ReplyDelete2. I was curious how Part 1 relates to Part 2. Are you two interested in opening up the draft of your process for additions or modifications by the parents, who hopefully will have access to other cultural resources? I'm particularly aware of the absence of native people as authors of this process (unless Tunde identifies as having native heritage?).
Beyond that, I wanted to know more about how the different portions of the process weave together and interrelate. Going through step by step:
1) Some children’s names might be hard to rhyme (I can’t think of a rhyme for Cynthia or Shyamala, for instance).
3b) Conceptually I love the connection between 10 Little and Say Their Name – but on a purely practical level I am a little confused how the two go together: does the second follow the first sequentially? Or are you inserting the names of black and native people murdered by police in the empty spaces? If the former, is there a particular song or rhythm that “Say Their Name” is sung or chanted to? I love the idea of giving one piece of information to humanize each person’s identity. I’m intrigued by the choice to not explain what the chant is about…I love that you’re putting the choice to tell the children in the parents’ hands, but I’m also thinking of how much I was subjected to blindly repeating rituals that I didn’t understand as a young person. Is there a way to give meaning to these people’s names in a positive way without necessarily talking about police brutality? Perhaps just refer to them as ancestors?
4) Would it make sense to create the vocal sounds earlier, in step 2, when talking about the stories, so that they are already available to draw on? I’m also thinking of Alison’s “breathe in and breathe out” as a way to clear and let go – perhaps breathing while walking could be a part of the walking meditation, and the vocal sounds could come in gradually.
5) I’m a little confused by the rhymes – what is the prompt, exactly? Does the family object story relate to the particular person (Aiyana Jones, etc.) associated with that number? If you’re working with rhythm, it might also be helpful to think of the rhymes in terms of number of counts.
3. Seems ok to me.
4. I think you could simplify the walking meditation part. As it stands you have the group creating two different sound scores together. Maybe one is enough? Perhaps the walking meditation is simply breathing out the energy of the 10 Little Song and meditating on the object’s power and significance.
5. I can’t think of red flags, but I think the involvement of indigenous people is crucial.
6. I think it might make more sense for your performance (including 3b and the spoken word and multimedia that you referred to) to be a part of the initial meeting with the parents – a way to introduce Tunde’s and your positionalities and entry-points into this material. Regarding Meena’s concern about using the word “Indian” carelessly, perhaps a solution is that when you perform it live, you leave a silence instead of saying the word (as you’re already planning to do for the family process). By the way, will we get to see what you and Tunde create?
Also, I found these interesting reads related to naming and indigenous peoples:
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_name_controversy
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/05/21/blackhorse-do-you-prefer-native-american-or-american-indian-6-prominent-voices-respond
From Babli:
ReplyDelete1. What interests you most about this process?
I love that its intergenerational!
I think its really powerful idea to deconstruct/subvert/change the difficult/Problematic song with names of the participants as a chant – it really reverses the stereotyping, which depends on distance.
I think it can really work to have this be an inroad into the stories.
I love the layers- and how it can have different levels of (political) depth for different generations.
Making a fun memorable process/experience for the kids, and a critical engagements for the parents/adults at the same time! Great concept”
And that what the children created will be accompanied /or accompanying what the adults made!
2. Does anything confuse or you/need clarification?
I am confused where the objects come in in 4.? They were not mentioned before.
I love the rings and their meaning. I am still trying to figure out how it will all tie together (song/chant/story/object)
Will there be children of all ages?
How will you handle different level of engagement with the the issue (I am thinking of older kids, who will want to be with the adults and maybe get into the issue from their of perspective)
3. Are all the steps of the process ok for kids? If not, how might we modify them or should we take them out?
They all seem ok- I do wonder about how you will address age ranges (see above)
4. Is it too complex? If so, how might it be simplified without loosing the connections to the 10 little song?
I think the objects are nice, because tangible, but I am personally getting lst at that point in the process description- I loose the connection to the song a bit there.
5. What red flags exist that might be misinterpreted or taken as offensive?
I can’t think of any.
I do think community presence of the various communities (which you already address) will be crucial to be able to share perspectives and come up with agreements regarding the difficult contents/verbiage of the original songs
6. Is it useful to include all or a part of Shyamala’s study “Indians” (perhaps under a different title) either as a link in the invitation or done live before the “say their name” portion? https://vimeo.com/163181158 password: citizenship
I think it depends on who you are inviting. On one hand it is the initial exploration- and clarifies Shy#s positionality vias-a-vis the song. On the other hand I wonder what it will communicate to the people about the process – might it confuse in terms of expectations- the process strikes me a s a totally different thing- even if thematically related? As I said it probably depends on who you invite – how familiar they are with participatory processes, with Shy and Tunde, with dance, etc…..