CROWNS Teacher Information Packet by Long Wharf Theatre

TEACHER INFO PACKET

2017-18 SEASON

Teacher Information Packet Compiled and Written by: madelyn NEWMAN Director of Education eliza orleans Education Programs Manager

EDUCATION

TEACHER INFORMATION PACKET LAYOUT BY CLAIRE ZOGHB

JOSH U A BORENST EIN managing director

april 18 – may 3, 2018 claire tow stage in the c.newton schenck III theatre

written & directed bY regina taylor adapted fROM the book by michael cuningham & craig marberry IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE McCARTER THEATRE CENTER

Creative Team regina Taylor Playwright/Director Dianne McIntyre Choreographer Jaret Landon Music Director/Original Composition Diedre Murray Original Composition and Arrangements Chesney Snow Original Composition Caite Hevner Set Design Emilio SOsa Costume Design Bradley King Lighting Design

Robert Kaplowitz Sound Design RASEAN DAVONTE JOHNSON PROJECTION DESIGN J. Jared Janas & Dave Bova Wig, HAIR & MAKEUP Design

Cast Mother Shaw Shari Addison Yolanda Gabrielle Beckford Man Lawrence Clayton Jeanette Rebecca E. Covington Velma Latice Crawford Wanda Stephanie Pope Mabel Danielle K. Thomas

MUSICIANS Jaret Landon Piano, Keyboard, Guitar David Pleasant Drumfolk Riddim Specialist

L O N G W H A R F T H E AT R E G R A T E F U L LY A C K N O W L E D G E S THE GENEROSITY OF OUR E D U C AT I O N S U P P O R T E R S ANNA FITCH ARDENGHI TRUST FREDERicK A. D e LUCA FOUNDATION the maximilian e. & marion o. hoffman foundation, inc. THE GEORGE A. & GRACE L. LONG FOUNDATION SEYMOUR L. LUSTMAN MEMORIAL FUND henry nias foundation, inc. SEEDLINGS FOUNDATION THEATRE FORWARD WELLS FARGO FOUNDATION yale repertory theatre

FOR THE FIRST-TIME THEATREGOER the major consideration to keep in mind is that your actions can be distracting not only to the rest of the audience, but to the actors on stage as well. Behavior that is acceptable in other public settings, like movie theatres, ballgames, or concerts, is out of place when attending the theatre. The following tips should help you get acquainted with some DOs and DON’Ts for first-time theatregoers.

DO arrive early. Make considerations for traffic, parking, waiting in line, having your ticket taken, and finding your seat. If you need to pick up your tickets from the box office, it is a good idea to arrive at least twenty minutes early. Generally, you can take your seat when “the house is open,” about half an hour before the show begins. Late seating is always distracting and usually not allowed until intermission or a transition between scenes, if it is allowed at all. Follow the old actors’ mantra: To be EARLY is to be ON TIME. To be ON TIME is to be LATE. To be LATE is UNFORGIVABLE.

DO turn off your cell phone. Phones and any other noise-making devices should be switched off before you even enter the theatre: you won’t be allowed to use them anyway. Texting during a performance is also rude. The intermission is a good time to use your phone, but remember to turn it off again before the next act begins.

DON’T leave your garbage in the theatre. Food and drinks are usually not permitted in the theatre at all, with the exception of bottled water. If it is allowed, be sure to throw out your trash in a garbage can or recycling bin in the lobby; don’t leave it for the house manager or ushers at the end of a show.

DO watch your step. Aisles can be narrow, so please be considerate when finding your seat. Avoid getting up during the performance whenever possible, since it can be very distracting. You can use the restroom before the show and during intermission. Also, be careful not to cross in front of the stage, as it will break the illusion of the show. Don’t step on or over seats, and never walk on the stage itself.

DON’T talk during the performance. Chatting is extremely rude to the actors and the audience around you. Everyone is trying to pay attention to the play and those nearby will be able to hear, so please be quiet and considerate.

DO get into it! Actors feed off of the audience, just as the audience feeds off of the actors. Don’t be afraid to laugh, clap, or cry if you are so moved. However, there is a line that can be crossed. Please be respectful, and don’t distract from the work of the professionals on stage. After all, people paid good money to watch the show, not you. Just enjoy the experience and let yourself have an honest response.

contents ABOUT THE PLAY 8 Synopsis

9 Setting

Characters

About the Book

About the Director/Playwright

THE WORLD OF THE PLAY 17

Foreword by Maya Angelou

Glossary

Gospel Music

Why the Black Church Has Always Mattered

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS

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to find discussion and writing prompts, discussion questions and classroom activities!

30 READ a Reviewâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Then WRITE Your Own!

The Great Hat Debate Sources

ABOUT THE PLAY

SYNOPSIS:

What is the musical about?

Crowns at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, IL.

But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with heard head uncovered dishonoureth her head. – I CORINTHIANS 11:5

Our crowns have been bought and paid for; all we have to do is wear them. – James Baldwin

olanda is a teenager living in Chicago, Illinois’ Englewood neighborhood. When Yolanda’s brother is killed, she is sent to live with her grandmother (Mother Shaw) in Darlington, South Carolina. Mother Shaw is a selfproclaimed “Hat Queen,” who wears one of her dozens of intricate, stunning

hats to church every Sunday. Mother Shaw introduces Yolanda to her circle of friends, all of whom have stories, wisdom, and hats to share with Yolanda. The group takes Yolanda on a journey through personal and cultural histories, helping Yolanda to overcome her grief, understand where she comes from, and attack life with just the right amount of “hattitude.”

In the Classroom DISCUSSION: In Crowns, Yolanda learns to see her grandmother in a new light. Have you had similar experiences with your parents, grandparents, or teachers? When has someone from a different generation taught you something new?

SETTING:

Where does the play take place? Crowns takes place in Yolanda’s hometown of Chicago, Illinois, and her grandmother’s church in Darlington, South Carolina.

CHARACTERS

Who are the people in the play? MOTHER SHAW (Obatala – the orisha of wisdom and creativity) MABEL (Shango – the orisha of fire) VELMA (Oya – the orisha of storm) WANDA (Oshun – the orisha of the rivers and water) JEANETTE (Yemaya – the orisha of the seas) YOLANDA (Ogun – the orisha of iron) MAN (Elegba – the orisha of crossroads)

LEFT: The cast of Crowns at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, IL

In the Classroom

DISCUSSION: In creating Crowns, playwright Regina Taylor assigned each character an orisha, or a spirit of the Yoruba religion. Why do you think she chose to do this?

about the BOOK:

The musical Crowns is based on a 2010 coffee table book by photographer Michael Cunningham and journalist Craig Marberry.

Nancy Carpenter â&#x20AC;&#x201C; one of the subjects of the book Crowns.

Michael Cunningham

Michael Cunningham was born in Landover, Maryland and fell in love with photography at the age of twelve. He moved to North Carolina after graduating high school and became a college student and photographer. A commercial photographer for over sixteen years, his clients have included some of world’s largest corporations: Coca-Cola, RJR Tobacco, Sara Lee, Wachovia Bank, among others. In 1998, Cunningham produced a traveling black and white photography exhibition, CROWNS: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats. The Smithsonian’s Anacostia Museum featured two of the images from CROWNS in its exhibition entitled, Locating the Spirit in African-American Art. In the fall of 2000, Doubleday published a coffee table book on the CROWNS series coauthored by journalist Craig Marberry. The book has received enormous national media attention including coverage in The New York Times, USA Today, and The CBS News Sunday Morning Show. Now in its seventh printing, CROWNS has sold over 110,000 copies. Additionally, a calendar on the project was released in 2002 and 2003 by Workman Publishing. Further, a theatrical production of CROWNS has played to sold out audiences across the U.S. and Canada, and is currently still on tour. In fall 2003, Doubleday released his second book with co-author Craig Marberry entitled, Spirit of Harlem: Portraits from America’s Most Exciting Neighborhood. Michael’s third book project Queens: Portraits of Black Women and Their Fabulous Hair, a photo essay book with journalist George Alexander, takes a look at the unique relationship of Black women and their hair. Photographed on location in Accra, Ghana, London, England and up and down the east coast of the USA . It was released by Doubleday on November 1, 2005. Michael’s latest photo essay book, JEWELS; a collaboration with bestselling author, Connie Briscoe, features fifty phenomenal women over fifty like Ruby Dee, Eleanor Holmes Norton, S. Epatha Merkerson and Marian Wright Edelman. It was released April 11th 2007 by Time Warner/ Bulfinch Press. In addition, Cunningham is the Executive Director of Urban Shutterbugs, a nonprofit organization aimed at teaching the fine art of black and white photography to inner-city youth. Cunningham is a member of American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), and a past board member of the Washington, DC chapter. He attended Winston-Salem State University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

A B O U T T H E book

continued

Craig Marberry Craig Marberry was born and raised in Chicago and went to high school in Gary, Indiana, where he wrote a weekly column for Info, the community newspaper. He attended Morehouse College in Atlanta where he won the Charles E. Merrill fellowship to spend his junior year studying at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. He also won the school’s first annual essay contest and in 1981 was named Morehouse Man of the Year. After graduating with honors with a degree in English literature, he was awarded the Thomas J. Watson fellowship to conduct independent study of Third World media at the University of West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. He then earned his Master’s from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Marberry, who has written for The Washington Post and Essence magazine, worked as a television reporter for six years before launching a video production business named Info Video, which he ran for twelve years. His clients included Nabisco, American Express, and Wachovia. When one of his clients needed still photographs for a publicity campaign, Marberry hired commercial photographer Michael Cunningham for the job. The two men had fallen out of touch for five years when, in the summer of 1998, Marberry heard that Cunningham was compiling a collection of photographs of African-American women wearing church hats. In June of 1999, Marberry began writing a book proposal for CROWNS: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats (Doubleday/November 2000). By that September the proposal had been rejected by a dozen literary agents. But Marberry and Cunningham eventually signed with an agent in October of 1999 and they accepted a book deal from Doubleday editor Janet Hill by year’s end. CROWNS was an instant hit. (It is in its ninth printing.) In July of 2000, four months before CROWNS was published, Marberry began working on his second book: SPIRIT OF HARLEM: A Portrait of America’s Most Exciting Neighborhood (Doubleday/December 2003). He envisioned the book—another fascinating collection of oral histories and photographs—as an intimate stroll through Harlem. A year after he began his research and interviews, Marberry invited Cunningham to join the project. Marberry then persuaded the legendary photographer Gordon Parks, who began his illustrious career in Harlem, to pen the book’s foreword. Marberry began working on his third book in February of 2003. CUTTIN’ UP: Wit and Wisdom from Black Barber Shops (Doubleday/May 2005) is his first solo project. For eighteen months, he crisscrossed the nation, collecting colorful stories from barbers and customers alike. Marberry compiled oral histories that vividly capture the barber shop in all its humor and camaraderie.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR/PLAYWRIGHT: Regina Taylor

Michael Cunningham, Regina Taylor, and Craig Marberry

Regina Taylor is the author of OO-BLA-DEE, which received its world premiere at the Goodman Theatre in 1999 and later transferred to the La Jolla Playhouse. In April 2000, OO-BLADEE received the American Theatre Critics/Steinberg New Play Award. Ms. Taylor’s other projects include CROWNS, which premiered at McCarter Theatre in their 2002-2003 season, an adaptation of THE CHERRY ORCHARD for the Alliance Theatre, THE DREAMS OF SARAH BREEDLOVE, about famed black entrepreneur madam C.J. Walker, for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and the book for a musical of THE COLOR PURPLE, which is planned for a future Broadway production. Her play DROWNING CROW (an adaptation of Chekhov’s THE SEAGULL) was produced at the Goodman Theatre as part of the 2001 season. Ms. Taylor’s other writing credits include URBAN ZULU MAMBO, ESCAPE FROM PARADISE, WATERMELON RINDS, INSIDE THE BELLY OF THE BEAST, MUDTRACKS, BETWEEN THE LINES, and BEHIND EVERY GOOD MAN. Her acting credits include roles on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in numerous regional theatres. Her film credits include “Clockers,” “Losing Isaiah,” “Lean on Me,” “A Family Thing,” “Courage Under Fire” (with Denzel Washington), and “The Negotiator” (with Samuel L. Jackson). Television credits include “Children of the Dust” with Sidney Poitier and “The Education of Max Bickford.” For her role as Lilly Harper on the television series “I’ll Fly Away,” Ms. Taylor won an NAACP Image Award and received the Golden Globe Award for Best Leading Dramatic Actress.

In the Classroom ACTIVITY: Crowns is based on a book of photos and interviews with AfricanAmerican churchgoing women. Find a photograph of someone you don’t know. Observe their face, clothing, expression, and mood. Consider how they might be feeling. What are they thinking about? What do they want? What are they fighting against? Try writing a monologue from their perspective.

THE WORLD OF THE PLAY

FOREWORD

by Maya Angelou The following is the foreword to the book Crowns by acclaimed activist and poet, Maya Angelou. Sundays are a precious gift to hardworking women who have labored unceasingly through the workweek. Remuneration is rarely commensurate with the outlay of energy. That is to say, working women work large and are paid small. They generally use Saturdays to tend to home matters; i.e., to clean the house, wash and iron the clothes, and cook for the coming week. They usually find their first deep breath around bedtime on Saturday night. And then, Hallelujah, Hosanna! Sunday morning comes. If the woman is African American, she has some fancy hatboxes on a shelf in her closet. She will have laid out the clothes she plans to wear to church, the stockings and the shoes, but the choosing of the hat is saved for Sunday morning itself. The woman may, depending on how many she has, lay them all out, but not on the bed (it is said to be bad luck to put a hat on the bed). She may try on each hat two or three times before she dresses, just to see which ones goes with her most recent hairdo. But, finally, after the bath, after rubbing down her arms, legs, and neck with sweet-smelling lotions; after she has put on her best underclothes (don’t wear raggedy underclothes – you may be in an accident and have to go to the hospital, and what would the nurses and doctors think of you if you had safety pins in your brassiere?), she is ready. She dresses in the finest Sunday church clothes she owns, layers her face with Fashion Fair cosmetics and sprays herself with a wonderful perfume, and then she puts on THE HAT, and it is The Hat. She looks at her reflection from every possible angle. And then, she leaves home and joins the company of her mothers and aunties and sisters and nieces and daughters at church whose actions had been identical to hers that morning. They too had waited longingly for the gift of a Sunday morning. Now they stroll up and down the aisles of the church, stars of splendor, beauty beyond measurement. Black ladies in hats. To a compliment directed at the hat, each Black lady will give a little frown and deprecatingly say, “This thing? I almost didn’t wear it it’s so old.” As she turns away the Black woman’s smile is resplendent.

In the Classroom DISCUSSION: Many families visit their church, synagogue, mosque, or community center once a week. Families who are less religious may have another weekly tradition, such as eating a meal together or playing a game. What is a family tradition that you grew up with? Share your stories in small groups.

GLOSSARY

BAPTISM – the religious rite of sprinkling water onto a person’s forehead or of immersion in water, symbolizing purification or regeneration and admission to the Christian Church. In many denominations, baptism is performed on young children and is accompanied by name-giving.

CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST (COGIC) – a Pentecostal-Holiness Christian denomination with a predominantly African-American membership. The denomination reports having more than 12,000 churches and over 6.5 million members in the United States.

EGUNGUN – this refers to all types of Yoruba masquerades or masked, costumed figures. When used in its

more specific, common sense, “Egungun” refers to the Yoruba masquerades connected with ancestor reverence, or to the ancestors themselves as a collective force. The singular form, for an individual ancestor, is Egun.

ORISHA – a spirit who reflects one of the manifestations of the supreme divinity in the Yoruba religion. Orisha are said to have existed in the spiritual world, or Astral plane (òrun) or lived as human beings in the planetary world, or physical plane (ayé). Others are said to be humans who are recognized as deities due to extraordinary feats. Many orishas have found their way to most of the New World as a result of the Atlantic slave trade and are now expressed in practices as varied as Santería, Candomblé, Trinidad Orisha, Umbanda, and Oyotunji, among others.

PENTECOSTALISM – a renewal movement within Protestant Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

SERMON – a talk on a religious or moral subject, especially one given during a church service and based on a passage from the Bible.

THALHIMERS –a department store in the Southern United States. Based in Richmond, Virginia, the venerable chain at its peak operated dozens of stores in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and one store in Memphis, Tennessee. It was found in 1842 and closed in 1992.

YORUBA RELIGION – the traditional religious and spiritual concepts and practices of the Yoruba people. Its homeland is in present-day Southwestern Nigeria and the adjoining parts of Benin and Togo, commonly known as Yorubaland. Yoruba religion is formed of diverse traditions. It has influenced a host of thriving traditions such as Santería, Umbanda, and Candomblé. Yoruba religious beliefs are part of Itan – the total complex of songs, histories, stories, and other cultural concepts which make up the Yoruba society.

An artist’s interpretation of Oshun – the orisha of water.

GOSPEL MUSIC Gospel is first and foremost a direct descendent of spirituals. What Thomas Dorsey and his friends kept as the defining attributes of gospel music – the call-and-response format, ample room for improvisation, rhythm, frequent use of the flatted seventh and third in melodies – remain true even today. The elements introduced by later musical forms, such as close harmonies (barbershop quartets), a sense of professionalism (jubilee quartets), showmanship (minstrelsy), the regular use of an AAB rhyming scheme, and a pronounced beat (the blues) all endure, but are tacked on the spine of the original spirituals, which for the most part irrevocably linked to their African forebears. – People Get Ready! A New History of Black Gospel Music, Robert Darden, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004.

Gospel music is a genre of Christian music whose roots date back to the 1600s, when Africans were brought to America during the slave trade. The text of gospel songs usually relates to themes such as Jesus, atonement, worship, and praise. Spirituals, or religious folk songs, were the foundation of gospel music and often sung by slaves as they labored. White American slave owners often prohibited Black people from singing, playing music, or worshiping God; slaves often met in secret to sing and pray. During and after the Reconstruction era, the Church became a communal centerpiece where Black families could sing, pray, meet, and heal. Over time, gospel music evolved and was influenced by country, blues, and rock-n-roll music.

Here are some of the types of gospel music you might here today:

(the “founder” of gospel blues), Blind Willie Johnson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Reverend Gary Davis. Blues musicians such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, Sam Collins, Josh White, Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Willie McTell, Bukka White, Sleepy John Estes and Skip James have recorded a fair number of Gospel and religious songs, these were often commercially released under a pseudonym. Additionally, by the late 1950s and 1960s some musicians had become devout, or even practicing clergymen, this was the case for musicians such as Reverend Robert Wilkins and Ishman Bracey.

Spirituals Spirituals are religious folk songs (‘work songs’ and ‘field hollers’) developed by black American slaves, who applied African musical traditions to Christian themes. Many Negro spirituals follow a simple call-and-response, making them suitable for singing both in church and while at work in the fields. Whilst primarily expressions of religious faith, some may also have served as sociopolitical protests veiled as assimilation to white American culture. Although numerous rhythmical and sonic elements of Negro spirituals can be traced to African sources, Negro spirituals are a musical form that is indigenous and specific to the religious experience in the United States of Africans and their descendants. They are a result of the interaction of music and religion from Africa with music and religion of European origin.

Southern gospel Southern gospel, as its name implies, has its origins in the Southeastern United States. Sometimes called “quartet music” due to the original all male, tenor-leadbaritone-bass quartet make-up and dependence on strong harmonies, Southern gospel is music whose lyrics are written to express either personal or a communal faith regarding biblical teachings and Christian life, as well as (in terms of the varying music styles) to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music. Because it grew out of the musical traditions of rural white people in the South, drawing much of its creative energy from the southern Holiness movement churches it is sometimes called “White Southern gospel” or “White gospel”, to differentiate it from Black gospel.

Traditional gospel Traditional gospel, sometimes referred to as black gospel, was codified by the composer and singer Thomas A. Dorsey in the 1930s and generally features a large church choir, often fronted by one or more soloists. Traditional gospel has been the jumping-off point for a number of other styles.

Progressive Southern gospel Progressive Southern gospel is an American music genre that has grown out of Southern gospel. It is characterized by its blend of traditional Southern gospel instrumentation with elements of modern Country and pop music. Hints of other styles are frequently employed in the mix as well. In some progressive Southern gospel, you can hear a touch of Cajun, Celtic, Bluegrass, or even Southern rock.

Thomas Dorsey is considered the “father of gospel music.”

Blues gospel

Country gospel

Gospel blues is a bluesbased form of gospel music (a combination of blues guitar and evangelistic lyrics). Notable gospel blues performers include Thomas A. Dorsey

Also known as Christian country or white gospel, country gospel is a cross of traditional spirituals with country and Appalachian folk music. Contemporary country gospel, however, has progressed over the years into a mainstream country sound with inspirational or positive country lyrics.

GOSPEL MUSIC

continued

Contemporary gospel Contemporary gospel, pioneered in the 1980s, is a more polished version of traditional gospel, drawing influences from modern R & B, jazz, blues and even hip-hop. Most contemporary gospel is recording in a slick, radioready format and musically most resembles “urban” music

Bluegrass gospel

Yale University’s Gospel Choir in concert

Bluegrass gospel music is rooted in American mountain music. Bluegrass gospel is classed as a third subgenre of Bluegrass (the other two being “Traditional Bluegrass” and “Progressive Bluegrass”). Many bluegrass artists incorporate gospel music into their repertoire. Distinctive elements of this style include Christian lyrics, soulful three- or four-part harmony singing, and sometimes playing instrumentals. A cappella choruses are popular with bluegrass gospel artists, though the harmony structure differs somewhat from standard barbershop or choir singing.

Soul gospel Soul gospel was a variation on black gospel pioneered in the 1950s by a number of church quartets, including the Soul Stirrers and the Pilgrim Travelers, as well as solo artists, including Aretha Franklin. While religious in subject matter, soul gospel was marked by its raw, often sexually charged display of emotion. A precursor to Southern soul, many soul gospel artists, such as Sam Cooke, one-time lead of the Soul Stirrers, crossed over into mainstream, secular success.

WHY THE BLACK CHURCH HAS ALWAYS MATTERED

By Peniel E. Joseph Published in The Root on June 19, 2015

American communities during and after slavery. The church drew from African folklore and religions and Christianity to develop a unique blend of a sectarian and secular belief system that allowed black people to survive slavery and its aftermath. The black church’s radical humanism harbored a fierce resistance to slavery, a love of freedom, and a thirst for citizenship and equality that made it a hotbed of internal debates, discussions and controversies over the best course for black liberation in America.

he brutal act of racial terror that took the lives of nine black parishioners at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., purposely targeted the most important institution that has ever existed in the black community: the black church. So it should come as no surprise that in the age of Ferguson, Mo., Baltimore and #BlackLivesMatter, one of the nation’s most ancient and revered black churches should come under such an attack. Nor that the attack took place in South Carolina, a state so deeply rooted in white supremacy and racial hatred that its Capitol proudly flies the Confederate flag even today.

Conservatives hewed closely to a politics of respectability, elevating church membership as a badge of honor that might protect African Americans from white hostility. Radicals vowed to secure heaven on earth by any means necessary, including participating in slave rebellions,

Black churches, specifically AME and Baptist, gave spiritual, religious and material sustenance to African-

The black church’s radical humanism harbored a fierce resistance to slavery, a love of freedom, and a thirst for citizenship and equality. 23

BLACK CHURCH

continued

Symbolically, the black church has always represented more than a house of worship. abolitionist groups and self-help societies. Most steered a middle ground between these poles, sustained by a deep and abiding faith in the black capacity for survival and personal and political transformation.

During the 1950s and 1960s, hundreds of black churches were victims of racial violence that included gunfire and bombs. The Sept. 15, 1963, bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., is the most famous instance, but far from the only one. The next year, three civil rights workers investigating church bombings in Mississippi disappeared outside of tiny Neshoba County. The missing civil rights workers—Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Chaney (two white and one black)—were presumed murdered, their bodies found Aug. 4, 1964, in an earthen dam in Mississippi.

After slavery, the strength of the black church made it a target of racist vigilantes, with white supremacists turning a religious symbol, the cross, into a burning icon of racial terror. White supremacy’s triumphant return in the South rationalized racial violence and murder as a divine act of “redemption” that would cleanse America from racial impurities by keeping blacks a subject people at all costs.

At its best, the contemporary African-American church continues in a rich tradition, providing material benefits, community organizing and spiritual renewal for a community that remains scarred by a secular world that remains stubbornly resistant to the idea of black citizenship, let alone black humanity.

The African-American church stood in the eye of this white-supremacist storm. Instead of falling apart, the black church practically willed itself to exponential growth through political self-determination, community outreach and organizing that made it, alongside historically black schools, lodges and civic groups, the most important Negro institution America has ever produced. Black churches published newspapers; raised money to build schools and colleges; and helped organize libraries, insurance companies and anti-poverty efforts.

Symbolically, the black church has always represented more than a house of worship. Metaphorically, it has represented the protector of black bodies, the educator of black girls and boys, and the audacious voice that believes, even now and against all evidence to the contrary, that African-American lives not only matter but are capable of redeeming the soul of an unrepentantly racist nation.

Historically black churches, such as Emanuel AME in Charleston, helped sustain communities against the ravages of Jim Crow, poverty and racial violence that contoured African-American life during this period.

Peniel E. Joseph, a contributing editor at The Root, is professor and founding director, the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Waiting ’Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America,Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power to Barack Obama and Stokely: A Life.

The modern civil rights movement showcased the black church’s central role in the African-American freedom struggle, with black preachers and churchwomen becoming most identified with the movement. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s high visibility during the period helped to obscure the racial violence directed against him, personally, and the church more generally.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS

THE GREAT HAT DEBATE Students Invoke Free Speech In Great Hat Debate by MELISSA BAILEY | Oct 26, 2012 4:24 pm http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/hsc_debates_hats_in_hallways/

Pro and con: Natasha Smalls and Josh Huelsman.

The school district bans kids from wearing hats and hoods in school, except for medical and religious purposes. But HSC is now under new management, run directly by the teachers union instead of by the district’s central office. HSC is taking advantage of that freedom to let teachers rewrite curriculum, reinvent what “freshman” and “homework” mean—and reexamine school rules.

week before voters go to the polls, the two opposing campaigns squared off on a question: Does the U.S. Constitution “protect bad hair days”?

The spirited debate took place Wednesday morning among students at High School in the Community (HSC), a teacher-led alternative magnet high school that’s launching a “turnaround” experiment this year with a focus on law and justice.

“We’re giving you a chance to have a say in what goes on in school,” Building Leader (aka Principal) Erik Good told students before the debate.

HSC students grabbed their fedoras and baseball caps and hopped on buses to the Worthington Hooker School for a formal debate that may enable them to wear those hats more often.

Teacher Eftyhia Theodoropoulos helps a student prepare for the debate.

HSC currently lets each teacher decide whether to allow hats and hoods inside the classroom, he said. The school bans hats and hoods in hallways and the cafeteria, but the rule is “unevenly enforced.” He asked students to listen to their classmates debate the issue and determine whether the school should lift the ban.

Jesus Juarez (pictured making last-minute preparations) opened the debate for the “pro” side.

Students planned to spend a week campaigning on the issue before the entire student body gathers for a vote next Wednesday, Good said. HSC teachers have agreed to abide by the results of the vote, at least temporarily, he said.

“Responsibility is a process of trial and error,” he said. Young adults need to “test the boundaries of society” in order to live within those boundaries, he argued.

With that introduction, debate class teacher Eftyhia Theodoropoulos kicked off the event before the school’s 240-student body in the auditorium of the Hooker school on Whitney Avenue. HSC doesn’t have a space where the entire school can comfortably gather. So teachers chose Hooker’s newly renovated auditorium, complete with theater seating and a stage, for the Great Hat Debate.

“School is a learning environment,” countered Taylor Settle. School should teach kids how to behave in “the real world,” where it’s unprofessional to wear hats or hoods. What about companies like Google that let workers come to work in jeans and a sweatshirt? swung back Josh Huelsman. Schools should “allow students to dress comfortably.”

Theodoropoulos set the resolution for the debate: “Hats and hoods should be allowed to be worn in the hallways and cafeteria at HSC.” She assigned her students to one of two teams, pro and con.

THE GREAT HAT DEBATE

continued

Natasha Smalls (at left in photo with Taylor) and Jesus sparred over whether banning hoods would reduce the risk of crime. Then several students took the debate to a new level with Constitutional case law.

Does the First Amendment protect students’ rights to dress how they want in school?

“The Constitution does not protect bad hair days,” he argued.

They gave a nuanced answer.

David Rogers agreed with Quamar’s legal analysis but disagreed with his take on the hat danger level. Hats don’t disrupt the school day, he argued. David and Quamar, who aren’t in the debate class, joined the event to provide legal expertise. The two are taking a new Constitutional Law class taught by former Bronx Defender Sarah Marchesi.

Students don’t “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate,” Quamar Dunkley argued, quoting the 1969 Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District. The court in that case allowed John and Mary Beth Tinker to wear black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War.

The legal question they raised—are hats disruptive?— took the most focus as the debate came to a close.

However, Quamar added, schools can limit students’ right to free expression if their behavior or dress is “materially and substantially” disruptive to the school environment, he argued, citing Tinker v. Des Moines.

Hats and hoodies won’t change the school environment at all, argued Jesus. “Vote for hats!” No, they “create an unsafe environment,” argued Taylor. That’s why they’re banned at Westfield Malls.

“Let’s be real, people,” Quamar said. “Hats at HSC are substantially and materially disruptive.”

Students gave Taylor’s team a skeptical response in a question and answer period following the debate.

Some students may wear hats to represent a gang, he said. Most wear hats “for fashion, or to cover up bad hair days.”

“Do you really think hats cause that much of a distraction?” asked Damian Irizarry (pictured), who was holding an Oakland Raiders baseball cap in his hand. What if the hat represents a good cause, such as cancer research? asked another student. Is it fair to let some students cover their heads for religious purposes, while other students aren’t allowed to cover theirs? asked another.

What about the kids who get straight As and still wear hats? asked Trevor Smith (pictured). Trevor later listed several concerns with the hat ban. Hats and hoods might help some kids focus on their schoolwork, he argued. And students should have freedom of expression, instead of being punished or stereotyped based on wearing clothing associated with crime. “We’re being judged based on what other people did in hats and hoods,” he said. Theodoropoulos had to cut off a lively discussion due to time constraints. She urged students to continue the conversation at lunch and in breaks between classes over the next week. Students plan to vote on the issue next Wednesday morning. Building Leader Good said if students vote to overturn the hat ban, the school will honor that mandate—assuming that schools Superintendent Reggie Mayo “and other powers don’t intervene in the way the Supreme Court does,” and overturn the new law. Good called Wednesday’s debate the start of “what I hope will be a recurring experience in your HSC years,” as the school shifts towards a heavier focus on the U.S. Constitution and law.

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then WRITE your own! The following is a review of a 2012 production of Crowns at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. Notice how the reviewer comments on all aspects of the show, including acting, writing, stage configuration, set design, lighting design, and more. You can read this review and, after seeing Long Wharf’s production, write your own!

Wearing it proudly: Regina Taylor’s new production of “Crowns” has more of a story By Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune July 9, 2012

bought and paid for,” it reads. “All we have to do is wear them.”

egina Taylor’s “Crowns” — a huge hit on the regional-theater circuit a decade or so ago but never a Broadway musical — has been reconceived as a Chicago story with roots in Englewood. As reimagined by Taylor in a big summer production at the Goodman Theatre, the show now is not just a gospel-fused celebration of AfricanAmerican women and their eye-popping Sunday headgear but a meditation on the potential redemptive powers of the proud matriarchs of the South when it comes to saving one of Chicago’s troubled daughters.

Well, amen to that. I’ve long had affection for this piece, which is based on the book of the same name by the photographer Michael Cunningham and the oral historian Craig Marberry. Not only is “Crowns” Taylor’s best work, it’s a populist, unabashedly spiritual show especially beloved by African-American women of a certain age, who have long honored its arrival in their city (the original “Crowns” enjoyed more than 40 separate regional productions) with attendance in the kind of hats that you don’t want to get stuck sitting behind.

In the more ambitious, new version, which opened Monday night at the Goodman with a cast of 12 and a seven-piece pit orchestra, the show begins on the South Side of Chicago, where the teenage Yolanda (Marketta P. Wilder) is suffering the recent death of her brother, a victim of gun violence. After rapping her allegiance to her neighborhood, Yolanda gets packed off for the summer (and then the next school year) by her worried mother to Darlington, S.C., where she is put in the care of her grandmother, known as Mother Shaw (Felicia P. Fields). This strong woman introduces her granddaughter to the church-going community of black women for whom hats are a statement of pride, dignity and defiance in the face of oppression. Maruti Evans’ setting for the new production, directed by Taylor herself, features text chiseled into the stage’s proscenium arch, in the fashion of a Washington, D.C. monument. “Our crowns have been

And in the midst of this most violent of Chicago summers, the impulse to move the frame to Chicago and expand the score with hip-hop and video shot on the Englewood streets was a good one. Hats, as this show now explores, have a more complicated identity when it comes to the urban world beyond the church doors. We’d all like to believe that there are solutions to the event that starts the show. And even if the narrative is not exactly riven with nuance and complexity, the subtext of “Crowns” — that learning about honor and dignity and community is the best way to prevent young blood in the city streets — is moving indeed. At this juncture, any potential solution is worth 100 minutes of our theatrical contemplation.

played by no less than E. Faye Butler) are underwritten and underutilized. The other issue still in play is the lack of a full-throated gospel explosion — some kind of majorkey musical catharsis, in a show that tends overly toward the vamp and the riff. Sometimes, you just gotta let it soar to the rafters. The real women the show celebrates have no problem there.

One issue that long has bedeviled “Crowns” (and that prevented its move to Broadway, I think) is the problem of taking a book comprised of photographs and little personal stories (along the lines of “I wear this hat because ...”) and shaping it into a cohesive musical with a narrative arc. Clearly, Taylor wanted to move more in that direction this time around, and progress has been made: We get to see Yolanda back in Chicago, sporting her hats with pride and making something of her life. And the visual aspects of the production are really lovely (Karen Perry’s millenary work is rich and beautiful without ever pandering to the theatrical). But there still is a long way to go. Taylor’s weakness tends to be mushy moments — stage time when the action seems to boil down to little more than awkward, simmering ambivalence. “Crowns” has quite a few of those dramatic tension-dissipating stretches still — when it looks like the cast is never quite sure what they are doing or why. In particular, the moments of Yolanda’s revelation need to be sharpened and made more credibly progressive. Now that the piece has a more active theatrical structure, it will have to follow its own new guidelines, lest crowns fall through the gap.

All that said, there is something about “Crowns” that warms the soul. Fields, known for her Tony-nominated work on “A Color Purple,” is a force of nature; there is something crucially hard-fought and morally commanding about her performance. Conversely, Wilder captures the awkwardness of youth. And the likes of Jasondra Johnson, Pauletta Washington and Alexis J. Rogers, among a slew of other potent, deeply committed performers, affirm the show’s strong sense of community. The flip side of Taylor’s ongoing struggles with dramatic clarity and integrity (when she directs her own work) is her notable ability to fuse and integrate movement, text and music in a relaxed and organic way. In particular, choreographer Dianne McIntyre’s invigorating, Afrocentric movement work floats beautifully through a warm and yearning show that wants to engage in the horrors of life while embracing baptism and redemption.

And while the piece is rightly conceived as an ensemble work, some of the named characters (such as Mabel,

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SOURCES http://www.chicagotribune.com/ct-ent-0710-crowns-review-20120709-column.html http://www.craigmarberry.com/pages/about.html https://www.deviantart.com/tag/oshun http://www.earlygospel.com/eg-origins.htm http://www.mcphotog.com/contents/bio/ https://www.theroot.com/why-the-black-church-has-always-mattered-1790860217 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_God_in_Christ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egungun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orisha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentecostalism