Letter to VP Harumi: THIS IS AMERICA

Dear Vice-Principal Harumi,

Thank you for reaching out to me! As you know I am courageously outspoken when it comes to anti-racism and promoting BLACK LIVES MATTER so I am more than happy to share my thoughts on the matter. 

My initial thought is to NOT proceed with making this dance or performance with the current cheerleading squad. However, there is a lot of potential here to create a meaningful performance that can appeal to the audience and possibly more. I think this is a great opportunity to get students around the school involved in this performance. I would try and get different ethnicities to join the actual performance and instead have the cheerleaders teach and lead choreography. For example, in minute 0:18 you see a black man come in and start playing the guitar, who later gets executed. For this performer, it would be good to get a member of the school choir or band who is also black. I think it can come off as phony and lose the videos deep-rooted meaning if anyone but someone black is there. The whole point of the video is about the importance of music to the black community going all the way back to the era of slavery in the south. 

For the shot at minute 1:44, there is a powerful scene inside a church, where a choir is performing and ends up being shot and killed by a shooter with an AK-47. I believe that this is a reference to the 2015 Charleston Church in 2015 shooting. For this scene, it would be good to get the school choir with a mix of ethnicities to be actually performing. I don't think it would be appropriate to recreate a mass shooting in a high school event so It would be interesting to present this more abstractly. For example, what can happen is that the lights go out and the audio of shooting is put on to symbolize the event. 

I would not have one singular lead performer. I would have it be a series of events or clips which are presented by a group and different performers. Have multiple dancers present Childish Gambino and how they can work together to present the same ideas the video tries to present. 

At 2:09 the video gets much more populated with more background performers and events taking place such as people jumping on cars. This would be a good point to draw in recent protests and try and recreate them in the performance. Use lots of stage props and see how the drama and art groups of the school can help in set design. 

My final notes will be to use a sense of community to headline this performance. If you try and recreate this with just cheerleaders it will not feel inclusive. Get everyone involved and try to make it a fantastic 4-5 minute performance which uses dance, art, acting, and music to promote a strong message. 

There is a lot of potential here with this project and let me know what else I can do to help. 

Sincerely, 

Farzan Farnaghi



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Intersectionality: Nine Things Women Could Not Do in 1971 - Legal Rights of Canadian Women in 2020

In Canada, we have the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which protects the rights of all Canadians, as well as women. In the Charter, two sections specifically apply to equality ,which are sections 15 and 28. Section 15 makes sure that the law upholds equal protection without discriminating against sex, race, or ethnicity. Section 28 guarantees that all rights are applied equally to men and women. As blanket rights for equality, these are essential to ensuring that men and women are protected equally under the Charter. In addition to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the Canadian Human Rights Act of 1977 that allows for all Canadians to have the right to equality and to avoid discrimination based on sex. This act protects men and women from discrimination when they are employed by government run organization. However, this leaves a gap when it comes to all privately owned businesses. To accommodate for this, the Government of Canada created the Canadian Human Right...
Read more

A Review of Campaign Zero: We Can End Police Violence In America

Campaign Zero is a campaign that's goal is to live in a world where the police don't kill people. Their plan to do this is by limiting police intervention, improving community interaction, and ensuring accountability. The ten categories or focuses of their plan are:  End Broken Windows Policing Community Oversight Limit Use of Force Independently Investigate & Prosecute Community Representation Body Cams / Film the Police Training End for Profit Policing Demilitarization Fair Police Union Contracts The campaign's main goal is to encourage policymakers to focus on reducing police violence and hope to put pressure on elected officials to enact legislation to address police violence. There is also a tool on the site to demand action from your representative which I believe is an effective tool in getting people across America involved in an important cause. Further analysis will now be done on Campaign Zeros' policies they wish to enact.  Campaign Zero states that only...
Read more

Black Intersectionality: Writting from Audre Lorder & Rachel Elizabeth Cargle

The two pieces of writing by Audre Lorde and Rachel Cargle, both targeted the perspective of black women against their own perceived allies. In Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference , Audre Lorde speaks about the current state of black women in the world. She touches on how the perspective of a black woman is very different from others such as men, women, and even other feminists. She addresses points about how the current state of the world is directly related to a capitalist structure that leaves minorities, poor, or disadvantaged as a "surplus". Similarly in Cargle's article When Feminism Is White Supremacy in Heels , she touches on how black women seem to be alone in their battle because even their supposed allies are more concerned about their image rather than truly hearing out black women of all stretches of life.  In both pieces of writing, the perspective is from someone who feels trapped, in the system, in their beliefs, and their lives. They are...
Read more