CUNY Macaulay Honors College at Baruch College/Professor Bernstein

On the intersection of East 26^th Street and Kings Highway, aside James Madison High School, stands the modern Christmas tree, an aluminum layer cake of red and blue Budweiser cans taped together with flashing Christmas lights, accoutered with the Star of Bethlehem atop.
The Christmas tree has a rich history; coming from a Pagan background, it has spread to multiple cultures and religions. In Russia, it is treated as a secular signifying the coming of the New Year. In Christianity it serves as an ornament for the birth of Christ. In Brooklyn, across the street of house, it is a trophy of consumption and intoxication – basically, just celebrating the holidays.  Contrary to finding it offensive, I’m fascinated by the range of subjectivity that the tree embodies. From a polytheistic idol to a Christian tradition, its pretty amusing to see the housings of barley malt at their fullest glory: a token to college drinks, football games, and domestic abuse. Traditionally, the tree evokes a sense of family, togetherness, and happiness, but here it achieves a fresher dynamic, commenting on the fun and profane, and the darker side of family life.

P.S. This was written before the Menorah was put up.

The Scottsboro Boys on Broadway is an artistic and at times ironically whimsical retelling of a well-known injustice. Through its unique brand of retelling, Broadway can amplify the emotions behind any historical headline. This is where Scottsboro falls slightly short. The attempt to emphasize the incredulity of the charges brought against the nine young black men was often overshadowed by what could be described as an excessive maintenance of Broadway lightheartedness.

Not all musicals have to be happy. In order to achieve critical acclaim and audience hearts a musical must awe. The “immortal” musicals throughout the last century varied from lighthearted children’s tales to bloody horror stories, each managing to earn Broadway timelessness. Scottsboro possesses qualities that put it on a path towards renown, but in the end something is missing.

One of the most interesting creative decisions was the usage of a ninety-nine percent black cast to portray not just black, but also white characters. The audience enjoyed the mocking representations of the young white “victims” and the law enforcement officers. This parody of the characters’ personas was appropriate; one might go so far as to say metaphorical. The Scottsboro trials were charade-like so including parody in the story was a well though out mixture of plot and satire.

The demographics of the audience were another interesting factor of Wednesday night’s performance. Viewers were predominately white, which is curious, considering the story is one that marked the beginnings of affirmative action and black empowerment. In contrast, attendance of the premier season of Margaret Garner, an extremely serious slave story, at the Metropolitan Opera seemed significantly more mixed. Perhaps Scottsboro’s unconventional presentation of the black struggle in America was less appealing to the black community because of the unorthodox and extreme presence of humor. Granted, the humor was mostly ironic and satirical but it can still feel belittling.

The score of the musical was all over the place. A number of songs were beautiful, and the majority of the voices were divine but quite a few numbers seemed less striking and frankly lacked lyrical depth. The songs allowed the young actors to display their immense vocal talents but again, detracted from the genuineness of the story.

The Scottsboro Boys wasn’t however, unsuccessful. Upon concluding the viewing experience the audience is not left feeling jolly. Instead a communal feeling of disgust seemed to set itself upon the spectators. The minstrel show element is disturbing, which is the emotion that should arise following any story based off of the Scottsboro trials. Although some major elements of the production ranging from tone to song lyrics could use development, the musical itself thankfully strode away from the amusing temperament of the majority of the show and more towards a realistic, melancholy one. The audience is drawn back into reality towards the conclusion of the performance. Without this occurrence the musical would have been thoroughly unsuccessful but the manner with which it was executed is cause for thought over the intentionality of the storyline. Perhaps the message here is the danger of performance, of the retelling of stories. The audience on Friday night quickly seemed to forget that this was a true and terrible story of a serious injustice. As we are pulled back from false merriment to dank reality at the end, one notes how easy it is to forget that which we ought be embarrassed of.

The Scottsboro Boys balances historical tragedy and contemporary cynicism to achieve a humorous yet sorrowful dynamic.  In a narrative where all characters are played with black male actors, the shuffling of ethnic and gender roles generate a critical outlook on the trail of the Scottsboro Boys, a pivotal moment in history that propelled the civil rights movement. From the start of the play we are told that this production is arguably detailed from the perspective of the boys themselves.

The Broadway musical begins as are recollection of events bearing striking resemblances to circus spectacles that lend credit to the minstrelsy. The conductor is the only Caucasian actor in the plot, and his interaction with the other characters, both in the minstrel and the narrative of the story, serves as a thermometer of race relations throughout the performance. We first see a subjugate nature in their relationship, and later see it dissolved in the rubbing away of blackface paint, or proud tears of struggle. Viewers should be mindful of response the Scottsboro Boys offer to his roles.

The musical relies on the choreography of chair utilization, which are not simply used to prop up the victim of the electric chair or flaunt characters in eclectic dance, but also serve as the skeleton of the scenery.  While this approach is clearly frugal, it was appropriate, as the habitual glamour of Broadway may have drained the story of its harsh essence. The lighting was successful in setting the mood: deep warm reds offering moments of passion and cold tones of blue defining bitterness and struggle. Furthermore, warm oranges juxtapose the climatic warmth of the setting to the unsettling passion of the boys.

There is a vibrant synergy between the lighting and the faces of the performers. It radiates like wavelengths and celebrates the phenomenon of Broadway’s energetic world. Aside from the choreography, the unnoticeable nature of the direction attests to the organic flow of the acting. While some critics pointed out that the transition between joy and disaster are weak, they convinced me that I am still watching a musical. The pseudo-manic gestures authenticate the cynicism in the performance. While it was a source of controversy, with figures such as Reverend Al Sharpton raised pickets, actor Joshua Henry who played Haywood Patterson delivered a tear yielding finale that questioned the conservative diction of the picketers. Given the polarizing nature of the musical, reception will vary among the politically sensitive. However, one has little reason to be critical from an artistic standpoint.

The performance has much to offer to the liberal viewer; conservatives beware. In the artistic sense The Scottsboro Boys has a lot to offer, but historians may find the emotional undertones throughout the musical inappropriate and displaced.

Having not grown up in New York City, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I am not too familiar with riding the city bus. Yesterday, I found myself with the need to, and to my shock, it was running well behind schedule. (Actually, I have found that all forms of public transportation in the city are late, it amazes me though that the Staten Island Ferry always leaves on time when I happen to be a minute or two behind.) Anyway, following a couple of stops in the Grand Central area, I found myself trekking out to the public library on 50^th and 10^th in search for a book that they had available. Never mind the fact that I had no idea where it was in the city that I was going, it was already past five o’clock and it was getting dark. By the time I had checked out my book, it might as well have been eleven o’clock (it wasn’t, it was only about a half past five, but it very well could have been, judging from the limited light).  As I waited at the bus stop, an ensemble of various characters emerged from who-knows-where, first a drunk from a nearby bar, and a woman waiting with me at the bus stop (she had situated herself in a corner and covered herself with her jacket, her presence was not comforting). Then out of nowhere appeared a rather odd man who, in his twenties, started questioning me about the M50 bus, where it went and how often it ran (I had no clue what I was saying). Then another shady male appeared out of nowhere at which point the ‘odd’ one cuts off his conversation with me, shakes hands with the ‘shady’ one and heads into a nearby building. I knew they were up to no good when an even shadier man left the building minutes later. Moments after that, a policewoman upon a horse came strolling down 50^th street, figuring though that she had little interest in my lead, I kept it to myself. Then the bus arrived and I left what turned out to be the Hell’s Kitchen part of the city.

Afterward, upon reflecting on my experience that night with a reasonable mind, it hit me that in April I had been in Hell’s Kitchen, not too far from where I stood waiting for the bus, at an Italian restaurant. (Their pizza was excellent: very thin, with a focus on the sauce; I recommend the Margherita pie, though you may want to bring somebody else to foot the bill.) Ultimately my lessons from the experience are threefold: 1) It’s probably not a good idea to explore unknown parts of the city by oneself at night, 2) Don’t count on the bus to be on time (already knew, just reinforced), and 3) No matter where you are, a good pizza pie is always around the corner.

http://musicalcyberspace.wordpress.com/2010/04/23/the-scottsboro-boys-recorded/

From the moment the actors stepped on stage, you could just tell that this was going to be a very upbeat, fast paced show. With the quirky music and excitement of the actors, it made you feel like they were about to put on a show about something they loved and couldn’t wait to show us. They made it seem like what they were performing was something good in history when it really wasn’t. The historical context behind “The Scottsboro Boys” is still evident throughout the musical though, but the way that it is presented to us works in a way that I feel is effective in that it never gets too serious or emotional for us to bear. They keep the context of the story easy going and add humor to the situation so that we are able to understand the significance behind it, but also strike a balance with humor to keep us entertained. I think it was very risky to do what John Kander and Fred Ebb did by making this story such a humorous, up tempo musical, being that many people might not take so lightly to such a serious topic. But personally, I appreciated the humor behind it because I think it makes everything easier for us to watch as viewers, and I also think humor is the the one thing in life that keeps us sane in life.

Obviously the story of the Scottsboro boys is not a laughing matter, but I think adding humor to the show and making it upbeat helps us to both view the historical meaning and also helps us be able to move past it. I don’t think anyone who actually see’s this show will walk out of the Lyceum Theatre and say, “Wow, segregation was funny back then.” The story is still powerful. You can still see the pain, emotion, and struggles the nine boys went through with that long ordeal. But when presented in a way where you can laugh every now and then, it eases the tension in watching it. There was one comment in the show that I thought to be especially funny. When thinking that they were getting released from prison and talking about what they were going to do once they got out, one of the boys responded by saying that he was going to buy two white girls to spend the night with to see what all this fuss was about. I don’t view that humor as taking anything away from the pain that they went through. I also don’t see that as “making fun” of the historical context. I see that as bringing humor to a serious topic which is something that we need sometimes. Sometimes we need to realize that this is a musical and not an actual re-enactment. If it were, it wouldn’t be so popular and bearable to watch. I think we need that humor to brighten a very dark situation.

One of my favorite aspects of the show itself was the use of characters. I loved how the white police officers and white girls were played by black, male actors. So much of the shows humor came from the scenes where these “white” people were shown. The over-exaggerated walking and talking was great satire in my opinion and kept me laughing with everything they did. It was a great way to poke fun at how ignorant they were. I think if the white people in the show were played by white people, it would cause more tension with everything and the whole show would be less humorous. Perhaps it would be too real and that would take away from the aim and purpose of the musical itself.

Another aspect of the show I thought was really well done was the use of chairs to put together different scenery. Just a few chairs were used for numerous settings. Different arrangements set the scene of a railroad car, a prison, a court room, a bus and probably a few other scenes that I can’t quite remember off hand. Simple props made the show what it was and it shows how effective something can be by just keeping things simple. One of my favorite scenes was the one where the boys are handcuffed on the bus and one of them attacks the driver and gets shot by the other officer. The use of lighting, music, and acting made this scene really dramatic. The stage lighting went red, the music got slower, and the actors started moving in slow motion. I thought that was a well done scene that used many different aspects of theater into making an effective show.

In conclusion, I’d like to finish off with how I started. There will probably always be people who take offense to a musical like this where humor and passion are used to tell a serious story. But in my opinion, that humor and passion is exactly what we need as viewers to understand the historical context and learn from it. I think that making a serious show that did a closer re-enactment to the history with more racism and prejudice wouldn’t serve us anything. We would just see it and be shocked. I think that would cause animosity and tension and that is not something we need. We need to be able to learn from the past and move forward…and I think humor was the right way to go in this case.

Every other Sunday morning, my brother and I get up at 10:30 (which we consider early for a Sunday morning) and head to our barbershop, just the way we have been doing for a great portion of our lives.  Located in the heart of Flushing, it attracts a very diverse group of customers. When we get there, we wait, often hours at a time, to get our haircut.  However, we don’t mind the wait one bit.  During this time we catch up with fellow friends who are also waiting to get their haircuts, and with our barber, who has become a friend first and barber second.

Whether it is a conversation about politics, the economy, community projects, or sports, the barbershop is a hot spot for conversation.  The TV at the shop is always on, either on CNN or ESPN; in a way it facilitates all the conversations that take place at the shop. Since it is football season, for the past few months, most, if not all of our conversations are about football.  “Jets are the best team in the league,” my barber will often say, in his thick, hard to understand Russian accent.  I remember when I first walked into the very same barbershop; I hadn’t understood a word he said.  However now, eight years later, I understand him as if he has no accent at all.  For me, my barbershop isn’t just the place where I get my haircut.  It is a place where I meet my friends from the community, and where we discuss everything and anything that deserves discussion.

Sugar.  It’s everywhere.  It’s an addiction.  And it’s something that most people appreciate.  Some say it is part of the reason being obese or overweight is so widespread. There is talk of a sugar tax on drinks like the tax levied on cigarettes. The product is widely enjoyed, and its history is a reflection of globalization and industrialization

Once discovered by Europeans during the Crusades by coming into contact with the Arabic world, sugar was reserved for the wealthy and highly coveted.  Early on, sugar cane was processed in Italy and Christopher Columbus took some sugar cane with him where it flourished in the Caribbean because of the ideal weather conditions.  From then on, the Dutch, the United States, and much of Western Europe capitalized on the new discovery, importing slaves from Africa to Latin America and the Caribbean, notably Potosi (Bolivia), Cuba, Haiti, and Brazil.  In the imperialists’ dust is poor, infertile land and economies that have remained poor.

My collage reflects the slaves, workers, and people forgotten and exploited by the sugar trade and the obsession with sugar that allowed it.  Voyagers at first came for the gold and silver, and found sugar to be just as worthwhile a cause.  The image was created electronically, while there is a physical aspect.  The brownie bars are representative of gold, and the use of sugar as a commodity (as well as cacao).  They are the basis of an intricate and fragile system that falls as inequality rises and the sugar (brownies) became scarcer.  The collage is meant be interactive: brownies representative of the wealth amassed, and as it is consumed, the sugar globe falls, and just might break.

However, I clumsily dropped the sugar globe and it was in pieces; this speaks to the fragility of the connections.  The origami ball is meant to represent the same ideas; it should not be held together by anything but fragile connections (Mine isn’t for the sake of transportation).  If not held together by some sort of tape, the ball could be thrown and fall apart.  The origami ball was made in mind with the facets of Latin American representation as well as that of the United States and Asia.  It was made with old issues of The Economist.

Collage images from: http://diggingri.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/sugar-scrub.jpg
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http://www.frenchcreoles.com/420px-Toussaint_L%27Ouverture.jpg
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http://www.agronamex.com/sugar_cane.jpg
http://japanfocus.org/data/spices.jpg
http://karenswhimsy.com/public-domain-images/christopher-columbus/images/christopher-columbus-3.jpg
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http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/governence-projects/organisations/voc/graphics/voc-heading.jpg

Perhaps my cousin Carner has passed the stage infamously known as the “terrible twos.” At the age of three, however, he is no less mischievous or hyper active. The day before Thanksgiving, my aunt asked me to accompany her to the barbershop. Yes, it was that time again. Carner was going to get another haircut. “Maybe you can help him stay calm today, hmm?” my aunt asked. I knew I could try, but he’s a restless little toddler and I was not sure if my presence would keep him behaved.

Once we entered the shop, an elderly Asian man with a wide grin pointed with his scissors toward a tiny chair. My cousin caught a glimpse of the scissors and immediately responded with his eyes closed and his head shaking. “No, no, noooo,” he squeaked adamantly. The barber chuckled, but my aunt did not. “Not today Carner. No tantrums today,” she reprimanded him. After a bit of squirming, Carner eventually settled into the seat.

In just about ten minutes or so, the impossible task had been accomplished. My aunt sighed in relief once the barber finished up the job with a few last snippets and a quick comb through his hair. “Sorry if he was fidgeting too much,” my aunt apologized with pink cheeks. “Oh, no problem, really,” the barber assured her, “It’s because of this. Two. Two means bad.” He pointed to the two cowlicks on my cousin’s head. “Really?” my aunt responded, almost with sarcasm. “Yes, yes,” he said, “Two. Two means naughty boy.”

I wondered where he got that strange idea. As I walked to the car with my aunt, I asked her, “Do you believe it?” She turned around. “No, of course not! It’s just a silly belief,” she stated with confidence. “Your grandma said a lot of things like that before. You know the older generation and their stories.”

“These innocent boys are guilty,” the judge says leaving the Scottsboro Boys and viewers alike aghast.  This is one line from The Scottsboro Boys that still resonates in my mind, even though it has been days since I saw the musical.  This quote captures a truly perverse moment from America’s past, which the show, The Scottsboro Boys so effectively portrays.

The Scottsboro Boys uses the minstrel show art form, and although it is a racist form, it serves very efficiently as a source of comedic alleviation for what is a dark tale of injustice.  Some might feel hesitant to go and watch this performance if they hear that it takes on the form of a minstrel show; however, potential viewers shouldn’t let this affect their decision to watch this great show.  This is because at the end of the show, when the Scottsboro Boys remove their blackface, and disregard what the interlocutor is telling them to do, they show a much needed sign of rebellion against this form, and the stereotypical limitations forced upon them by it.

Overall, the acting in the musical was engaging and unique.  Joshua Henry’s portrayal of Haywood Patterson was one of the most compelling performances I have ever seen.  In the playbill, Haywood Patterson is quoted saying, “I don’t tell people stories.  I tell the truth.”  Joshua Henry acts in accordance with this quote, accurately exhibiting Mr. Patterson’s character.  His serious demeanor preserves the significance and gravity of this historical moment, even through the comical scenes that try to alleviate some of the gravity of the story.  All of the actors, especially Colman Domingo and Forrest Mcclendon, show their versatility as they tackle quite a few different roles in the show.   Although this made some scenes confusing, overall it was a humorous addition.  Also, the woman lurking in the background, who we later discover is Rosa Parks, does a great job of blending inconspicuously into the scenes.  In addition, just the fact that Rosa Parks was inspired by the incident that occurred with these young men shows both its prominence and influence.

As for the sets, although they were limited, the manner in which they were utilized was very effective. When I took my seat, and looked at the stage I saw a cluster of chairs; if someone were to tell me that all of the sets in the show would comprise of just these chairs, along with a few pieces of wood, I wouldn’t have believed them.  However as the show unfolded, these chairs began to transform magically into different things such as a train, a jail cell and more. At times I truly felt as if these chairs were actually what the actors were trying to show them to be.  Lighting helped establish the moods for every scene, and made the sets even more realistic.  Perhaps the most eye-catching scene from the show was the electric chair scene, in which lighting played a major role.  It used electricity and flashing lights to keep the attention of viewers glued to the stage.  The sets and lighting helped give life to the settings exhibited in the musical.

The music and the dancing served as the backbone for the musical. Hidden almost completely under the stage, the orchestra set the tone for every scene. For the darker or more nerve-racking scenes, such as those that showed the judge’s decisions, bass was prominent, and the bass drum was used to keep it strong.  However, for the most part, melodic instruments such as the trumpet are put in the forefront.  The dancing, especially for the melodic scenes ranged from being completely wacky to completely synchronized.  I found this very interesting, because I saw the synchronization as a representation of the constraints of the minstrel show form, and the wackiness as a representation of the freedom and justice sought by the boys.  What I found as an entertaining feature was that the actors didn’t merely serve as actors and dancers; they also participated in creating the music, whether it was with the tambourines or by stomping their feet.

The Scottsboro Boys is an experience unlike any other.  It is an exhilarating and creative combination of acting, music, and even comedy, which exhibits the story of a group of innocent young men who deal with America’s tainted justice system of the past.  The Scottsboro Boys is definitely a must see show for all types of viewers.

When my friend Javed asked me if I knew how to work iMovie, I enthusiastically told him about the collage project that I had just completed and how it gave me the gist of how most of it works, and that I would be happy to help with what he had to do. His project was for his Discover New York class, the theme- Homelessness. It was not his choice, the professor had assigned it to everyone because it’s a topic she is quite passionate about. I found it odd that someone who feels strongly about the injustices of homelessness would ask a class of college students to wander the city looking to snap shots of homeless people. I think that a homeless person would feel singled out, embarrassed, ashamed, belittled, or all of the above if they were to notice that they were being photographed. I told Javed this and he had no good answer to it, and said he would ask his professor how to deal with this issue.

A few days later the topic of his project came up in conversation again, and he asked if I wanted to see the photos he had taken so far. He told me that his professor had clarified that she did not want photos of actual homeless people, but of things representative or reminiscent of homelessness.

Those are two of the photos he took. I found his approach very interesting because it required him to step back and think of homelessness in a different way. Portraying homelessness without homeless people may seem difficult, but I think these photos are successful in what he wanted to capture and that when joined with the rest, his photoessay will give the same sad feeling as the topic of homelessness.