Kyle Abraham’s interview struck me as the most engaging of the three readings. Kyle Abraham, in conjunction with visual artist Glenn Ligon and musician Robert Glasper, formulate a response to very complex and provocative topics like the Civil Rights Movement and the Emancipaton Proclamation in a very abstract and positive manner. A number of aspects stand out to me about this medium of expression. The first is, how do the choreagraphers deal with very different societal views on these topics from the time of the actual events to the present day? Secondly, can this be an effective way of channeling our thoughts and inclinations in order to truly effect the world we live in today?
One of Kyle Abraham’s dances
Abraham Lincholn prominently issued the Emancipation Proclamation on New Years Day of 1863. That is about 150 years ago and society’s sentiment was very different back then. The Southern half of the country vehmently opposed this ruling, as seen by the Civil War, and the Northern states embraced this. While today’s world is not perfect, minorites are in a much better place now than they were at that time. As you can probably see this issue is not one that can be summed up quickly so an abstract representaion of this is plausible and creative. Having said that, I applaud Abraham because if I was tasked with representing such complex issues abstractly I would not know the first thing to do.
Growing on my second point, Can we use abstract choreography or just abstract art in general to further the causes that we are fighting for today? Would– lets say an abstract artistic response to the Black Lives Matter campaign make meaningful difference? I do not know the exact answer to thse questions but I think that they would certainly help to further the cause. Art I feel many times can be a catalyst to societal progression, but that progression could be positive or negative. I read an article in high school about how Hitler utilized the cartoon sections of German newspapers to ostrasize Jews and Blacks, basically anybody he didnt like. Although these minute details were not the gas chambers that killed people, they were in fact the catalyst for the majority of the German country to begin to discriminate and seperate from Jews.
I hope that there is a way to use the art of Kyle Abraham and others like him as a soruce of good and positive change in society. I admire Kyle Abraham for doing what he is doing because I feel it is people like him that inspire the masses to go out and make a change. To end rascisim and discrimination. To reduce the prevalence of police brutality. To curb the wealth gap. There is so much that can be done through abstract representaion that is not as feasible through conventional means.
You are right Ahmed, it is great that dance can be used to acknowledge social issues and convey a message about them to an audience. We’ve learned about paintings and other one dimensional art forms that push forth social issues, and now modern dance is another form that can be used. We can certainly applaud Kyle Abraham for his work because he connects the history of the past to the present now with dance.