Abstract
This article is an autoethnodrama, which originally began as a workshop piece coming to fruition as an enacted staged reading at the University of Illinois during Fall 2011. As an ethnodrama, the article explores the author’s educational journey, pivoting around one of his fondest childhood memories reciting a Langston Hughes poem. Interwoven throughout the piece are other notable local, and global events, which occurred throughout the author’s life. Memories of reciting Langston Hughes, and his poem “Mother to Son” act as a fulcrum, moving the text from the “I” singular to the “I” universal/plural. Utilizing the methodology of autoethnodrama and other performative based methods—inclusive of but not limited to poetry, framing, and dialogue—the article reimagines and recovers the individuals’ relationship to him or herself, his or her community, and to the society at large. Through acknowledging and facing trauma, the article offers for both its author and the reader a chance for recovery through restoring healing and the wholeness of the individual, amending minority absences from educational practices, and envisioning a more just society.
Movement I: Longing to Be Langston 1
[Cue Video to be visually displayed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8wqMM8dHK0] 2
[V2-V4 are sitting at table while the videoclip plays. As video and sound fade, lights fade up on V1 and V5. Once the clip is over, V1 and V5 enter the stage and assume positions (V1 sitting in a chair, with V5 directly behind him); at this time V5 begins to deliver lines]
[Begin to deliver lines]
[Excerpts in
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
[V5 exits stage and sits “offstage”]
[V1 looks up from chair, and begins to deliver lines]
The year is 1993.
[V2-V4 overlap in the delivery of lines, creating a cascade of text, history, and movement. Each “character” is meant to enter from their seats. Once up from their original chairs, each individual moves in a rectangular-shaped pattern at will, circulating around the table. The overall effect builds a particular anxiety and tension created by the rapid, varied movement across the stage]
Bill Clinton is President of the United States.
Islamic Fundamentalists bomb World Trade Center.3
Ferry in Haiti sinks—over 1,000 die.
Bombs explode in Bombay, India, killing about 300.
Federal Agents raid religious cult in Waco, Texas, February, 28.
Severe blizzard strikes the Eastern U.S., bringing record snowfall and other severe weather all the way from Cuba to Québec.
Fighting occurs between Muslims and Croats in Bosnia.
The United Nations sets up safe haven for Muslim Refugees in Srebrenica in Bosnia.
Earthquake hits Flores, Indonesia—2,200 dead.
Report states 2.5 million people in Europe are homeless.
An antiabortion activist murders a doctor outside an abortion clinic.
[V2-V4 sharp change in direction of movement]
[pause and look up from chair to deliver line] The year is 1993.
Russian Nuclear Accident at Tomask 7.
The U.S. and Soviet Union sign Start II reducing nuclear warheads by 3,500 each.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is signed into law by President Bill Clinton.
Yitzhak Rabin (Israel) and Yasser Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) sign peace agreement on September 13th on White House lawn.
[V2-V4 sharp change in direction of movement]
[pause and look up from chair to deliver line] The year is 1993.
Ty Warner USA launches the first Beanie Babies.
Slovakia Gains Independence when Czechoslovakia divides into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk win the Nobel Peace Prize “for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime.”
Two former police officers are convicted of violating the civil rights of beaten motorist Rodney King.
[V2-V4 pause where they are on stage this time, rotating slowly and deliberately in place]
[pause and look up and begin to move about stage to deliver line] The year is 1993 and I am Langston Hughes . . . or at least that is who I will be at this years Black History Month Celebration. I am in the 3rd grade and this month, February, is filled with a great Buzz.
IIIIIIIIII am going to recite Langston Hughes’s poem, Mother to Son.
[V3 & V4 stop rotation and face wall; V2 stops rotation and faces V1]
Well son. . . . Life for me ain’t been no crystal stairs . . . It’s had tacks in and splinters, and boards torn up. . . . Places with no carpet Bare [V2 trails off]. . . . But all the while I been carryin’ on, and climbin’. . . . so Don’t you sit there cause you find it’s kinda hard. . . . Cause life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.4
Today is the big day, I’m excited. Lines memorized! Costume . . . [begins to look for proper clothing as if something was lost/left] costume . . . where’s my costume. . . . [dejected] I left it [panicked] Who will be Langston? Who can be Langston! I’ve let us down. Let you down. [Takes seat]
[V1 stands to deliver lines and begins to move about stage at will]
The year is 1998.
[V3 & V4 do an about face and begin to move sharply in a particular direction; V2 also exhibits a sharp change in direction of movement]
Terrorist Bombing attacks at two U.S. Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam killing 250 people.
Bill Clinton denies having had “sexual relations” with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky starting the Lewinsky scandal and investigations.
An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale in northeast Afghanistan kills more than 5,000.
U.S. launch cruise missile strikes against Al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan.
Official famine in Southern Sudan declared with estimates that over 1 million people could die from starvation.
James Byrd Jr., a 49-year-old African American man, is dragged to his death behind a pickup truck.
[V2-V4 sharp change in direction of movement]
The year is 1998.
66-day blackout begins in Auckland, New Zealand.
Dow Jones drops over 500 points on August. 31st on the New York Stock Exchange.
U.S. Announces first budget surplus in 30 years.
Osama bin Laden publishes Fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and Crusaders.
The Belfast Agreement is signed between the Irish and British governments ending years of terrorist activity in Northern Ireland and mainland Britain.
A tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake destroys 10 villages in Papua New Guinea, killing an estimated 1,500.
In China the Yangtze River breaks through the main bank. The death toll was more than 12,000, injuring many thousands more.
[V2-V4 sharp change in direction of movement]
The year is 1998.
IMF offers US$22 billion loan to Russia to stabilize economy with strict conditions.
Islamic extremists attack two villages in Algeria and massacre 400 local villagers.
Europeans agree on a single currency the Euro.
President Bill Clinton Impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice.
Two boys Mitchell Johnson (13 years old) and Andrew Golden (11 years old) shoot and kill four fellow students in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
UNICEF reports over 130 million children worldwide do not attend school and there is approximately 250 million child laborers worldwide.
Serbian troops in Yugoslavia target villages occupied by ethnic Albanians in Kosova.
An oil pipeline running through a village in Nigeria explodes, killing 700 people with the resulting fire burning for nearly a week.
Iraq prevents UN weapons inspectors from conducting a search. President Clinton orders a series of air strikes against Iraq.
Nelson Mandela is still President of South Africa!
[V2-V4 pause where they are on stage this time, rotating slowly and deliberately in place]
The year is 1998 and I am in the 7th grade, the month is February and I AM EXCITED! Excited because it is Black History Month again! Where I get to learn about my people, get schooled on what we done done. . . . SURELY we are going to take a moment in our class for the curriculum to change . . . In English won’t I learn of Langston again, maybe Baldwin or Countee Cullen? Sonia Sanchez, Leroi Jones, Bayard Rustin. Can we be more than slaves, more than MLK and Malcolm X. More than . . . more than the typical tropes. . . . Maybe we will reflect on Blackness now . . . maybe on Black leadership NOW . . . for Christ sake our mayor Kurt Schmoke is Black the first elected Black male mayor of Baltimore City . . .
[All stop rotation, and face V3. V3 faces V2 and V4]
Class, please turn to Edgar Allen Poe’s, “The Tell Tale Heart”
[melodramatically] “They heard!—they suspected!—they knew!—they were making a mockery of my horror!—this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die! and now—again!—hark! louder! louder! louder! louder! ‘Villains!’ I shrieked, ‘dissemble no more! I admit the deed!—tear up the planks! here, here!—It is the beating of his hideous heart!’” 5
But alas, we will not. . . .
The year is now 2002.
[V2-V4 sharp change in direction of movement]
The Euro becomes the official currency of 12 of the European Union’s Members.
Mount Nyiragongo Volcano erupts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people.
Leaders of the world’s richest nations meet at the G8 summit in Canada and agree to help the poorest countries in the world by providing funding for economic and political development in Africa.
Two snipers in the Maryland/DC/ Virginia area kill 10 people and injure 3 more, spreading panic and fear.
Iraq rejects new U.N. weapons inspections proposals.
Andrew Fastow former chief financial officer for Enron Corp is indicted on 78 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice.
[V2-V4 sharp change in direction of movement]
The year is 2002.
Terrorists detonate massive bombs in two nightclubs in Kuta, Bali, killing 202 and injuring over 300.
John Allen Muhammad, age 42, and a minor, Lee Boyd Malvo, age 17, are apprehended. The DC snipers are found sleeping in their car in a gas station in Baltimore City!
East Timor gains independence from Indonesia.
George Bush creates the Department of Homeland Security to fight threats of terrorism.
Yasser Arafat trapped in his compound by Israeli troops until his death in 2004.
An estimated 40 million people now infected with Aids/HIV virus worldwide.
[V2-V4 pause on stage]
The year is 2002 and I am in high school and it is February again! And yet again I am excited, because it is Black History Month . . . there is a bit of buzz about Black History Month, a celebration to be had and this year I won’t be Langston; no this year, I will sing with a group “Negro Spirituals.” . . . and we practiced.
[V2-V4 pause on stage and move to form a choir, mouthing words alongside V1, who moves to “direct” the “choir”]
Betta mind ya brotha how ya walk on the cross.
And practiced.
Your foot might slip your soul get lost.
And practiced.
Oh Satan’s way is a downward shoot.
And practiced.
If you don’t mind he’ll slip it on you.
And snow falls.
And it falls.
And it falls.
And there is no celebration this year. Black History Month did not come . . . despite us learning about “American” authors . . . Hemingway, Thoreau, and of the not so American but ever so necessary Shakespeare there is little mention of Phyllis Wheatley, Olaudah Equiano, or any other great African-American/Black literary author.
The year is 2004.
[V2-V4 sharp change in direction of movement]
The CIA admits that there was no imminent threat from weapons of mass destruction before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Suicide bombers detonate car bombs in Basra, Iraq, killing at least 74.
Simultaneous explosions on rush-hour trains in Madrid kill 190 people. Five suspects blow themselves up.
CBS uncovers systematic torture of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib Prison.
U.S. transfers sovereignty and control of Iraq back to the Iraq people.
A World Aid Report tells of 5 million new cases in 2004 and 3 million people died.
Lance Armstrong of Austin, Texas, wins an unprecedented 6th consecutive Tour de France cycling title.
[V2-V4 sharp change in direction of movement]
The year is 2004.
Following ethnic cleansing by government backed militia in Darfur, Sudan, 1 million people flee their homes.
Afghanistan held its first democratic election when Hamid Karzai becomes the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
Colin Powell announces his resignation and Condoleezza Rice is nominated as his replacement for Secretary of State.
President George Bush beats Democratic challenger John Kerry to gain a second term of office.
Ex-soldier John Muhammad is found guilty of one of a series of sniper shootings that terrorized Washington, DC.
Martha Stewart is convicted of a felony and sentenced to 5 months in prison.
Environmental protection laws dropped to allow increased logging in U.S. National Forests.
The year is 2004.
The strongest earthquake in 40 years originates from the Indian Ocean close to Indonesia, measuring 9.3 on the Richter Scale. At least 290,000 people are confirmed to have died from South Asia to as far as South Africa.
U.S. Marines carry out Operation Phantom Fury to clean out insurgent fighters in the city of Fallujah, Iraq.
First U.S. Same-Sex Marriage is performed in Massachusetts.
[V2-V4 sharp change in direction of movement]
The year is 2004, and I am 18 . . . it is the 40th anniversary of Freedom Summer of 64, and I am in Oxford, Ohio. This is my FIRST TIME outside of Baltimore. AND it is the first time I am ever called a nigger. . . . I grew up in a fairly All Black city, where the janitor and principal were Black, went to high school with folks from all over the place, Chinese Americans, Lebanese American, individuals of Greek, and Jewish descent I GO TO SCHOOL at a PWI and I had to leave the state, for this momentous occasion to experience being called a nigger . . . and it hurt . . . and I was confused . . . angry . . . wanting to fight back . . . to shout back . . . that I AM NOT A NIGGER . . . but I don’t.
The year is 2010.
[V2-V4 sharp change in direction of movement]
The financial crisis and high unemployment continues with house prices still depressed due to the large number of foreclosures. Europe and America begin to pursue different courses to address the problems .
BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico leaves gulf beaches/fishing and the shellfish industry reeling. New Deep Water Drilling Wells are stopped until regulators can catch up with the technology.
The U.S. increases the number of troops stationed in Afghanistan, hoping to squash the Taliban and Al-Qaida terrorist groups that operate from and in the country.
Floods in Pakistan caused by higher-than-normal monsoon rains cause flooding on a scale unseen before, with 20% of the country flooded and millions homeless and starving.
[V2-V4 sharp change in direction of movement]
The year is 2010.
Iran continues it’s path with construction of additional nuclear power plants, causing the United Nations to place even more sanctions on the country.
The 2010 FIFA World Cup takes place in South Africa; Spain wins the World Cup.
A magnitude 7 earthquake hits Haiti and devastates the country.
An estimated 3 million people were affected by the quake.
Haitian Government reported an estimated 230,000 people died.
300,000 injured.
1,000,000 made homeless.
[V2-V4 pause where they are on stage this time, rotating slowly and deliberately in place. After V1 delivers lines, V2-V4 create one line upstage, allowing spacing between one another]
[V2-V4 sharp change in direction of movement]
Our first Black President—Barack Hussein Obama.
I am still waiting.
The Tea Party Movement.
Still waiting.
Gay Marriage as a Civil Right.
Longing.
Hurricane Katrina.
Yearning [pause] to be Langston again.
[V2-V4 face walls]
[V1 leaves stage and prepare to cue clip]
[V5 delivers lines offstage]
[Cue Video to be visually displayed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8PcnaJRez0] 7
Footnotes
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.