Oh, Mother~Oh, Father~ Don't Abandon Me

Making Tenafly students more aware
Sunday, May 6, 2007

Photo courtesy of Northjersey.com.

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By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER


The morning assembly was wearing on in the Tenafly High School auditorium. Feet fidgeted in the back rows and notebook doodles were fast becoming elaborate as the boredom stretched on.

But when Tracie Luck walked onstage, the feet and pencils stilled. And when she opened her mouth, you could have heard a pin drop -- but you wouldn't have, because everyone in the room could hear only the aria spilling from her lips.

Thomas Satterwhite Noble’s 1867 painting, "Margaret Garner." Image courtesy of playbillarts.com.

Luck plays the lead character in "Margaret Garner," a new opera based on the historical story of an escaped slave who kills her children to save them from a life of slavery, a tale that also inspired Nobel laureate Toni Morrison's "Beloved."

Luck's performance is part of the New York City Opera's 2007 "Year of Margaret Garner" tour, which is bringing opera and historical experts to educational institutions and other public venues across the region. It is also a sign of a growing trend: artists taking on the roles of cultural ambassadors on thorny issues such as race, ethnicity and religion.

"I think [the students] may have read about [slavery]," said Susan Tall, the Tenafly music teacher who coordinated the event. "But music and art can bring it to them in an emotional and dramatic way that will be much stronger."

Moving hearts, minds

From the classically trained to the self-taught, a small clutch of artists locally and internationally are starting to use their various media to try to move the hearts as well as minds of children and adults.

Aberdeen resident Dennis Daniels, or "Mr. D" as he's better known, is one of them. His mission is simple: Bring the message of diversity to the school and region in which he teaches. It's his theatrical approach that's different.

Mr. D. Courtesy of mrdandfriends.com.

As school dean, Daniels leads morning assemblies at Hope Academy Charter School in Asbury Park along with his troupe of puppets.

On any given morning, his alter ego could be Zach, a young black man; Old MacDonald, an old white man; Carmen, a Latina diva; or Dan, a "parrot-dodo" who is not very smart and can't fly. It could even be several puppets at once.

It's an act he's honed at schools, libraries and nursing homes, using his crew of puppets to tackle issues such as racial tension, ageism, sexism and prejudice against the mentally handicapped. He often finds himself performing for homogenous groups who have had little contact with diversity.

"We go in, a little United Nations within us," said Daniels, himself African-American. "What I discovered was that children who were not minority would simply begin to see minorities in a different light. ... Kids get the message better from the puppets than when I tell them directly."

The assembly audience at Tenafly High School was not lacking in diversity, but it came from a community with an African-American presence of a mere 1.2 percent, according to the latest census. The chances of most students having a direct ancestor who was affected by the slave trade are slim.

But about half of the high school was in attendance, including the entire junior class and all music students. Many of them had learned about the slave trade in history, and "the very fact that they are coming down to an assembly on it means that it is getting more attention than it would normally," said Tall.

Ryan Arams, a junior who attended the assembly, agreed.

A boring lecture. Note: not actually taken at Tenafly High School. Courtesy of brainbasedbusiness.com

"Some of my friends weren't so happy because [Underground Railroad expert Delores Walters] was going on about the story of Margaret Garner -- and they were falling asleep," Arams said. But the moment Luck began her ear-ringing aria, her friends "were awake," she said.

"Even though the books went into depths about [slavery], I had no physical sense of what was going on," added Arams, who said she is "excited" to see the opera when it comes to New York this fall. "[The presentation] helped it come to life somewhat."

Peace and acceptance

"Shukrillah," by Mohammed Ali aka Aerosol Arabic. Image courtesy of bbc.co.uk.

There are some who have never met a Muslim, and there are internationally conscious graphic artists who have no idea what Islamic art is. British Muslim artist Mohammed Ali brings both those concepts alive for a non-Muslim audience. Like Mr. D and Tracie Luck, Ali boldly goes where no one like him as ever gone before.

As Ali explained at seminars in New York and Chicago recently, Muslim art prohibits the painting of figures, especially ones with eyes. His answer to that precept, after rediscovering his Muslim heritage seven years ago, was to throw himself into what he calls "street calligraphy," his own brand of graffiti-inspired mural and canvas art.

Ali has also become known, within Britain and now in America, for working with local youths on eye-catching Islamic murals that spread the message of peace and acceptance. "Watching someone paint a watercolor just isn't the same, is it?" he said.

Man who claims Sly blew his rafters. Photo courtesy of dworkineliason.com.

"Margaret Garner" composer Richard Danielpour, who was unable to speak to the Tenafly students because of illness, sees the "Year of Margaret Garner" events as a way of paying forward his own transformative experience with music.

"Even though I am not African-American, this is the music I grew up with," said Danielpour. "One of my best musical experiences was when I heard Sly and the Family Stone in 1970s. It blew the roof of my brain off."

And he hopes the music of "Margaret Garner" can do the same for a teenager.

"I believe our young generation ... is our greatest resource in America," he said. "Their awareness -- culturally, aesthetically and spiritually -- will have everything to do with the country we have 20 years from now. For me, this is an investment in our country's future."

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.