MARC BAUMUTHI JOSEPH - THE BREAKS - AT THE WALKER




Marc Baumuthi Joseph - The Breaks, at the Walker , starts with Soulati (Tommy Shepherd) walking up and down the stairs in the very full McGuire Theater asking questions from the audience. We are sitting on the second row. We have just walked down and taken our seats.. We hear the questions and answers from the audience. He asks the same four or five questions again and again. "What would you ask Jay-Z?". "Give me a demographic" "Is Thomas Jefferson relevant to today's political race?" and something like "If Jazz was the broom that swept African Americans into the nation. What is Hip Hop?" . This interaction with the audience went on for a while. It basically caused you to think about what you would say if he came around to ask you, and then if someone used the answer you had prepared, you had to quickly think of something else.. This introductory segment to Marc Baumuthi's performance turned out to become part of the story, as all of these questions were used in the performance.
Marc Baumuthi's The Breaks was personal (autobiographical?) timely, exhilarating, thoughtful, passionate, angry..He touched on race and hip hop. He told many personal stories that took place in different countries. He intermixed the story telling with great dance moves, and all along in the background DJ Excess and Tommy Shepherd aka Soulati produced a continous track of music, visuals and sounds. The performance included video and graphics. One of my favorite stories is when Marc Baumuthi recounts how he went to some African country. Maybe it was the Senegal. In any case, he stayed with a White woman from Texas, a social worker who had spent a number of years in Africa. Someone who spoke a number of dialects and knew the people well. One day he accompanied her on a trip to visit a number of small villages where she would talk to women and to the elders about female circumcision. At one point he strikes a conversation with a Senegalese who tells him that the Texan woman is an African American, whereas Marc Baumunthi is a Black American....
The show ended with tremendous applause from the audience. Afterwards we stopped at 20-21 for a couple of drinks and the Calamari Salad. By far, the best calamari salad in town.




MARC BAUMUTHI JOSEPH - THE BREAKS - AT THE WALKER

Posted: Saturday - April 12, 2008 at 01:10 PM          

©