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I am We
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 Photo: Courtesy of the Leaf Chronicle, Clarksville, TN |
The Association for the Promotional of Campus Activities (APCA) named Kijana's performance Best College Diversity Program in both 2001 and 2002. Nonetheless, she was amazed and honored to be named the 2002 APCA College Performing Artist of the Year. She is the first African American and only the second woman to hold the title. Those who have seen her program - "The Griot" - are not shocked at all that she received such a lofty title.
Claire Jordan from Hillsborough Community College in Florida stated, "She really WOWS the audience. She hits on topics that are common to all people." These common threads between cultures and their music is exactly what Kijana hopes to share with her audiences.
She wrote her program - "The Griot" - based on many of her own life experiences. She has lived her life with her eyes and ears wide open. She recognizes the significance in seemingly everyday events. Kijana ties together these events with the strings of music.
"It all started when I was on a European tour with the Houston Symphony. We were sitting in this hot tub and we some how began discussing the origins of music," remembers Kijana. Upon returning to Texas, a community center asked her to put together a program on the history of music for Kwanzaa and "The Griot" was born.
Griot is a word that the French gave to the historian/storytellers of North African tradition. Kijana describes a visit from a griot like this, "The children are so happy to see them because they get a chance to come in out of the fields, sit at their feet and hear stories. The adults are happy to see them, because the griots bring news from the next village." Griots are historians, journalists and enterainers. In other words, they are edu-tainers. Which is why "The Griot" is a perfect title for Kijana's performances. Kijana laughs, "(My performance) is a lecture disguised as entertainment."
The format of "The Griot" has a similar format each
time but is very fluid and morphs; with each event and each audience.
"I had one woman come up to me after a show and tell me
that she had seen "The Griot" seven times, but each
time she was surprised by something new."
Kijana stays in the moment better than any improv team. This
helps keep the show, which she has done at more than 300 schools
and colleges, fresh for the audience and for herself. She explains,
"For a children's group, I do more of the first segment
with more African songs and characters. For an older group, I
do more of the JazzLadies like Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughn.
During Kwanzaa, I do a version based on the Uguzu Saba - which
are the seven principles of Kwanzaa."
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The first principal of Kwanzaa is called Umoja and deals with unity. It is based on an old African saying, "I am We" or "I am because We are." The Griot not only knows the ancestor's stories, he or she is the living embodiment of history. When Kijana becomes the Griot, she takes on this same polymorphous ability. She skips from one character to another in her performance with the ease of Sibyl. One viewer described her as "a canvas that she paints people on." One moment she is a church choir director, the next a vaudeville performer and the next her little niece. These characters and their stories snuggle in between her
songs. She tells many of her own life experiences. Kijana like
to say that she was "born in Mexico bread in Texas and buttered
in Africa." This great, great, great granddaughter of Sam
Houston revels in her Jewish Cherokee, European and African roots. |
Kijana admits, however, that she has not been immune to prejudice. One of the stories she often tells as part of the "The Griot" is about a puppy and a trip to the bank. When Kijana was a little girl, her mother had bought a puppy for her. Kijana wanted to know why the puppy's mother had allowed him to be sold. "He didn't eat his oatmeal or go to bed on time," her mother teased. Kijana's mother taught her an old favorite - "How much is that doggie in the window?" Kijana practiced over and over again.
A few days later, Kijana and her mother took a trip to the bank. It seems that the always-inquisitive Kijana had gotten on her mother's last nerve so she was left in a day care area at the front of the bank. Her mother was taking a terribly long time and Kijana started to worry. A man came out counting change and took away one of the other kids. "That kid had just been sold!" she thought. In despair, Kijana started sniffling and singing "How much is that doggie in the window?"
Her mother was appalled to find when she returned that Kijana had fists full of money that people had given to her for her singing. One lady came up to them and said, "I've always felt sorry for you Negroes. Here's some money. Why don't you go get this young girl some food?" As Kijana reached for the $5, her mother pulled her arm back slowly. "I think we have been singing and dancing for you people long enough," Kijana's mother declared. Her mother got her in the car and drove off. A little ways down the road, she pulled over and began to cry "What's wrong, Mother?" Kijana asked, bewildered. After all, she was the one who had been wronged--she wasn't allowed to keep her money "Why do they have to treat us like that? ...All they can see is our paint job," her mother declared.
"The Griot" is often requested during Black History Month. Ultimately, however, the theme of "The Griot" is not about paint jobs. It is about unity. It is about who Kijana is, who WE are - all year long. Kijana tells weighty stories like the one above or the one about an African-American girl who thought she was pretty only one day. Kijana wrote an award winning poem about that little girl who only had friends at this primarily white day care the day she was dressed like a white girl with her hair crimped and singed with curls.
Or, Kijana might tell you about Liberia. She went to Liberia because she had always wanted to travel and she could finish her masters degree in education while there. She ended up staying six years, making friends with the First Lady, getting her own TV show, and surviving the Rice Riots.
Whether it is a story about dodging bullets or her "Refund-a-Date" policy, Kijana's tales are a critical part of the success of "The Griot". Stories, however, are not Kijana's only tool. Her costume changes are one of the most mentioned parts of her performance preceded only by her amazing, close-to-four-octaves voice.
Kijana describes her costumes with a laugh. "When I come out I look like a big butter ball. I might be wearing two pairs of slacks, a dress, an apron, two belts, and two head dresses." Each layer of clothes helps her create the next layer of characters.
She also uses slides, imaginary friends, and most importantly,
audience participation. The audience becomes the griot chorus.
Review after review mentions the uniqueness of learning a click
language song from South Africa entitled "Mama Tiembo's
Getting Married Tonight." (What one might not guess is that
Mama Tiembo is a very liberated lady who decided to get an education
and start her own business before she would get married - or
so Kijana's story goes.)
Kijana's audiences always have to be on their toes. "If there is a particularly outgoing audience member, they may be pulled up on stage with me," she warmly warns future audiences.
Often during Kwanzaa, Kijana donates performances to Senior Centers and Community Centers in her area. "One time I performed for 6 old people and a dog," Kijana laughs. In comparison, she performed for 4,000 people at President George H. W Bush's inauguration in 1989.
She made an effort to increase her college visits after a trip to a NACA convention. "I was appalled that most of the black performers at the conference were bad mouth comedians," remembers Kijana. What started as Kijana's mission to broaden college's programming choices and to entertain while promoting unity, has now landed her the title of 2002 Performing Artist of the Year.
Kijana's theme of unity has taken on a whole new level of meaning since September 11. Students often write to her after a school performance. One student wrote the following long before 9-11, "1 am half Vietnamese and half Mexican and agree with you completely. We are all Americans and the sooner we begin to act like it, the sooner we will be able to make some real changes in this world."
So is Kijana really a genius? You will have to decide that for yourself. One has to admit, however, that Kijana continues to live her life fully, to absorb the significance of every day and to do her part to make some real changes.
For more information on Kijana...
SEE: Campus Activities Magazine, April 2002, pgs 18-19,
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