The Pinkston Street Steppers wow the crowd with their opening performance Saturday.
All kinds of people performed Saturday at the Aycock Recreation Complex as part of the Blackout Arts Festival.
First were the Pinkston Street Steppers, who showed that youth is no obstacle to talent. The 11 elementary school kids had the crowd howling in support of their performance.
Afterward, some of the girls in the group talked about how they did:
* “I think we did a great job.”
* “I think we were like totally awesome.”
* “We did our very best.”
* “I think we did real well, and everyone appreciated what we did.”
The Pinkston Street Steppers warmed up the crowd of more than 200 for the Blackout Arts Collective.
It’s hard to describe Blackout’s mix of poetry, rap, song, guitar, drum and violin, except that it was good and powerful.
Blackout Arts Collective members solicit Vance County issues from the crowd.
But the event wasn’t just about them performing for us. They asked the audience about the big issues in Vance County, and we produced a long list, including crack cocaine, high school dropouts, teen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, unprotected sex, abandoned houses, education, gangs, guns, murder, child abuse, unemployment, drugs, poverty, not enough role models, not enough voting, not enough prayer, child neglect, overcrowded and underresourced schools, rape, immigration, gentrification, racism, prostitution, robbery, violence in schools, the lack of parental involvement in schools and not enough happy people.
Heather and Christylez list some of the issues confronting Vance County.
The Blackout folks and the crowd decided the problems could be broken into three main categories, violence, sexuality and education, and we listed specific issues for each category.
After we made the category lists, we broke into five groups, two to deal with education, two with violence and one with sexuality. I was in an education group.
Joseph and Reisha lead our group through a discussion of the problems and solutions for education.
We had to do something to show what education is about, so we did a role-playing skit set in a classroom. The skit showed the chaos on a parent conference day because not all parents are involved in their children’s education and because the teacher’s aide in this particular class is more interested in doing her nails than working with the kids.
But we had a solution, which the whole group of 18 delivered in a spoken-word, rap-type poem that we wrote together. I came up with the line “We need to spread out all the faces” in response to overcrowding.
When we performed, each person read a line, then we recited the end together:
“There’s a no-funding backlash ’cause there’s no cash. Teachers tired, daddies fired, mothers wired. We all need to get inspired. Just remember it begins with you. What are you going to do? What are you going to do? What are you going to do?”
The other education group gives its portrayal of a school out of control as a bully tries to steal another child’s lunch money.
After all five groups performed, Blackout gave a final showcase of all of the nine members’ talents. It was a really great experience.
— Posted by Joshua Jacobs