The Blackout Arts Collective’s D.C. chapter performs at the Aycock Recreation Complex on Saturday.
The Blackout Arts Collective’s visit to Vance County drew at least 200 people to the Aycock Recreation Complex on Saturday, enough to pack the bleachers on one side of the gym.
The crowd included some prominent locals, such as City Council member Lonnie Davis, City Manager Eric Williams and the Rev. William Clayton, pastor of St. James Baptist Church. But the important people were the parents, the teachers and, most of all, the children, who ranged from toddlers to late teens.
The crowd did more than watch the Pinkston Street Steppers and Blackout, the Washington-based branch of a national nonprofit collective that started in New York about seven years ago. The crowd experienced the three-hour event. (Warren County High School’s drumline, Steel Stix, was scheduled to perform but did not; Blackout had no trouble using the extra time.)
Blackout’s goal is to empower communities of color through arts, education and activism. But the message — told with song, poetry, rap, spoken word, guitar, drum and violin — is not exclusionary.
Aside from entertainment, the purpose of the Blackout Arts Festival arranged by the Vance County Arts Festival and the Vance County Coalition Against Violence was twofold: to spread information and to extend a sense of community.
On the first count, the education started at the front door. Participants were given fact sheets about Vance County when they registered for the door-prize drawings. The facts ranged from bits of history (Vance was formed in 1881 with pieces of Granville, Franklin and Warren counties) to sources of pride (the sole black member of the 52nd U.S. Congress was a Hendersonian, Henry Plummer Cheatham) to reasons for concern (the rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease in Vance are far above the state averages).
Blackout’s nine performers made clear their feeling that society has not been fair to people of color but that folks shouldn’t use that situation as an excuse not to strive and succeed. They warned the audience about the “prison-industrial complex,” which they said allows big corporations to profit from filling prisons. Most of those prisoners are from minority populations, but the PIC will take anyone to fill the facilities, Blackout argued.
What Blackout leader Joseph Briggs calls “the monkey trap” is both a physical and a mental jail.
For the second goal, Blackout got the crowd involved in “creating something” as part of the performance. The people in the audience told Blackout about the problems in Vance County, and Blackout members helped five groups brainstorm on those problems and create their own performance pieces on violence, education and sexuality.
Briggs said the idea was to create a sense of unity in confronting the problems that are common to Vance County residents, regardless of age or ethnicity. The cheers given to each performance indicated the effort worked.
To read more about the event, check out one fifth-grader’s views on the festivities and an interview with Henderson native and Blackout member Heather Kenney on this site, or see The Daily Dispatch’s report. But to experience the event, click on some of the sound clips and look at the photos below.
Chanting “Black-out-out-out,” the members of the Blackout Arts Collective start their performance.
Bomani and Christylez let the crowd know a little bit about the nation’s capital.
Nitche Ward, “The Original Woman,” slams home her worldview.
Nigel brings his first rap of the day to Henderson.
Henderson native Heather Kenney lets her voice ring out.
Sonya Renee shows why she won the National Slam Championship.
Joseph urges everyone to avoid the monkey trap.
Princess produces a fist-pumping performance to close the opening act.
During the final showcase of the day, Joseph says there’s nothing people can’t do.
Blackout shatters the myth of the super black woman.
Nigel brings the problems down to earth.
Corey demonstrates that you don’t need words to make a statement.
The Pinkston Street Steppers warm up the crowd at the start of the Blackout Arts Festival.
The Aycock audience, including some Blackout members, rises in response to a series of questions demonstrating how much they all have in common. Among the questions were “How many of you have held a gun?” “How many of you know someone in jail?” “How many of you have been stopped by the police?” “How many of you have been racially profiled?” and “How many of you plan to go to college?”
Blackout members Princess and Heather help a group brainstorm on the issue of violence in Vance County.
One of the five breakout groups performs a skit about violence.
The sexuality group prepares for its performance.
Backed by Bomani and watched by Joseph, Heather Kenney sings the song she wrote in response to the slaying of Vance County resident and childhood friend Samir Rasheed.