Black folk and the performing arts

Where Is the Arts Programming on PBS?
Michael Kaiser
President of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Excerpt:
One of the questions I am always asked when I teach abroad is why there are not more performances by American arts organizations available on television. In other developed nations, the great arts organizations are seen regularly on television.
Read more at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-kaiser/where-is-the-arts-program_b_325610.html

“You’re so tall” they would say to me while collecting money from my newspaper route in nineteen hundred yesteryear. “Vot you do, already, you play basketball?” “No Ma’am” I would answer, “I play the piano.” “Oooh, dat’s niii-ce!”

So it is of late when I get my annual Kennedy Center Brochure, I no longer hasten to look at the concert series to see what other Black boy did not play basketball. After a day or two, I may take a casual look through the brochure with absolutely no hope in finding a sustained series to quench my thirst. I see just the usual “Black boy” in a modern dance ensemble or in a jazz ensemble wherein I just lay the brochure back down on the table but this time in the pile of mail to discard in a few days after perhaps taking one or more “Look-see”.

Recently, there was a play at a theatre in Washington that peaked my interest and after calling the box office to see if there were any Blacks in the show, I thanked the kind ticket agent trying not to reveal my disappointment. (why do you keep doing this to yourself, BB?)

There is a strange feeling I get watching television not seeing Blacks speak the language of their country. It was a thrill hearing U.N. Sec. Kofi Anan responding to reporters in French. I don’t even see Black Egyptians in power and surely not in the performing arts. I do not see Black Jews or Black Palestinians. But I’m not talking about known Black countries in Africa but rather countries like France, Germany or even China. I heard about Black babies born in France and Germany during WW2 and about a Black dynasty in China but when I see pictures and news footage of those countries, never do I see a Black citizen speaking his native language. I do not see him at all. There have to be Blacks living in Ireland and Italy. I never see or hear from them. (BB, you have to understand this culture is not interested in promoting your culture.)

I ponder the ultimate destiny of a multi-culture country that has a closed fist encapsulating the talents of only one ethnic group and will continue to wonder as I wander…..
Ever so frustrating being forced to deal with this “double consciousness” all the time. Does this make me uniquely African American? But at least I can say I so glad I got a Black President.
Fighting for the dignity of my Ancestors,
God bless Bill Gates, WPFW, C-SPAN and the spirits of the unborn for the help,
BB