I met playwright Donald Jolly at the world premiere of his play Riot/Rebellion, a depiction of the Watts Riot of 1965. What struck me most was that I knew this guy was too young to have been there, yet his familiarity with the incident and decision to premiere it at the Watts Village Theater gave a knowledgeable and nostalgic temperament to this heart rendering presentation. Being a part of that era, and having participated in the 1968 riots in Chicago, it did my heart good to know that the underlying and not often discussed reasons for those uprisings were not forgotten. I will have interviewed Donald on the radio by the time this blog is posted, but you can contact me at grace.calvin187@gmail.com if interested in hearing his story as told by him.
To our youth I say learn who you are by way of those who have gone before you. To those of us in our prime I say allow those not yet where we are, an opportunity to learn not just what happened with us, but also the reason why. Donald talked to about 10 people who were there when the Watts Rebellion took place, and spent 2 years developing a personal relationship and garnering pertinent information that was grounded in credibility rather than speculation. His actors were a mixture of those who lived during that time and of those who had not yet been conceived, with both groups presenting to the audience a collaboration of personal depictions of a time that should not be forgotten. The truth is that the rebellious consciousness that existed then is still exists today because the conditions that caused it have not gone away. We all have a role in the decision of where do we go from here, and only the recognition of and commitment to our 'oneness' will develop and maintain a positive direction.
From the 'Hard Scrabble' riot in Providence, Rhode Island in1824 till the Oakland riot in Oakland, California in 2009, there have been a total of 245 documented racial or ethnic riots in the world. America is first with a total of 125 and the United Kingdom second with 30. Two of the so called leaders of the so called free world, whose history is steeped in racial and ethnic animosity. People don't rebel just cause it's hot, or throw rocks because they're "…like monkeys in a zoo", as Watts police chief William H. Parker is alleged to have said. People rebel against what they feel is not right. Something is wrong ya'll. Something that was going on in Rhode Island in 1824 is still going on today. I, for one, am grateful that Donald Jolly and others are reminding us that we have work to do, but we all need to realize that doing the same thing expecting different results is regarded as insanity. We need to stop supporting an individualistic, hierarchical mindset, both inside and outside of our respective ethnicities, and start looking at how to establish a 'we're all in this together consciousness. Only then can we be proactive in regard to stopping the cause of rebellion, rather than reactive to the riots that ensue.
I thank Donald Jolly, Director Barbara Roberts, all the cast and crew, and give a special thanks to the Watts Village Theater Company for giving others an opportunity to explore and be exposed to what's really going on and fostering an initiative to be a positive part of it. We learn by listening to each other ya'll, so access http://wattsvillagetheatercompany.ning.com/ and go to one of the 4 remaining performances of this wonderful presentation. I implore all of you who can, to take advantage of an opportunity to be educated...to be inspired...to be entertained…all at the same time.
I'll Holla…
To comment or respond click on the word comments at the bottom of the page or email me at grace.calvin187@gmail.com.
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