Tiana Patterson, a member of the ‘Showstoppers’ group, was one of the featured performers in several dance numbers. Seth Daniel photo
For more than 20 years the OrigiNation Cultural Arts Center has educated, entertained, and compelled audiences to wrestle over difficult topics through a comprehensive look at Black history in the multi-faceted production “Our Story.”
The work – part dance, spoken word, and music – was performed twice at The Strand Theatre in Uphams Corner last Friday (Feb. 27), the final day of Black History Month.
Highlighting the African American experience, the show, which marks many different aspects of history, has evolved and even gotten longer, said Shaumba-Yardje Dibinga, OrigiNation’s artistic director.
Nadjya Maccow played a captured person contemplating jumping off a slave ship during the Middle Passage, while Angela Maccow, playing Sojourner Truth, comforted her. Seth Daniel photo
“In looking at what was going on in the schools and what was going on in my own home, I wanted to educate young people about this history in a different way,” she said following Friday’s matinee performance. “That’s where ‘Our Story’ came from more than 20 years ago. It was paying respect to people that came before. We started with a lot on Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., but we eventually had to expand because there are hundreds of thousands of people in our history we didn’t even know about…Every year it is different.”
The theatrical production goes from modern day students struggling to learn Black history, to African villages under attack, to the Middle Passage to North America, including a vignette about a captured prisoner who chooses to jump into the ocean rather that submit to bondage.
Other challenging moments include families being separated by slavery, school desegregation re-enactments, a spoken word piece showcasing the deferred hopes of children killed in the 1963 Twelfth Street Baptist Church bombing, and an 1890s-era lynching scene disrupted at the last minute.
An 1890s-era lynching scene is one of the most difficult “Our Story” scenes for audiences and performers, including Dorchester’s Selah Thande, at center). In the show, the act is disrupted before it is carried out, but the point is clearly made. Seth Daniel photo
Some of the cultural spotlights include stories about Sojourner Truth, the excitement of the Roaring ‘20s culture, a tribute to Tina Turner (played by Dorchester’s Nasya Baine) and Michael Jackson, and the great leaders of the Civil Rights era like Ruby Bridges and Little Rock Nine student Elizabeth Eckford (played by Dorchester’s Eyanna Zi Flonory).
And Dorchester educator Connell Cloyd – a math teacher at the Henderson Inclusion School – performed a variety of songs, dances, and recited a poem entitled “Black Woman, I’m Sorry.”
OrigiNation was established in 1994. Based in Forest Hills, it draws students for dance and performing arts from every neighborhood of Boston. “Our Story” is one of two special productions that students at the school can participate in alongside regular studies.
One of those students is Dorchester’s Selah Thande, a 16-year-old at Boston Arts Academy (BAA) and participant at OrigiNation since the age of seven. This was also her seventh year performing in “Our Story,” in which, she said, she has played many different parts – with many challenging technically and emotionally.
Dorchester’s Selah Thande played a modern protagonist in the production – a high school student who has excellent grades, but is flunking her Black History class. Seth Daniel photo
“Being in the show really educated me because I didn’t learn this history at my school,” she said. “It was the first time I had heard of a lot of this history when I started performing in the production, and at first, I cried a lot. It was hard to learn about all the things that happened. It is also such a difficult process to be transported into the lives of our ancestors and have that one-on-one experience to be part of their voices and their stories.
“The scene where I almost get lynched is such a traumatizing experience…But I like that it shows how easy this was to have one person that could dictate the rest of someone else’s life.”
On a technical note, Thande said, she really enjoys the energy and dancing in ballroom scene depicting the spirit and energy of the Roaring `20s and beyond. “It is lighthearted and it’s really fun for me to see how our people hung out and had fun,” she said. “There was a different idea of what was fun than what we might see now.”
For her part, Dibinga said she is happy with how the show has come into its own, and how it continues to bring a new understanding of obscured history to students and audiences every February.
“They really pay close attention to the major things we are trying to get across,” she said. “They’ve taken Black history out of schools, so it has to be taught to them by community. We always hear from students, teachers, and audiences that they learn more in one hour and 45 minutes of “Our Story” than they learn in a year at school.”
Samarah Marks led an opening African dance number during the performance of “Our Story” at The Strand Theatre last Friday. The Black History Month special production by the OrigiNation Cultural Arts Center covers a wide range of Black history through music, dance, and spoken word. Seth Daniel photo
