LIVING FOR CHANGE

“DETROIT IS WHERE WE CHOOSE TO PLAY”

By Grace Lee Boggs

Michigan Citizen, April 22-28, 2007

Recently I enjoyed a performance by Wayne State University students in the Introduction to Black Theatre class taught by Aku Kadogo. The performance at the Elaine Jacobs Gallery behind Old Main was an exciting demonstration of the Hope that is growing in Detroit , both among young people who have never left the city and in an older generation who have chosen to “come back.”

It began with the entire group of 28 students chanting

“July 23, 1967 The City of Detroit went up in flames 40 years on we stand to make our claim.”

My City

My city My city My city

313

As Group 1 continued to chant

My city.My city My city 313

Group 2 chanted

All about the quick fix

Blinding us with social tricks

In demise, we’re tranquilized

Racism divides, demoralized

ALL: My city

But we’re fighting blight

We are full of might

We are standing here

And we have no fear

Of tomorrow

We will make the brighter day

Tomorrow

Detroit is where we choose to play

Tomorrow’s reality

Is Today

In thought, word, actions, deeds

Revitalize Detroit

Meet our city’s needs

As the entire group shouted “Detroit”, single voices called out Ren Cen, Cobo Hall, Greektown, Belle Isle, Ford Field, DIA, Wayne State U, Fox Theatre, Hart Plaza, on the corner.

The performance grew out of a class assignment to interview a parent, grandparent or friend about the 1967 Rebellion. This led to the class discussing Detroit’s problems, its racism and segregation. The creativity of the students only began to emerge after Aku asked them to talk about what they liked about Detroit .

Aku is a Detroiter who has returned to the city after over 30 years of artistic work in New York City and Australia.

A Cass Tech graduate, she left in 1973 to major in Theatre at New York University. In her last year at NYU she met Ntozake Shange, the author of “for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf. “ A blend of narrative, poetry, and dancing performed by seven women exploring themes of sexism, racism, and poverty, this choreopoem was first staged in 1974 in a woman's bar, and two years later became nationally known when it was produced on Broadway at the Booth Theatre.

That show took Aku to Broadway and then to Australia in 1978 which turned her life around. She began to work with indigenous youth and tribal people in the Aboriginal /Islander Dance Theatre.founded by Carole Johnson from Philadelpha. Twice a year tribal elders came and worked with the young people who in turn went to tribal areas to work with elders, both to learn traditional dances and to teach contemporary dance.

In the 90s Aku was called to work with desert women in the Ochre and Dust program .

A year and a half ago she was invited to come back to Detroit to direct “Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God.” She decided to return not only because her parents live here but because there is work to be done here.

“I needed to come back,” she says. “It is not only me giving back, but I have things to learn from Detroit, from this place and these circumstances. Because when you give profoundly, you receive profoundly.”

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