| When passing Marc Bamuthi Joseph on the streets of Madison, there are some who would probably furtively glance at him, see him through the narrow lens that they have learned to view young Black men with, and be dismissive of him or cross the street to avoid him. That would be their loss for not only would they have acted as part of the "wall of racism" that attempts to keep young Black men in "their place," but they would have also been deprived of experiencing the wit, wisdom, and perspective of a multi-talented, multi-disciplined performer. And it is precisely this wall of illusion, of the mythology of Black men, that Bamuthi Joseph will tear down when he performs at the Wisconsin Union Theater February 24 after the Wisconsin Youth Speaks Finals at 7 p.m. After a few minutes of talking with Bamuthi Joseph in the Memorial Union's Rathskeller, Bamuthi Joseph's deep intellectual current rises to the surface. A graduate of Morehouse College with a Master's degree in education from San Francisco State, National Poetry Slam Champion and Broadway veteran, Bamuthi Joseph is well-equipped to deliver an engrossing and thoughtful performance. "We all are ultimately an amalgam of our experiences, the full breadth of our experiences," Bamuthi Joseph said. "I have the background in theater, dance, television and various vestiges of the entertainment industry. The background in dance, the passion for education and an undergraduate degree in literature and being born in 1975 makes me literally a child of hip hop. My performance style is really a confluence of those influences and that particular skill set. And I think this is the right time for that particular skill set to be expressed and presented on stages throughout the country and the world. I think there's a particular way that the ear is tuned and our aesthetics are shifting in performance that make this the right time for me to share these skills at this intersection in my body's stage." Bamuthi has created his own unique theatrical performance to bust through the stereotypes and mythology of Black men that exist in American culture using "theater, West African and tap dance, spoken word, poetry and live music to create a musical experience all his own. " When you get past 'A Raison in the Sun' and that ilk of theater, what is there for young Black actors to perform in, Bamuthi Joseph asked. "On the flip side, on the commercial side of things, from hip hop culture to sitcoms and commercial television, there exists a very caricatured idea of what Black male identity consists of. And so, the words that we speak in those contexts present a fairly two-dimensional concept of what it means to be a young Black male at this point in time. One of the ways to deconstruct the monolith is to reconstruct an identity through verse. And so, I like to say that I create new mythology. I reimagine folklore. I confront history in the verse of our times. And for me, the verse of our times is hip hop." One of the biggest challenges in tearing down racist stereotypes within the national culture is avoiding replacing old stereotypes with new ones, leaving the walls of racism intact. Bamuthi Joseph feels that it is the truth in his performances that allows him to move past that. "I confront stereotypes, but I try to not do it in a two-dimensional or monolithic way," Bamuthi said. "Ultimately, I am who I am. We're having this very conceptual conversation, but on stage, I don't present concepts. I present me. And because this is the way I think, my means of approach on stage, I am me. Hopefully, what I help to do is undermine stereotypes, but I don't set out to do that. I set out to tell the story and get at a series of personal truths. And in so doing, I think I open up to our collective humanity." Tickets for Bamuthi Joseph's show and the "Wisconsin Youth Speaks Finals" for the general public start at $18, while tickets for UW-Madison students are available at the low price of $10. For more information or to buy tickets, contact the Wisconsin Union box office at 608-262-2201, or visit the Wisconsin Union Theater at www.uniontheater.wisc.edu. Next issue: Deconstructing hip hop |
| Marc Bamuthi Joseph to perform at Wisconsin Youth Speaks Finals A fusion of expression Part 1 of 2 By Jonathan Gramling |
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| Marc Bamuthi Joseph, National Poetry Slam Champion and Broadway veteran, will perform hip-hop theater in the Wisconsin Union Theater on February 24th |
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