By Nikole Jaramillo
Part of the Black Arts Matter (B.A.M.) Festival took place at Edgewood College when champion poet Porsha Olayiwola performed her one-woman show Black & Ugly as Ever on March 6.
The hour-long choreopoem explores the meaning of living as a queer, fat, dark-skinned woman and “utilizes original song, poetry, and movement to discover love of self in a body that occupies multiple marginalized identities,” according to the Edgewood College website.
Split into two parts, the first half of the show examines societal norms, while the second half focuses on praising defiance of rigid expectations. The show sheds light on a difficult topic and urges viewers to reexamine the established societal norms.
Other B.A.M. Festival events
Other B.A.M. events took place in Madison throughout the week.
These included Alice Childress’s stage production Trouble in Mind at the Bartell Theater (March 3), the opening event and panel introducing Lighteard (March 4), a public showing at Madison Central Library of Spike Lee’s Bamboozled (March 7), and the two-day Black Arts Matter Poetry Slam held at Madison Central Library (March 8-9).
The Black Arts Matter (B.A.M.) Festival was created by UW-Madison student Shasparay Lighteard to celebrate Black art and shift the spotlight to lesser-heard voices in the field.
The Wisconsin State Journal said Lightheard’s motivation and support for creating the Festival stemmed out of a class on theater production management taught by Audrey Wax, who is a lecturer at both Edgewood College and UW-Madison. Another influence for the Festival was Sarah Marty’s course on arts entrepreneurship. Marty is the director of Arts programs at UW-Madison.
According to Isthmus, the Black Arts Matter Festival “brings together black artists from Madison and the Midwest for a week of performances, discussions, and more.”
Motivation for B.A.M Fest
Lightheard’s decision to produce the Black Arts Matter festival was made in May 2018. “I’ve always believed that if you don’t have a space, you should create that space,” she told the Wisconsin State Journal. “I guess this festival is just me doing what I always thought.”
For more information on the Black Arts Matter festival, visit its website: https://bamfestival.wixsite.com/madison.
Post your comments