The decision by the management of the National Arts Center (NAC) in Ottawa to offer a performance of the play “Is God Is” to a predominantly black audience is making waves. Even the New York Post took an interest in the matter in its Jan. 29 issue.
Posted at 7:15am
Before throwing around words like “racism”, “discrimination” or “apartheid” and throwing around words like “racism”, “discrimination” or “apartheid” in the last few days, it would be good to get rid of everything take a step back other than new practice.
The first thing to note is that this play is written by a Black American author, Aleshea Harris, and performed by Black actresses. We cover the themes of twisted morality, the dysfunctional family, the difficulties for a woman of being black, and parricide.
This play will be performed February 9-18 at the Babs Asper Theatre, a 1,000 seat auditorium at NAC. It was decided that February 17th would be a “Black Out Night” for black audiences and that this would be part of the events marking Black History Month.
On its website, the National Arts Center carefully emphasizes that this evening is “an open invitation to diverse audiences who identify with Black people.” It is also said that it is “a place dedicated to black theater lovers”. I emphasize the word “amateurs”.
Nowhere does it say that people who are not black are turned away at the door. “Contrary to what has been written by those who didn’t come to ask us the question, everyone is welcome and welcome to all of our shows, including Black Out night,” said Annabelle Cloutier, general manager, Strategy and Communications, at the NAC. Locking the door on anyone was never an option. »
In other words, one can be a black theater “lover” and be white, Asian or aboriginal.
These evenings, which some call “safe space,” are becoming more common. By November 28 at the latest, the organization Tangente, responsible for broadcasting dance performances in Montreal and Quebec, offered an evening reserved for PANDC (Aboriginal, Black and Colored People).
The request came from choreographer Mohammadreza Akrami, who wanted to create an atmosphere conducive to open and frank discussion after presenting her work.
Spectators who were not part of the BIPOC showed up with their tickets. When they discovered the character of the evening, some preferred to come back another evening, others entered anyway.
So before you claim that these evenings are a new form of “racial segregation”, as members of the Association des Québécois unis contre le racialisme (AQUR) wrote in an open letter, you have to step on the gas.
It’s easy to say, if you’ve always been part of a majority group, that those parties are reverse racism.
As much as I find it hard to accept that art and the work of artists is being reshaped in the name of political correctness, I have no problem with the fact that minorities might want to come together to celebrate the creators’ fruits or witness a special event.
I will always remember the reaction of this member of my family who attended the opening night of Outgames at the Olympic Stadium in 2006. After watching the thousands of viewers from the LGBTQ+ communities around him, this person said that for the first time she understood her life the reality of those who constantly live in a minority.
We’re talking about the gay community that created places and events (and continues to do so), but let’s talk about the women who, at the height of the rise of feminism in the 1970s, felt like they were too must together.
Re-read the reports on the June 23, 1975 mega spectacle on Mount Royal, which featured some fifteen female performers and brought together 200,000 people, the vast majority of whom were women.
To the journalists who came to collect their comments, viewers told how empowered they felt and how in control of their destiny for once in their lives.
Still on the Tangente theme, a few years ago we presented a work in which all the dancers performed nude. An evening was offered exclusively for members of nudist clubs. Did someone stand up and say it was discrimination against other viewers? Not at all.
Being able to attend a show or not is not a vested right for viewers. Talk to producers and artists who very often do gigs for people from a particular band or company. Nobody complains about that.
So why get on your high horse when Black Out or PANDC nights are scheduled in the cinemas?
Of course we can reiterate that we will all bravely fight together against racism and prejudice. Yes, it is true. And we already do. Or at least we try.
I don’t think the minority groups that organize these evenings do it to distance themselves from others. They do it to take a step back, to express things without fear of being misunderstood or misinterpreted.
They do it to imagine, if only for two hours, what it’s like to fit in.
In all transparency, I want to clarify that I worked at NAC in the 1980’s.