The Sandra Organ Dance Company
http://www.organdance.org
SODC
Poetry in Motion
A Celebration of Black History Month
FEBRUARY 26 and 27, 2004
Zilka Hall, Hobby Center
Houston, TX
Here you will find background information about some of the dance pieces presented in this program.
"Minnijean's Song"
Premiere choreographed by Steve Rooks
"Haiku Project"
Premiere choreographed by SODC dancers and in collaboration with Writers In The Schools
"Haiku Project"
(inspired by the poetry of local students and Richard Wright)
Choreographed by Sandra Organ
"Phenomenal Women"
(inspired by the poetry of Maya Angelou)
Choreographed by Sandra Organ
"Songs of Mary"
(inspired by the poetry of Lucille Clifton)
Choreographed by Sandra Organ
"To the Thawing Wind"
(inspired by the poetry of Robert Frost)
Choreographed by Sandra Organ
"Remember"
(inspired by the poetry of Joy Harjo)
Premiere choreographed by Sandra Organ
"River"
(inspired by the poetry of Langston Hughes)
Premiere choreographed by Sandra Organ
"Bow and Bend"
(inspired by the poetry of Lao Tzu)
Premiere
choreographed by Sandra Organ
"Poetry Arrived"
(inspired by the poetry of Pablo Neruda)
Premiere choreographed by Sandra Organ
"Minnijean's Song"
Premiere choreographed by Steve Rooks
The Little Rock Nine
In September of 1957, the first attempt at the integration of Little Rock, Arkansas schools began at Central High School. Public opinion and Governor Orval Faubus were against it. The governor sent state militia to prevent the twelve black students from entering the school. A federal judge ordered integration to begin, and nine of the students arrived but could not enter. Later in September, with the help of President Eisenhower, federal troops and federal judges, the governor gave in, and the nine students finally attended classes.
There were many incidents of racial insult and abuse, even great physical threat and harm. One student, Minnijean Brown, was suspended for dumping her lunch tray over the heads of two boys who had been taunting her. Two months later, she was expelled when she called another student who had been provoking her “white trash.” The other eight black students were able to finish the school year, but Ernest Green was the only one of the nine who graduated from Central High.
Minnijean Brown now goes by Jean Brown Trickey. After living in Canada for 25 years, she has returned to the United States. She is a social worker and has remained an activist for civil rights, nonviolence and social equality. Journey to Little Rock: The Untold Story of Minnijean Brown Trickey is an hour-long film about her experience as one of the Little Rock Nine. Ms. Trickey is working on her autobiography, tentatively entitled Mixed Blessing: Living Black in North America.
Reference Resources On Line
BACKGROUND OF THE CREATIVE COLLABORATION BETWEEN WITS AND SODC FOR “POETRY IN MOTION”
WITS (Writers in the Schools)
Writers in the Schools (WITS) was founded in 1983 in an effort to introduce new approaches to teaching writing in primary and secondary schools. WITS is based on the idea that sending poets, novelists,
and playwrights into classrooms can enhance the reading and writing curriculum in unexpected and exciting ways. This year, WITS has placed writers in 300 classrooms in Houston area schools as well as in
museums, hospitals, juvenile probation sites, homeless shelters, and community centers, working with over 15,000 students. Over the past 20 years, the WITS program has revolutionized the way reading and
writing are taught by nurturing the growth of students’ imaginations and awakening them to the adventures of language.
WITS’ website is: www.writersintheschools.org
The dancers of SODC went into the third and fourth grade classrooms of four elementary schools and one community center to conduct creative dance workshops with four writers in the schools. Writers were
Kenya Johnson at Oak Forest, Leslie Gauna at Ed White, Kim Meyer at Travis and Sharon Ferranti at the Chicano Family Center. The writers gave assignments of a haiku the week prior, and SODC dancers came
in and encouraged movement from each child for one phrase of their poem, grouping them in teams of three. After teaching each other their individual movements, each group performed one haiku for their
classmates. With three lines (5,7,5 syllables) and seventeen movements, we could use any haiku as the music for the dance. With their permission, SODC recorded the movements of each group, the
recitation of their haikus and compiled the homework…this would be the vocabulary, the music, the form that dictated our dance. We studied these tapes in the studio and each dancer was given about 10-12
student haikus to morph, mimic or appropriate their movements into the dance you will see onstage. The dancers involved in the schools were Sandra Organ, Yolanda Gibbs, Mireya Gamez, David Armendariz,
Patrick Willison, and Tabitha Anderson. (Tabitha was unable to participate in the studio and performance piece due to illness.)
One of the most important forms of Japanese poetry, haiku is a 17-syllable verse form with three sections of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. In traditional haiku, there is always a word pertaining to the seasons. Originally part of a longer poetry form, this became an independent verse form in 1892.
Maya Angelou | Lucille Clifton | Robert Frost | Joy Harjo | Langston Hughes | Lao Tzu | Pablo Neruda | Richard Wright
Born in 1928, this poet (and San Francisco’s first black streetcar conductor!) grew up in Missouri and Arkansas. She has been a singer, a dancer, an activist in civil-rights and women’s issues, an editor in Cairo, Egypt, a teacher of music and drama in Ghana, a student of cinematography in Sweden, an actress in the TV adaptation of Roots, and an acclaimed writer. Currently a professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University, she read her poem, “On the Pulse of Morning” during the inauguration of President Clinton in 1993. She embodies her own phrase, “phenomenal woman, that’s me.”
Maya Angelou FAQ
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/angelou/angelou.bio.bib.html
Born in 1936 in New York, Lucille Clifton has been Poet Laureate of the state of Maryland, where she currently lives and teaches. A prize-winning poet, Ms. Clifton is also the author of over 20 children’s books including the series featuring a young black boy named Everett Anderson. Like most poetry, her work really comes alive when read aloud.
Lucille Clifton Biography and Bibliography
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/clifton/clifton-biobib.html
Robert Frost (1874-1963)
Best known for the New England settings of most of his poetry, Frost lived and worked in England for two years to develop his own poetic voice. Although he did not complete his college education due to illness, he returned to college life as a professor and poet-in-residence after receiving critical and popular acclaim for his poetry. He received many literary awards and honors and represented the United States on trips abroad. He recited a poem at the inauguration of President Kennedy in 1961.
Gale - Free Resources - Poet's Corner - Biographies - Robert Frost
http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/poets/bio/frost_r.htm
Multi-talented Native American Joy Harjo has studied painting and theatre and has done screenwriting. She plays the tenor saxophone and sings in her own band. Ms. Harjo teaches at the University of California at Los Angeles and continues to write and perform readings of her poetry. She was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1951 and has lived much of her life in New Mexico. She is an enrolled member of the Muskogee Tribe.
Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
Having grown up in the Midwest, Hughes moved with his father to Mexico City after graduating from high school. This caused a family conflict between his parents that he used in the poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” After abandoning a college program in engineering, he traveled and wrote about his experiences. Back in the United States, he continued to write, began to have more work published, and became part of the Harlem Renaissance, the cultural and arts movement of the 1920’s in New York City. A prolific writer, Hughes wove the influences of jazz and spirituals into his poetry and collaborated on musicals and operas. He also wrote plays and edited and translated, always working at a frantic pace.
Gale - Free Resources - Black History Month - Biographies - Langston Hughes
http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/hughes_l.htm
There is no documentation that this important Chinese philosopher and author of the Tao-te Ching is historical. The stories about him date from the 6th century B.C.E., and the name Lao Tzu can be translated as “old person or old philosopher.” Confucius lived during this time, so Confucianism and Taoism begin at the same time. The Tao can be defined as the way the universe functions naturally, and Taoists believe that humans must give up all striving and allow nature to proceed without effort.
Lao-tzu -- Encyclopædia Britannica
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=48250&tocid=0&query=lao%20tzu&ct=
Born in Chile, this Nobel Prize winner traveled the world and was active in many political and social causes. When he protested government policies in Chile, he was forced to hide and eventually to live in exile for three years. His real name is Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, but he changed it in memory of a Czechoslovakian poet named Jan Neruda. His epic work, entitled Canto General, is about all of South America, its people and its nature, and includes 250 poems in 15 literary cycles.
Richard Wright (1908-1960)
Born to an illiterate sharecropper and a well-educated teacher on a plantation in Mississippi, Wright grew up in poverty and endured a difficult family life as a child. Moving north, Wright lived in Chicago and New York City where he was active in the Communist Party. He broke with the Communist ideology, moved to Paris, and became a French citizen but traveled all over the world. Best known for his novel, Native Son, he also wrote nonfiction and other fictional works as well as two volumes of autobiography. In his later years, Wright wrote approximately 4000 haiku, all the while suffering from ill health and financial trouble!
MWP Richard Wright (1908-1960)
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/wright_richard/