Laura Ligon `14 interviews Dahlak Brathwaite and Daveed Diggs

Laura Ligon '14 interviews Dahlak Brathwaite and Daveed Diggs about "Word
Becomes Flesh" (July 18)
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Posted by andychatfield
(Left to right): Dahlak Brathwaite, Michael Turner, Daveed Diggs, and Khalil Anthony
in “Word Becomes Flesh.” Photo by Jati Lindsay, Hip-Hop Theater Festival.
Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance Intern Laura Ligon '14 speaks with performers Dahlak
Brathwaite and Daveed Diggs about Marc Bamuthi Joseph's "Word Becomes Flesh," which will receive its
New England premiere at Wesleyan on Thursday, July 18, 2013 at 8pm, in this entry from the Center for
the Arts blog.
Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s critically acclaimed Word Becomes Flesh is a refreshingly different approach to
theater. The show combines aspects from hip hop, spoken word, dance, and Mr. Joseph’s own personal
experiences of maturation to create a deeply moving and intense performance. Recently Word Becomes
Flesh has been reworked as an ensemble show from its 2003 debut as a solo work originally performed
by Mr. Joseph.
Word Becomes Flesh is presented as letters from a man, Mr. Joseph himself, to his unborn son. I spoke
with performers Dahlak Brathwaite and Daveed Diggs about their experience in performing another man’s
work. “The one thing that we all experience is a birth story, either about ourselves or others,” commented
Mr. Brathwaite. Not only are we all connected through our birth stories, but also our personal maturing
experiences. For ensemble member Mr. Diggs, “more globally, it’s about growing up.” Whereas Word
Becomes Flesh is the exact story of one man’s personal experience, it is also telling the tale of an entire
community, and gives voice to the male perspective of childbirth, a voice that is not often heard.
Mr. Joseph directs the five performers, each of whom shares a strong connection with the play. “At an
age when I’m stepping into manhood, and adulthood, it was easy for me to relate to the piece,”
commented Mr. Brathwaite. “Bamuthi incorporated the performers’ experiences in re-working the show.
[The ensemble] didn’t have to try hard to fit our story in, his story was already our story; we just wrote the
details. There are so many moments when his truth is so fine and personal that it speaks volumes, there
are always multiple access points,” said Mr. Brathwaite.
Word Becomes Flesh is intense, meaningful and expressive. Mr. Brathwaite commented that “the writer,
the listener, the audience members find themselves grasping at the elements of the piece—themes of
fear, judgment and maturity.” What was a once a solo work demands even more attention as an
ensemble piece; the addition of the ensemble adds an intensity that cannot be ignored. “The audience
gets more shakes when we dance, more colors in our voices, our youth, our energy, our own kind of
charisma,” noted Mr. Brathwaite.
http://middletowneyenews.blogspot.com/2013/07/left-to-right-dahlak-brathwaite-michael.html
Word Becomes Flesh takes a Minneapolis bow
by Rohan Preston under “theater”
April 21, 2013
It’s a pity that “Word Becomes Flesh” had such a short engagement at Minneapolis’ Intermedia Arts over
the weekend.
More people needed to have had an opportunity to see Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s potent and absorbing
hip hop choreopoem about fatherhood, love, history and the present.
The show, performed by a lyrical quintet of spoken word artists and dancers, is more than an updated
male version of Ntozake Shange’s landmark “For Colored Girls.”
Joseph, a Walker Art Center favorite, crafted the piece a decade ago after a spiritual pilgrimage to West
Africa. “Word” is a sequence of letters written by a father to an unborn son. The show offers advice and
explanations in monologues. It has deft word play, using elaborate rhymes and subtle repetition to extend
and sometimes contradict meanings.
The five performers — Daveed Diggs, Dahlak Brathwaite, Ben Turner, Mic Turner andB.Yung — take
turns embodying their vignettes. They are committed and heartfelt in their performances, delivering with
honesty.
It is a hip hop-inflected show —deejay Dion Decibels is an essential part of the team — but it’s not about
pose or swag or the masks of the form. It’s a deep exploration of symbols and archetypes as they affect
the present and the future. In other words, it is well worth a longer airing.
http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/blogs/203990021.html
Word Becomes Flesh
by Ben Demers
March 24, 2013
Word Becomes Flesh offers a gripping journey through the trying conditions affecting black
father-son relations. The production, here for 3 performances only (it closes today) at the Atlas
Performing Arts Center, is a dynamite blend of spoken word, dancing, singing, and DJ skills.
The multitalented cast uses bracing artistry to diagram the fear and wonder of impending
fatherhood while attacking the parental neglect and self-destruction plaguing black communities
across the United States.
Celebrated artist and educator Marc Bamuthi Joseph conceived Word Becomes Flesh several years
ago as a series of interconnected monologues, songs, and dance numbers, and has adapted
each successive production to the unique voices and talents of his cycling cast. Thus, the show
does not follow a specific plot or tone but unfolds instead as a fluid meditation on black family
and culture.
Performers Dahlak Brathwaite, Daveed Diggs,
Khalil Anthony, Michael Wayne Turner III, and B.
Yung offer a diverse slate of communal dance
numbers and intimate monologues, all linked by
DJ Dion Reiner-Guzman’s scintillating beats and
sampling.
Members of the cast of Word Becomes Flesh
(Photo:Atlas Arts)
The show opens as a kaleidoscope of balletic
motion and rapidly shifting lights, as cast
members chase each other around the stage to
simulate fathers fleeing from their sons’
outstretched arms. Soon some of the performers
take up positions behind a keyboard and drum
pad, buttressing the DJ’s beats and lending a
rhythmic urgency to the unfolding chase scene.
But just as quickly as it begins, the performers
desert the stage, leaving Daveed Diggs all alone
at center stage.
Diggs artfully details an indiscretion that changed everything on a sweltering summer day in New York
City . He mentions familiar issues of fidelity and temptation and turns two differently hued spotlights into
competing love interests through sheer conviction and charisma. Through a dizzying verbal barrage, his
early swagger gives way to brutal honesty, revealing a scared young man totally unready to raise a child.
After Brooklyn poet and rapper B. Yung unloads a hard-driving polemic against the rampant
disenfranchisement of young blacks, the cast comes together for the show’s most captivating number.
Bathed in lighting designer Haldun Morgan’s eerie green and red hues, the group contort their bodies and
shamble slowly across the stage. They reveal they are the demons behind the ruinous and rampant thug
mentality, and unfurl a mythical family tree counting capitalism, racism, and ignorance among its
branches. It’s a bravura sequence of storytelling and creativity, which Joseph has used to great effect to
enlighten students around the U.S.
Later, Dahlak Brathwaite takes hip hop culture to task in an entertaining collaboration with the limber
Turner. Brathwaite humorously inveighs against the misogyny and preening of the rap scene, while
Turner busts out an array of smooth moves straight from the club. Both work in tandem to take the rap
machine down a peg, advocating a return to the respectful lyrics and romantic archetypes of soul and
Motown eras. The playful number provides a welcome complement to the earlier seriousness by utilizing
humor to undermine negative stereotypes.
After several more winning sequences, the cast, led by Khalil Anthony, wrap their journey with a calming
reflection on the wonder of bringing new life into the world. Framed by a striking red glow, the performers
dig deep and remind the audience that the simple act of becoming a father trumps all the previous noise.
It’s an important moment to bring the audience of the central father-son relationship, which occasionally
gets lost in more general explorations of black culture.
Despite the wandering through-line of Word Becomes Flesh, the journey is well worth it. The words,
dance, song, lights, and music create a dreamlike playground for the all-pro team of performers to ply
their craft.
The roster of fiercely independent solo artists converges into a cohesive whole that is much greater than
just the sum of its parts. Finally, the central premise of strengthening families and communities provides a
rallying point for audience members of all stripes.
http://dctheatrescene.com/2013/03/24/word-becomes-flesh/
‘Word Becomes Flesh’ at Atlas Performing Arts Center
and Theater Alliance by Jessica Vaughan
by Jessica Vaughan
March 23, 2013
“Welcome to the spoken world.” Thus begins a one of a kind performance piece by Marc Bamuthi Joseph,
an artist, poet, dancer and activist named by the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship as one
of the 50 greatest living artists. He created this piece originally as a one-man show 10 years ago as part
of the Living Word Project, the resident theater company of Youth Speaks, which organizes the
National Youth Poetry Slam. This has been restaged as part of the National Endowment for the Art’s
th
25 Anniversary Re-creation Initiative, this time as a five-man piece. Atlas Performing Arts
Center and Theater Alliance partnered to bring this show to DC.
The story is simplicity itself. A man gets a woman pregnant and tries to prepare himself over the 9 months
before the birth. Each performer has written a piece for the play of his own experiences with his father or
becoming a father and they weave seamlessly between wordless dances and Bamuthi’s pieces. The
opening night audience was diverse and multi-generational and quickly got into the action clapping and
snapping.
The performers are Dahlak Brathwaite, Daveed
Diggs, Khalil Anthony, Michael Wayne Turner III,
and B. Yung. They are actors, hip-hop artists,
rappers, spoken word experts, poets, and
dancers. Some have greater skill in one area or
another, but they are all strong, fearless
performers, given the vulnerability of poetry
coupled with the intensely personal and potentially
explosive subject.
In the tradition of the best art, they lay bare what
everyone understands but no one speaks.
Racism, gun violence, absent fathers, abortion,
marriage, and gender are all faced, but not
gratuitously and not for politics, rather as the lived
experience of each performer. Bamuthi also does
not shy away from the larger issues and updated
the play for events of today; mentioning Chris
Brown at one point or at another saying, “They
fired 10,000 teachers and built more jails.”
DJ Dion Reiner-Guzman creates the soundtrack
onstage and a fun part of the show happens
before it even starts hearing him at work. Turner
assisted the most with the choreography of the
piece. The dancing is physical and almost violent
– filled with sprinting and pushups and sharp
moves.
Haldun Morgan designs the lighting and since the
stage is bare but for the DJ’s stand at the back and all of the dancers are barefoot and dressed in
simple black, his design does most of the visual
work, saturating the white backdrop with primary colors and spotlighting each performer. It is very much a
part of the piece as sometimes a performer leaps into the dark only to find another spotlight.
The play begins with an energetic piece that has each performer addressing “heartbeat,” his unborn child
and then his own father between bouts of energetic dancing. The play slows down as a more traditional
narrative begins and the man (played by each performer in turn) describes meeting a woman, finding out
she’s pregnant, finding out it’s a boy, debating marriage, debating abortion, and debating regret. At one
point, the man says, “If everyone who had children was good and ready when they did, there’d be three
people on this planet.”
Those solos are interspersed with more group dances and group poetry. There are two strong pieces at
the beginning detailing the woman’s choice of abortion or having the child and another about the man’s
choice of whether to stay or go. I’d never thought about it in those terms. The dance of the actual birth
itself is an incredible piece where the only sound onstage is the men breathing. Strangely, that has
become a man’s main job during birth. Other pieces address the wider world, for instance in one about
the hip-hop generation they bemoan “one night stands by one hit wonders” and what those artists teach
about women.
The strongest piece of the night and one of the most amazing pieces of performance art probably will see
in my life was called “N***** Mentality,” basically a description of the birth of the n-word. The performers
began the piece dancing like animals morphing slowly into men – wearing suits or shooting hoops and
more – as they trace a family tree through greed and hatred that birth ignorance and self-hatred and
slavery and on through the generations. The final frozen image of that piece will haunt me for a very long
time.
Above and beyond the fearless presentation, the words and rhymes themselves are awesome – in the
literal sense of the word – they inspire awe. An ultrasound is described as “an image of blue sound.” Each
artist is a powerful performer in their own right and Bamuthi really may turn out to be one of the greats of
this age. What he does with words and actors is breathtaking, but history aside, this is just a really good,
really powerful play done by very talented performers.
http://www.dcmetrotheaterarts.com/2013/03/23/word-become-flesh-at-atlas-performing-arts-center-andtheater-alliance-by-jessica-vaughan2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordbecome-flesh-at-atlas-performing-arts-center-and-theater-alliance-by-jessica-vaughan2
BLOGS
Marc Bamuthi Joseph and the Living Word Project:
Word Becomes Flesh - Segerstrom Center - Jan. 31,
2013
By Lilledeshan Bose // Friday, February 1, 2013
Xuong at Happy Photos
Marc Bamuthi Joseph and the Living Word Project: Word Becomes Flesh, Segerstrom Center
Jan. 31, 2013
"Our skin don't translate well here."
One of the lines from "Word Becomes Flesh," a performance that's part of Segerstrom Center's Off
Festival programming, could've been tailor-made for Orange County -- a place where people pretend
racism doesn't exist, but KKK members are commemorated in park, building and street names. It's set on
a bare stage, performed by a DJ and five black men in black sweats and tank tops delivering
monologues. It sounds simple, but it's not.
"Word Becomes Flesh" didn't need much beyond a bare stage and minimal stage lighting. It's simplicity
only emphasized the story of a man talking to his unborn son, trying to make sense how his own life
would hold up to the lifelong commitment of fatherhood. But following his life -- as an abandoned child, as
a black man, as someone in love with not-the-mother of his child -- through an intense hour-long play,
was a joy. The verbal play was complex, the ideas challenging, the emotions high. Even the jokes (yes,
there's a dead-on Nicki Minaj impersonation) were cerebral.
"Word Becomes Flesh" uses poetry, dance and hip-hop to present a series of letters to unborn son,
documenting the nine months from a young, single dad's perspective. As mundane and cliche as it
sounds -- it's not. Called a "choreoplay," it seamlessly moves from interpretative dance to slam poetry,
weaving in and out of topics such as social issues and personal angst, using hip-hop music to emphasize
and delineate movement and punctuations in the performance.
As a new parent myself, I found many of the fears expressed in the play to be totally relatable.
Our experiences -- I hate to say universal -- are crazily similar when faced with the fears of bringing in a
new life to the world.
But I marveled at how different every perception of creation is for
each person. Sure, every dad-to-be expresses relief at having a
son over a daughter (you don't have to be so paranoid about
keeping them safe) but not every dad worries about his child being
discriminated against, held up or shot because of the color of their
skin.
And the poetry was so good -- I wanted to commit so many lines to
memory.
On meeting the mother of his child: "Her crescent eyes flipped my
earth"
On raising a black man: "Your mere existence is a conflict."
On the ambivalence of fatherhood: "If parents only had children
when they were good and ready there would be a total of three
children in the world."
On his experiences with his own father: "I'm wishing you away so I
won't have to run."
"Word Becomes Flesh" was written by award-winning poet Marc Bamuthi Joseph, and then recreated for
a cast by the The Living Word Project, the resident theater company of Youth Speaks Inc. Youth Speaks
is a nonprofit organization that seeks to empower the youth through art -- mostly through theater and
spoken-word. According to DJ Dion Decibels, Joseph -- who is also the artistic director emeritus of The
Living Word Project -- worked with almost all of the cast previously and scouted them through various
Youth Speaks programs across the country. Everyone in the cast is a rapper, DJ, actor and writer as well.
The performance started with a child's heartbeat, was sustained by poetry, movement and intensity,
ended with love. It sounds corny, from a new parent, but it's true. Even if you haven't experienced the joy
of creating your own little mini-mes, "Word Becomes Flesh" will lead you to your own epiphanies. With the
standing ovation the cast got at the end of the play, it seemed that everyone in the audience felt the same
way.
"Word Becomes Flesh," 8:30 p.m., Feb. 1 and Feb. 2, Samueli Theater,Segerstrom Center for the Arts
600 Town Center Drive Costa Mesa.
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/heardmentality/2013/02/marc_bamuthi_joseph_and_the_li.php
ARTS SARASOTA, HERALD TRIBUNE
Theater Review: Poetry and motion give birth to
moving show at Ringling
By Jay Handelman // Friday, January 25, 2013
A throbbing, rhythmic explosion of passion, fear, excitement and humor punctuates the often riveting
performance of “Word Becomes Flesh,” the opening offering in Ringling Museum’s intriguing New Stages
2013: Narrative in Motion at the Historic Asolo Theater.
It’s a lively introduction to four productions that break down barriers among art forms, at least for those
more accustomed to traditional styles of dance, theater and poetry.
“Word Becomes Flesh” originated as a solo show by creator and
director Marc Bamuthi Joseph, who later turned it into a group
show with five actor/dancers and a DJ who now perform the
hour-long show.
Marc Bamuthi Joseph talks of creating
'Word Becomes Flesh
It is a blend of theatrical ingenuity, hip hop, movement and a
touch of Def Poetry.
It tells the story of Joseph’s experiences as an expectant father
Marc Bamuthi Joseph's "Word Becomes Flesh"
and how he learned of the pregnancy after cheating on his
girlfriend and falling for someone else. In the months leading up opens the Ringling's "New Stage: Narrative in
Motion" series. / Photo courtesy Ringling Museum
to his son’s birth, the father runs through a gamut of emotions,
mostly built around his fear of following in the footsteps of his
own absent father, or worse, falling into some kind of a stereotype.
You also see a growing sense of pride, a changing of attitudes, the building of an inner strength as he
sees sonogram images and hears the rapid heartbeat of the unborn child. Suddenly, the father starts
thinking about the future, but there’s always a nagging concern of reconciling his dreams and desires, the
reality of a break-up, and doing the right thing.
Ringling explores styles in New Stages series
The show is a dancer and actor’s version of writing letters to this unborn child, sharing thoughts that the
son might come to appreciate when he reaches adulthood.
The five vibrant performers — Dahlak Brathwaite, Daveed Diggs, Khalil Anthony, Michael Wayne Turner
III and B. Yung — take turns leading the 12 movements that make up the show, as others writhe, jump,
bounce and perform calisthenics-like moves in often shadowy pools of light.
The movements are perfectly synced with the storytelling, shifting from gentle to an occasional rush of
thoughts and feelings that come crashing together or bursting like a fireworks display built from flailing
arms and legs.
Through the show, the DJ Dion Reiner-Guzman, backs the performers (who occasionally pause to help)
with musical riffs, rhythmic pulses and the constant thump of a heartbeat.
For many, this will be a different way of storytelling. It’s not necessarily ground-breaking, except in a more
tradition-bound community like Sarasota. With this series and other recent programs highlighting
contemporary art, the Ringling Museum’s Art of Our Time initiative is making it easier for audiences to
appreciate the new the way they do the old.
The text has remained the same in this new version, but
the five performers who will appear in Sarasota have
added their own touches of choreography and music.
“It’s a new context, a new capacity and working within
the context of an ensemble.”
The production is performed by Dahlak Brathwaite,
Daveed Diggs, Dion Decibels, Khalil Anthony, Michael
Turner and B. Yung.
"Word Becomes Flesh" is a dance theater piece about an
expectant father in the months before the birth of his first
child. PHOTO PROVIDED BY RINGLING MUSEUM
http://arts.heraldtribune.com/2013-01-25/featured/theater-review-poetry-and-motion-give-birth-to-movingshow-at-ringling/
ARTS SARASOTA, HERALD TRIBUNE
Expectant father shares his conflicted feelings in
'Word Becomes Flesh'
th
By Jay Handelman // Sunday January 20 2013
You might say that Marc Bamuthi Joseph celebrated the birth of his first child three different ways.
There was the actual birth, of course, but also the creation of a one-man dance/theater piece he called
“Word Becomes Flesh.” That was more than a decade ago.
And then there was what might be called the third birth, two
or three years ago, when he and several other men turned
that solo piece into a group performance that helped the
story grow, just like the child it celebrated.
Ringling Museum tries to build an audience for edgy
performances
Some expectant parents write letters to their unborn children,
trying to capture everything they’re feeling before birth for the
child to read later in life.
"Word Becomes Flesh," Marc Bamuthi Joseph's
performance narrative about nine months of pregnancy
documented from a young single father's perspective,
kicks off the Ringling Museum's Time "New Stages"
series. PHOTO PROVIDED BY RINGLING MUSEUM
Joseph’s son, M’kai, now 11, only had to watch his father perform to see and understand his thoughts
and feelings because he put them on the stage.
“It really was about finding a platform that made sense in terms of open communication, and this was the
way I felt I could communicate openly and honestly at that time,” Joseph said in a telephone interview.
The new troupe of performers will bring the expanded and revised version of “Word Becomes Flesh” to
the Historic Asolo Theater Thursday night for a weekend of performances that open the Ringling
Museum’s first New Stages series.
The show details a story about the months that followed Joseph cheating on his pregnant girlfriend along
with his fears and concerns about what will happen to the soon-to-be-born child.
Trying to find the words to describe performance art
The New Stages series is a collection of performances (including Bill Bowers, “Leo” and choreographer
Kate Weare’s company) that break down some of the genre barriers that can divide audiences and
artists.
Some people call it performance art; others see these
productions as new styles of theater, dance or spoken word.
Joseph, who lives in Oakland, Calif., has no qualms describing
his work as dance theater, and it’s important, he said, to have
“the right terminology so we can communicate across wide
geographies and the public.”
Marc Bamuthi Joseph created "Word Becomes Flesh" as
a solo piece and then worked with other artists to make it
a group program. COURTESY PHOTO
But what he considers dance theater and how another artist views it may not be the same thing,
determined, in part, by demographics.
“I approach dance theater from a hip hop generation,” said Joseph, who was born in 1975 in New York
City. “It’s not just the music. It’s everything that was present in that time, from Reaganomics to the onset
of AIDS to the fall of the Berlin Wall to the end of apartheid. These are macro-geopolitical issues that
have informed my consciousness.”
Someone born even a few years before or after would look at life with a slightly different perspective and
cultural reference points.
His generation, he said, “has less of a hold on strict hierarchies or assumptions on what anything is
supposed to be, particularly what art is supposed to be.”
That could explain the difficulty arts presenters and some audiences have in discussing and describing
work that they present or see. Some audiences are reluctant to experience work they can’t easily
categorize; others have trouble just talking about it if they don’t know exactly what it is that they’ve seen.
It’s not that artists like Joseph are seeking to break the rules that have been long established in the
performing arts.
“It’s not a Jackie Robinson kind of moment,” he said. “I think what’s happening artistically is an outgrowth
of more of generational environment. It’s more a dissatisfaction with the present. A violin will be used
differently in 2013 than it was in 1813. It’s the same strings, the same sound, but environmentally, we’re
just in a different place.
The text has remained the same in this new version, but
the five performers who will appear in Sarasota have
added their own touches of choreography and music.
“It’s a new context, a new capacity and working within
the context of an ensemble.”
The production is performed by Dahlak Brathwaite,
Daveed Diggs, Dion Decibels, Khalil Anthony, Michael
Turner and B. Yung.
"Word Becomes Flesh" is a dance theater piece about an
expectant father in the months before the birth of his first
child. PHOTO PROVIDED BY RINGLING MUSEUM
The Washington Post said that while many choreographers attempt to tackle social issues, “few
interweave their own stories in a way that makes sense. ‘Word Becomes Flesh’ isn’t a groundbreaking
dance work, but as a performance piece, it makes for a searing, satisfying evening.”
Joseph, who has been dancing since he was a child — he understudied Savion Glover in the Broadway
production of “The Tap Dance Kid” and toured nationally in the show — said it wasn’t hard to let go and
have others performing his creation.
For one, it’s a new piece, even if the text remains the same.
“The catharsis doesn’t come from performance,” he said. “It comes through the process of writing the
work itself. One of the many things I’m able to let go of is the autobiography of these letters, so as to
release them more. If they’re not universal truths, they’re universally accessible truths, which is to say that
we all have a birth story. It’s just been released now onto five other bodies, and I think the narrative
actually gains wider agency and wider accessibility because you’re not tracking one person’s trial or
process through pregnancy.”
To view a video sample of Word Becomes Flesh, select this link
ARTS PREVIEW
“Word Becomes Flesh” is the opening attraction of the Ringling Museum’s New Stages: Narrative in
Motion series. It will be presented 7:30 p.m. Jan. 24-26. Subsequent performances are “Beyond Words”
by Bill Bowers, Feb. 7-9; “LEO” by Circle of Eleven, Feb. 21-23; Kate Weare Company, March 7-9.
Tickets are $15-$25, with subscriptions available. In addition, choreographer Elizabeth Weil Bergmann
will present “ViewPoint: The Interplay Between Music and Dance” at 10:30 a.m. Jan. 19, and the FSU
Dance Theatre will perform March 22 and 23. For more information; 360-7399; ringling.org
http://arts.heraldtribune.com/2013-01-20/featured/expectant-father-shares-his-conflicted-feelings-in-wordbecomes-flesh/
REVIEW: ‘Word Becomes Flesh’ becomes epiphany for
audiences of all ages
by Wallace Chappell :: UPDATED: 21 September 2012 | 10:16 am
IOWA CITY — Hancher Auditorium kicked off
of its 40th anniversary season in ambitious
fashion with the presentation of “Word
Becomes Flesh,” by Marc Bamuthi Joseph. It
opened Thursday night (9/20/12) in the
University of Iowa’s Space Place Theatre,
and repeats at 7:30 p.m. Friday (9/21/12).
The work has been touring around the
country, well-supported by presenters and
foundations, and is an expansion of an earlier
work by Joseph.
The play’s story is told by five young black men, all of whom speak directly to the audience in
slam-poetry style: a muscular style of address. This poetry is not subtle, but has its own lyricism,
its own impact: the words are like pile drivers breaking rocks.
The performance style is earnest, vulnerable, clearly spoken. Billed as a “choreopoem,” its
most effective aspect is the speaking of the words. The choreography is tailored to the skills of
the performers and offers a bit of break dancing, a bit of Ailey-style modern dance. The music is
terrific, in the hands of a talented tuntablist.
But, it’s all about the words:
“Every day begins
with a black man
on the run.
As soon as the sun threatens to rise in the morning sky
Dark grayish blues orange-red hues
Early to rise, early to run.
And orange-red hues are used effectively in the theatrical lighting for the performance. We enter
into a night club atmosphere, with hot color on the cyclorama. Later on the silhouette of a
performer appears to catch on fire, burning him up in the passionate atmosphere.
The poetry at times reaches out for rhapsody, as one of the young men speaks of his lover:
“I am nearly 23
We meet
It’s perfect
She moves across the continent
We struggle through
Together
Our love a castle built for revelation
She is my Ailey dancer in perpetual flight
My night come to life
My light.”
The evening is centered on “performed letters from a father to an unborn son.” As the father
confronts the world his son will inherit, and the responsibility for that son that the father will
have. The author seeks to bring the experience of young black men in America into focus, as
the father imagines a painful, uncertain future for his son. The poetry of Langston Hughes, the
fiction of Ralph Ellison, the history of Harriet Tubman and Nelson Mandela help to define the
world that is ahead.
The young audience for Thursday’s performance was remarkably attentive: not texting, not
taking pictures, not moving. They stood up instantly to applaud the performance. This is the kind
of event that can act as epiphany, as a life-changing event: not only for what it says, but how it
says it. The word “relevant” seems puny here. I only wish the play could run for a month, and
that every high school and college student could experience it. It is “necessary” art, not for an
elite, but for all of us.
For the record, the devoted young actors are Dahlak Brathwaite, Daveed Diggs, Kahlil Anthony,
Michael Wayne Turner III and B. Young. The turntablist is Dion Reiner-Guzman. Support by the
Natonal Endowment for the Arts American Masterpieces is entirely justified by their work, and
by the artistry of Marc Bamuthi Joseph.
Congratulations to the Hancher staff for bringing this company to Iowa. As has become
customary for Hancher, this talented ensemble has had quality contact in an educational fashion
with both town and gown. The influence of this work will extend far beyond the borders of
Johnson County. A fitting way to begin Hancher’s 40th anniversary!
Freelance reviewer Wallace Chappell of Iowa City served as Hancher’s executive director from
1986 to 2001. After that, he moved to New York City to head up the American Ballet Theatre for
three years, then the Paul Taylor Dance Company for four. He has since returned to Iowa City,
where he is again immersing himself in Eastern Iowa’s arts scene.
http://hooplanow.com/2012/09/21/review-word-becomes-flesh/
Hancher celebrates the kickoff of its 40th season with 'choreopoem'
By Emma McClathchey // Sept 20, 2012
Some people are able to identify a specific
moment in their lives — the moment — when they
felt themselves transition from a kid into an adult.
For award-winning writer Marc Bamuthi Joseph,
this instance came when he found out he was
going to be a father, and that served as inspiration
for the “choreopoem” Word Becomes Flesh.
Hancher will feature Bamuthi’s provocative show
at 7:30 p.m. today and Friday in North Hall’s
Space/Place to open its 40th Anniversary season.
“I think it’s a great way to start interest in our performances because, as with everything we
present, it is made of exceptional craft and artistry,” Hancher Programming Director Jacob
Yarrow said. “In addition to being a very powerful, visceral show, it is entertaining and also has
numerous themes and issues that are relevant to contemporary life.”
Word Becomes Flesh features five performers from the Living Word Project and an onstage DJ,
who use interpretive music, dance, and “slam-style” poetry readings to tell the story of an
expectant single father over the nine months of pregnancy. The show also addresses issues of
ethnicity and prejudice, youth, patriarchy, “hip-hop culture,” and other themes.
“The performance is very much alive, especially on a college campus,” said performer Daveed
Diggs, a theater graduate of Brown University. “The body speaks as much as the words. Hip-hop
is relevant, because we’ve grown up with these influences on our art and thought, as a sort of
birthright. We’ve all been through personal things, and it’s exciting to see [how the audience will]
take it.”
Performer Khalil Anthony, an Emmy-winning artist living in Brooklyn, said Word Becomes Flesh
presents its controversial themes from a unique perspective.
“What disconnects me from my country is media’s portrayal of hip-hop and black art,” the
performer said. “I feel like hip-hop is lens for someone else’s gaze. What makes this piece
special and diverse is that it’s a story from five black men who all have their own backgrounds
and views, instead of being the drones everyone says we should be.”
Performer Michael Wayne Turner III, a Texas native and touring poet, musician, and artist, said
the story behind Word Becomes Flesh rang close to home. After learning he would become a
father at the age of 18, he said, Bamuthi Joseph’s work helped him sort through the confusing,
“carnal” experience.
“This piece saved my life,” he said. “It’s so honest and real. It showed me I’m a good enough
somebody to be something. There are fear and love on both sides, and it’s like, What are you
going to lean to? We are the sole architects of our lives. This show was an unfinished blueprint,
and I built my life on that framework.”
Feeling that others on the University of Iowa campus could learn from this message as well, the
Hancher staff organized a series of meetings for the performers and various UI classes during
the week. They visited an African-American literature class, an advanced playwriting class, and
an Anthropology and Contemporary World Problems lecture, among others, performing portions
of Word Becomes Flesh and dissecting its themes with the groups.
“Everyone’s so passionate at this age—when you are able to spark a dialogue, it’s so rich and
ripe,” said performer Dahlak Brathwaite, a multifaceted hip-hop artist from Sacramento, Calif. “I
remember feeling in my last years of college that my youth was slipping away. I’ve heard the line
‘Old for youth, young for life’ — confronting that is a big theme in this play and for me.”
Turner said the discussions provoked by art are one of the biggest reasons he chose to go into
theater.
“To engage people, and then break it down, is important,” he said. “It’s the best way to learn
about something. The art itself isn’t enough. When we analyze honest, genuine expression, we
can find the core of the magnified picture, and I love it; I love the college age.”
Hancher Executive Director Charles Swanson said having more interaction among the
performers and the community is one of the ways the Hancher staff hopes to “enrich the
education” of a diverse audience.
“It really goes beyond a performance,” he said. “We want to engage University of Iowa students
and people in the community and have them have the experience of working with some of the
world’s finest artists.”
Brathwaite said he and fellow cast members will not only offer information to but absorb
information from the Iowa City community. He said they can learn a lot about local culture not
only through public discussions but by measuring audiences’ responses to Word Becomes Flesh
from the time the curtain goes up.
“We’re learning just as much as the audience, just by listening to their reactions to the show,” he
said. “When we hear sniffles, laughter, shouts of joy — that’s a performance in itself.”
Although Hancher has attracted thousands of artists and audience members to its program
during the last 40 years, it has met its fair share of challenges. After losing Hancher Auditorium
— its location from the early 1970s till the June 2008 flood — the performing-arts center has had
to move its programming to various other smaller facilities.
“We’re working very hard to pair artists with the venues that suit them that are available to us and
create really special experiences at those places,” Yarrow said. “We’re really proud of how we’ve
been able to continue to work with the great artists of the world and the great audiences in Iowa
City and create magical experiences — still.”
As successful as the last 40 years have been, Swanson said, he has high expectations for the
next 40 as well, starting with the design plans for the new Hancher Auditorium. He hopes
construction on the new facility, which is in its third design phase, will begin around 2016, he
said.
“When the first Hancher was built 40 years ago, nobody knew what Hancher was or what that
word meant,” he said. “Now, we’re designing this building based on 40 years of history and
experience. This building has the ability to take us far into the 21st century.”
But, Swanson said, Hancher’s original philosophy will remain unaltered.
“Hancher started off with this broad range of programming, and we really have not changed that
approach,” he said. “There are some traditions we always want to hold.”
This includes exposing the Iowa City community to shows such as *Word Becomes Flesh* that
go beyond verses and music to help illustrate life’s most influential moments.
“When you come across a piece of work that’s transformative, it acts as a catalyst to your life,”
Anthony said. “Especially on a college campus, people want to find that something that changes
and moves them.”
To view a photo slideshow of Word Becomes Flesh:
http://www.dailyiowan.com/slideshow/0920words/index.html
http://www.dailyiowan.com/2012/09/20/Arts/29889.html
press-citizen.com
The uncertainty of parenthood
'Word Becomes Flesh' combines music, dance, hip-hop to explore single
fatherhood
By Alesha L. Crews // 7:03 PM, Sep 18, 2012
Marc Bamuthi Joseph's 'Word Becomes Flesh' comes to Iowa City at 7:30 p.m. today and Friday at
Space Place Theater as part of Hancher's 2012-13 season.
Photo: Jati Lindsay / Hip-Hop Theater Festival
Inspirational hip-hop artist Dahlak Brathwaite first saw Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s one-man show “Word
Becomes Flesh” seven years ago.
“It was the first time I saw anything like that… and I was crazy inspired, and I really wanted to do
something like that,” he said.
The theatrical narrative — which is structured as letters to an unborn child — combines live music, dance,
spoken word and hip-hop culture to explore Joseph’s experience becoming a young, single father in the
black community.
The show has evolved since Brathwaite first saw it, and now features a DJ and five performers — one of
whom happens to be Brathwaite. Joseph now directs the piece and works with each performer to infuse
his personality and experiences into the script.
Hancher is bringing the updated piece to Iowa City to kick off its 2012-13 season, which opens today.
Rob Cline, Hancher’s director of marketing and communications, said Hancher has been working for
years to showcase Joseph’s work because, as Cline describes, Joseph is one of the most exciting people
working in theater.
“He is one of those artists that fits perfectly into what we think of as one of Hancher’s many roles, which is
to bring the best current, contemporary artists doing the most interesting work and to make that work
available to the people in our community,” Cline said.
Brathwaite said that although the show is based on a very personal experience, it is relatable to anybody
in the audience who has been faced with the uncertainty that arises when faced with becoming a parent.
He said the piece also works to “enlighten non-brown or black folks about the cultural nuances of the
struggles of becoming a parent as a minority in this country” in a culture that may be violent or destructive
at times.
press-citizen.com
“I think it relates and educates those who don’t have that particular struggle, and I think it talks very
soulfully and specifically to folks that understand that, and it feels like we’re telling their story,” he said.
Cline said there is a certain power and authority and also an undeniable beauty to the way the language
unfolds throughout the performance.
“This is a community that is in love with words, and this is a fellow who knows how to wield those very
effectively. So I think it is a perfect fit both in terms of Hancher programming and how it works in this
community,” Cline said.
Brathwaite said he hopes the performance helps the audience process the emotions and fears that come
along with parenthood.
“I just hope that they learn something or they feel something,” he said. “For me, the purpose of art all the
time is to allow the audience or the listener to recognize the truth that they always believed or always
thought but were never really able to express or identify.”
http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20120920/GOIOWACITY/309200005/The-uncertainty-parenthood
Word Becomes Flesh: Letters to unborn son capture human
experience through hip-hop lens
by Diana Nollen :: UPDATED: 13 September 2012 | 5:00 pm
Hancher is launching its 2012-13 season with
a modern twist on an ancient art form.
It’s a spoken-word performance that
embraces body and soul, born in the
theatrical verse of Sophocles and
Shakespeare and reborn in the hip-hop
streets of New York about the time creator
Marc Bamuthi Joseph was born.
His much heralded piece, “Word Becomes
Flesh,” hits the University of Iowa’s Space
Place Theater for two performances Sept. 20
and 21, 2012
Described as “critical and political, haunting and poetic,” Joseph says his hourlong work is “a
meditation on pregnancy from a father’s perspective,” incorporating music, contemporary dance
and verse.
“It’s a rare pop cultural moment where five diverse, really smart and attractive black men use a
very personal and ritualistic space to examine manhood in the 21st century through the lens of
the pregnant moment,” Joseph, 36, says by phone from his home in Oakland, Calif.
“It’s dramatic theater that references modern dance and hip-hop culture and is primarily spoken
in verse, but that doesn’t mean everything rhymes. It’s not ‘Seussical,’ ” he says with a laugh.
“My literary sensibility references poetic and prosaic forms, but I’m a child of hip-hop, so there’s
definitely a sense of percussion, energetic reciprocity, emotional politics that play into the work,
as well.”
“The piece is structured as letters from fathers to unborn sons, so it’s really serious, it’s really
funny. All the men are super fine, so there’s a lot of eye candy, but the material is very
substantive,” he says.
The details
“Word Becomes Flesh” by Marc Bamuthi Joseph
7:30 p.m. Sept. 20 and 21, 2012
Space Place Theater, North Hall, University of Iowa, 20 W. Davenport St., Iowa City
Tickets: $10 to $35, Hancher Box Office, (319) 335-1160, 1-(800) HANCHER or
Hancher.uiowa.edu
Information: Hancher.uiowa.edu/events
“It’s racialized because it’s five black men, but it’s so human,” he says, “because everybody has
a birth story. It’s an extremely accessible way of looking at both fatherhood and motherhood, as
well as the politics of race, class and intergenerational politics.”
It’s also semi-autobiographical, with five men telling one man’s story.
“I wrote ‘Word Becomes Flesh’ in the months before my son was born,” Joseph says, “in part,
because I was going through all these changes and didn’t really have peers I felt like I could talk
to, who would get it, so I started these letters to my son,” who will be 11 in December.
A single dad at the time, Joseph has forged a strong bond his son, a budding writer and
filmmaker with his own YouTube channel.
He’s been part of his life all of his life.
“I just got married a month ago, and my wife has a daughter from a previous relationship, I have
a son from a previous relationship. In my nervousness, I didn’t want to talk to my dad or any of
my friends before the wedding. I wanted to talk to my son. He’s still my sounding board,” Joseph
says.
He describes his blended family as “the best example of a modern family there is.”
“I love our family. I love how we operate,” he says. “His mom is engaged, I’m recently married;
all six of us will have dinner together. It’s pretty great.”
He’s hoping to use his theatrical piece as a teaching tool for audiences.
“There’s an alternative narrative — maybe even a counter narrative to impressions of hip-hop
generation men and our relationship to fatherhood,” he says. “Hip-hop is youth culture, and so
many of us who have grown up in this generation have chosen not to grow up. There’s social
pathology that contributes to that. This, I think, presents a very reflective moment in time that
also happens to traverse these traditions from Greek mythology to Jay-Z. That’s important to
absorb to reflect upon and see.
“I hope audiences get a sense of that continuum and also find themselves somewhere in the
work.”
He’s received lots of viewer comments over the years from women, as well as men.
“The feedback I’ve valued the most was from mothers — particularly single mothers who have
often said to me, ‘I always wanted to know,’ but also from kids that grew up in homes without
fathers,” he says, as well as “from accountable and respectable fathers who just said, ‘Thank
you for telling our story too,’ because if feels like there’s this other part of the narrative,
particularly about black men, that is over-reported.
“But the under-documented story is this story about the fragility of impending fatherhood and the
decision to ultimately be there for your kid. That’s what this particular piece unearths, and does
it in a really stylized and acceptable way,” Joseph says.
A dancer, performer, creator and educator of international acclaim, Joseph got his start in “The
Tap Dance Kid” at age 9, understudying Savion Glover on Broadway before taking over the lead
role for the national tour.
He comes from several generations of teachers and spent many years teaching high school
English before his students dared him to participate in a San Francisco Bay Area poetry slam in
the late ’90s. He stepped on stage, won the competition, then won a national poetry slam in
1999. And a new life path was born.
With many other shows to his credit, he created “Word Becomes Flesh” as a solo work in 2003,
performed it around the world until 2005, then remounted it as a group piece in 2010.
Even though he directed and choreographed the production coming to Iowa City, he won’t be in
town for the shows.
“As much as I love Iowa City — I’ve been to Iowa a number of times — one of the things that’s
great about this work is that I don’t have to be present. The performers are so strong,” he says.
“So much of the strength of this piece is the diversity of lenses the story is told through.”
http://hooplanow.com/2012/09/13/word-becomes-flesh-letters-unborn-son-capture-humanexperience-hip-hop-lens/
New York Theatre Review an indie media outlet for indie theater
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Cameron Page on Word Becomes Flesh, presented by 651 Arts, produced
by the 2012 Under the Radar Festival at the Public Theater
Some plays seem, at first glance, too specific to be successful. “A series of letters to an unborn
son,” for example, falls into this category.
That phrase --- taken from promotional materials for Word Becomes Flesh --- broadcasts a
narrowness of theme that seems bound to alienate certain people. People uninterested in
parenthood, for example (of which there are many in New York City), might think twice before
buying tickets.
But that would be unfortunate. Word Becomes Flesh, an ensemble work of dance, theater, and
hip-hop now playing at the Public Theater as part of the Under the Radar festival, manages to
transcend its stated theme without ever leaving it.
In addition to exploring the father-unborn son relationship, the play touches on abortion, domestic
violence, slavery, infidelity, and even the father-daughter relationship. In less capable hands the
80-minute production might meander or scatter. But Joseph artfully manages to connect each
spoke to the hub of his theme: the challenge of fathering a black child in America.
The piece was written in 2003, when Mr. Joseph’s girlfriend became pregnant. His impending
fatherhood, crashing down on him over weeks and months like a slow-motion tsunami, was the
source of inspiration--- or perhaps source of stress is a better term for it --- that led to Word
Becomes Flesh.
The play dwells on the tug-of-war
between what one should do and what
one wants to do; between the duties of
fatherhood and the impulse to flee
them. Joseph draws a parallel between
this tension and the general condition
of African-Americans today. In a
moving, wordless montage, he
contrasts the anxiety a black man feels
inside with the tie-straightening smile
he is forced to wear in public.
He seems to be telling the men in the audience: If you ever got your girlfriend pregnant, you
understand what it’s like to be black in America.
There’s no shortage of anger in this play: at the crimes of history, at Joseph’s own absent father,
at the myriad injustices that stack the deck against a black male before he is even born. Joseph
manages the trick of expressing this anger on stage, giving full-throated voice to it, bringing it (to
use one of his phrases) into “the spoken world,” without alienating the audience in the process.
Rather than merely shout his anger at us, Joseph rouses in us the anger that enrages him.
But there’s no hint of selfrighteousness here, because
Joseph is willing to shine the harsh
beam of criticism on himself too. He
stares his own flaws in the face,
sharing his darkest thoughts with a
wincingly brutal honesty. In one of
the play’s more uncomfortable
moments, he confesses a dark
fantasy about the mother losing the
child.
The credit for the production’s
success does not all belong with
Mr. Joseph. The ensemble is
uniformly strong, with an impressive
range of dancing and acting abilities throughout. Although Word Becomes Flesh was originally
developed as a monologue, the two- and five-man dance pieces, with their muscular yet smooth
choreography, now seem integral to the work.
There are echoes here of Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide
When the Rainbow is Enuf (which premiered Off-Broadway at the Public Theater in 1976). Not
just the content, but the form: the ensemble is perpetually merging and splitting, joining together
as a group and then addressing the audience
individually. Each nameless actor seems to have his own story, but each of these stories
represents a facet of the author’s self: the faithless lover, the greedy trickster, the gentle partner.
In one of the most stomach-churning sections of this “evening-length choreopoem” (another
homage to Shange?), the ensemble transforms itself into a motley clump of deformed, demented
half-wits. Bathed in red as though writhing their way up from hell, they tell the history of the world
as a cynical marriage between racism and capitalism. It’s gripping, insightful, and somehow funny
at the same time.
Any writer will tell you that greatness is in the details. Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s “letters to his
unborn son” are full of specific details, and you don’t have to be a parent, or even plan to have
children, to be enriched by them.
http://newyorktheatrereview.blogspot.com/2012/01/cameron-page-on-word-becomes-flesh.html
By: Erik Piepenburg // January 6, 2012
Under the Radar: 5 Questions About
‘Word Becomes Flesh’
photo: Jati Lindsay
A scene from “Word Becomes Flesh,” part of the Under the Radar festival at the Public Theater.
This year’s Under the Radar festival will be a homecoming for Marc Bamuthi Joseph. His 2003
spoken word piece, “Word Becomes Flesh,” a one-man show told as a series of letters from
fathers to their unborn sons, returns to the festival lineup after being presented at the first Under
the Radar in 2005. (It also had a run at the former Dance Theater Workshop in 2004.)
This time, instead of performing solo, Mr. Joseph will be directing a five-man ensemble in a
reimagined version of the poetry and hip-hop-inflected show. During a recent rehearsal, Mr.
Joseph, who is based in Oakland, Calif., spoke with ArtsBeat about stepping back from his own
work and letting others speak for him. Following are excerpts from the conversation.
Q.
You’ve been a part of this show for many years. Is it hard for you to hand it over to another group
of people to perform?
A.
Presented as an ensemble it falls more in the tradition of “For Colored Girls Who Have
Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf,” a choreo-poem, with many bodies exercising
one narrative. I think it works a lot better that way.
Having five young black men on stage together is both tragic and romantic, really beautiful to see.
Not only does my body thank me but I’m thankful as an activist and an African-American artist to
see the spectacle of black intellect communicated by five black men in this way.
Q.
It sounds like one of the reasons you aren’t performing this piece is because it’s so physically
demanding.
A.
I believe in art that sweats. There’s a muscularity that is required in moving and speaking at the
pace and velocity and vigor that’s demanded by this work.
Q.
Are you a father?
A.
I am. My piece was inspired by what I was experiencing when my son, M’kai, who’s 10, was in
the womb. I also have a daughter, Nanea, who’s six. I think what makes the piece great is that
everybody has a birth story. We’re all connected to our individual birth myths. During that story,
so much of the focus is, deservedly, on the other. But there’s also a transformation and a
transition that happens with most men, or any partner who isn’t actually carrying the child.
I found myself 10 years ago not really having an adequate vessel for my personal transformation.
I found the medium was to write these letters to this kid I hadn’t met yet.
Q.
Why focus your show on men’s relationships to their sons? Why not also include their daughters?
A.
There is an underreported narrative related to the pathology of absentee fathers…A lot of that is
about a lack of communication between fathers and sons, men specifically. There’s a way that
the gender specificity in this piece addresses a larger social void.
There’s also a certain poetry in acknowledging this continuum between, in my case, my
grandfather, father, myself and my son, a continuum that continues relative to the pathologies
that plague our demographic.
Q.
Has the piece changed at all in the years since you first brought it to New York?
A.
When it was first presented here we were at the beginning of Bush’s second term. It was the
beginning of the beginning, if you know what I mean, in terms of the political landscape.
What I like about bringing the piece back this time is that it still calls for and inspires a certain
level of collective compassion. Our politics have changed dramatically, but the piece itself doesn’t
feel any more or less incongruent. It feels like it fits harmoniously. It has an emotional landing
place.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/06/under-the-radar-5-questions-about-word-becomesflesh/
A night of poetry, dance and music
Thursday, November 17th, 2011
Marc Bamuthi Joseph, a National Poetry Slam champion,
Broadway veteran and a gifted educator will present his
critically-acclaimed “Word Becomes Flesh,” a fluid choreopoem written in the form of a narrative verse play, at the Kahilu
Theatre on Friday. Admission to the performance is
complimentary and starts at 8 p.m.
In their review of Word Becomes Flesh (WBF), the New York
Times declared his work to be “eloquent …seamless…and
remarkable.” Presented as a series of performed letters to his
unborn son, the piece uses poetry, dance, live music and
visual art to document nine months of pregnancy from a young
single father’s perspective. While women continue to fight for
their right to make choices about their bodies, the elements of
patriarchy and male privilege give a man the social right to choose domestic absenteeism, refraining from
offering either emotional or financial support. WBF critically, lyrically and choreographically examines this
phenomenon.
Performed as a solo work, Bamuthi is hailed by many as San Francisco Bay Area’s most passionate and
engaging spoken word performer; in large part because of his ability to re-define the parameters of the
spoken word by punctuating his language with directed and technically proficient dance. WBF fully
showcases the unique crossroads of searing politics, theology, poetry, photography and endless avenues
of Black dance, including Tap, Modern, Hip Hop Movement and West African Dance. The Washington
Post sums it up best, “Rarely do word and movement mesh so seamlessly and elegantly that the
audience is left with the thought that drives them. But such is the case with Marc Bamuthi Joseph whose
stories put sound and gesture on a single continuum of expression…”
“Poetry slam is the competitive art of performance poetry. It puts a dual emphasis on writing and
performance, encouraging the poet to focus on what they’re saying and how they’re saying it.
Furthermore, it can feature a broad range of voices, styles, cultural traditions, and approaches to writing
and performance,” said Janet Coburn, Managing Director of the Kahilu Theatre.
Marc Bamuthi Joseph, originally from New York City, entered the world of literary performance after
crossing the sands of “traditional” theatre, most notably on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning “The
Tap Dance Kid” and “Stand-Up Tragedy.” Since beginning a career in performance poetry in 1998, he has
risen to be a gifted and nationally acclaimed educator and essayist. His proudest work has been with
Youth Speaks, a resident theatre company, where he mentors 13-19 year old writers. Bamuthi is the cofounder of Life is Living, a national series of one day festivals designed to activate under-resourced parks
and affirm peaceful urban life through hip hop arts and focused environmental action.
For information about the theatre or any event, please visit www.kahilutheatre.org or call the Box Office at
885-6868, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. VISA, MasterCard, Discover, JCB and American
Express cards are accepted.
At Hip-Hop Theater Festival, ‘Word Becomes Flesh’ makes a strong point
By Rebecca Ritzel
July 17, 2011
In a theoretical theatrical smackdown, the average Capital Fringe Festival actor would likely lose
to the average Hip-Hop Theater Festival performer — especially if the contest involved poetry,
break dancing or push-ups.
“Word Becomes Flesh” features all three. And if you’ve seen a few too many whiny, wimpy oneman shows lately, here’s your hair-of-the-dog cure. Originally a 2003 solo performance for Bay
Area-based choreographer Marc Bamuthi Joseph, this weighty reworking of Joseph’s knocked-up
story is now performed by a powerful quintet of actor-dancers.
It’s not a comedy, though many in Friday’s Dance Place audience laughed at uneasy lines like:
“[Blacks] are never on time. So when she told me she was late, I wasn’t surprised.” When the
show turns serious, though, it’s stark. And what makes it so good is that the transitions between
poetic quips and social commentary flow so smoothly.
The performers take turns narrating the excruciating nine months that follow Joseph cheating on
his girlfriend. He knows the resulting child will be not just a baby, but a statistic: another black
child with an absentee dad. Often while one guy talks, another performs a lyrical hip-hop solo in
the spotlight beside him. There’s a monologue about having a girl and a krump-inspired number
about childbirth classes. The ensemble pieces are more serious; in one, synchronized variations
on the push-up follow a condemnation of the prison system.
Many choreographers attempt to tackle social issues; few interweave their own stories in a way
that makes sense. “Word Becomes Flesh” isn’t a groundbreaking dance work, but as a
performance piece, it makes for a searing, satisfying evening.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/at-hip-hop-theater-festival-word-becomes-fleshmakes-a-strong-point/2011/07/17/gIQAzVChKI_story.html
Hip-Hop With a Measure of Hope
By Sarah Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 18, 2005; Page C01
Joy, anticipation, excitement: all feelings common to
expectant parents. Then there are the sentiments that
don't get talked about much.
There's fear, as in the blood-freezing dread that you're
going to screw it all up for your kid. And there's panic,
the impulse to run away so fast the responsibilities
can't catch up with you.
In his extraordinary one-man show, "Word Becomes
Flesh," Marc Bamuthi Joseph not only talks about the
fear, dread and panic (and, eventually, joy) that he
experienced while awaiting the birth of his son, he
raps, taps, rhymes, soliloquizes and improvises about
them. Joseph, appearing at Dance Place over the
weekend, is a performing dynamo to chase away
all your visions of the bellowing, self-absorbed poetry
slammer.
Marc Bamuthi Joseph, taking rap to a
rare parental level in "Word Becomes
Flesh" at Dance Place. (Lauren Victoria
Burke For The Washington Post)
With an athletic, surprisingly light-footed physique and a storyteller's way with suspense, Joseph
held an immediate lock on audience attention. There is an appealing suppleness in the way he
speaks as well as the way he moves. He could read your tax return and make it come alive. But
even more than his assertive delivery, it's the ruthless honesty of his account that makes this 75minute work feel like part of your own soul when it's over.
Unplanned fatherhood weighed heavily on Joseph, he tells us. As a single black man painfully
aware of the negative precedent of his demographic, what chance did he have to be a good
father? What chance did his son have to grow up okay? Joseph files the performance that sprang
from these questions under the relatively new category of hip-hop theater. But this is not the
music industry's hip-hop. There's no twirl-on-the-head break-dance routine. There's no loud
thumping backbeat, except when Joseph talks about hearing the fetal heartbeat for the first time.
It's a sound that "hit me in my knees," he says, while a drummer (part of the excellent three-piece
band that shares the stage) plays an insistent, racing ticktock rhythm.
Joseph laces the evening with movement, but it's expressive and emotionally charged, not a
show of acrobatics. Mostly he unspools free verse, illustrating his confessions with powerful
gestures and flashes of sharp-etched images -- boot camp, slave dancing, an unforgettable
lynching rendered in the blink of an eye. The hip-hop sensibility is in the potent mix of body and
word, and in the ease of transitions, the way he moves from scene to scene with the sure timing
of a DJ gauging breaks in a dance beat.
"Birthing my son is my process, too," Joseph declares. His belief, spoken with the fire of a
polemic, takes a stand not heard in commercial rap, which he disses as "barely melodic
danceable misogyny." Far from a foul-mouthed brute crowing about his conquests, he's a
sensitive young man who impregnates a woman he has no intention of marrying and agonizes
over the consequences. Voicing the anxiety that most parents harbor silently, he admits to feeling
over and over like he's just a hair's breadth away from failing his child.
Joseph tackles a host of weighty topics here, weaving them in and out of his narrative. He
touches on a difficult relationship with his own Haitian-born father, who disapproved of his dance
lust (as a child, Joseph understudied Savion Glover in Broadway's "The Tap Dance Kid"). He
ponders marriage, abortion, Bosnia (where he has traveled on a teaching fellowship), 9/11.
Speaking to the first-trimester fetus, he bitterly acknowledges feelings of cowardice: "I am wishing
you away so I won't have to run."
By some uncommon alchemy -- call it skill, inspiration, certainly artistry -- all the issues dovetail
into a pungent examination of the black male experience, especially the culture of violence that
has claimed so many of his cohorts in their twenties and thirties. It is all this that makes the idea
of raising a son with a casual lover in the 21st century such a daunting experience. And also
makes it a chance at redemption.
Joseph, a New York native who now lives in Oakland, Calif., is a former National Poetry Slam
champion who has been featured on HBO's "Russell Simmons Def Poetry." He crafted "Word
Becomes Flesh" two years ago in the space of several months (after his son, M'Kai, came into
the world; during the turbulence of the actual pregnancy, he told me after the show, he "lost his
voice as a poet").
The production, which he wrote himself and choreographed with Adia Whitaker, bears distinct
slam characteristics: the personal confessional, the aggressive recitation, the encouragement of
audience reaction. But Joseph doesn't go the route of in-your-face rant. There are no put-on
emotional displays. He doesn't just get mad; he fine-tunes his anger into a literary force of
universal relevance.
He is also careful not to alienate anyone in his mixed-race audience -- the only express objects of
his anger are long-ago history and the circumstances bred by assorted isms. Joseph's riff on the
nasty alliances among racism, capitalism, slavery and self-hate -- which he describes as the most
unacknowledged and insidious player in that club of evils -- is a tour de force of rhythmic
electricity and rapid-fire, tongue-twisting rhyme.
"Word Becomes Flesh" is at its core a profoundly intimate work. It puts shameful thoughts, secret
pleasures, embarrassing truths and all manner of human messiness under the spotlight, and
arranges the jumble into what feels like the most glorious of heroic adventures: the journey by
which the birth of a baby becomes the rebirth of a man.
Joseph left his audience clamoring for more, and they shall have it.
Dance Place presented "Word Becomes Flesh" with the Washington Performing Arts Society;
next April, Dance Place and George Mason University will be among the commissioners of a new
work from Joseph called "Scourge," exploring the history of Haiti.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61801-2005Apr17.html
ARTS: DANCE REVIEW
An Autobiographical Tale In Which Movements Speak
BY Jack Anderson // Published November 6, 2004
Words danced and movements spoke in ''Word Becomes Flesh,'' the eloquent autobiographical
one-man show that Marc Bamuthi Joseph presented on Thursday night at Dance Theater
Workshop.
Mr. Joseph based this seamless blending of dance and speech on letters he wrote to his unborn,
and unplanned, son. But the production was more than a meditation on childbirth from a father's
viewpoint.
Mr. Joseph described the ethical and emotional difficulties that he and the boy's mother faced
when they decided they did not wish to marry or continue their relationship, yet vowed to raise
their child with care. He also commented on the ways that stereotyped cultural images of
masculinity can plague black men.
His remarkable vocal variety and gestural deftness made every scene come alive in this show,
directed by Gloria Bigelow. The choreography by Mr. Joseph and Adia Whitaker combined
realistic gestures with steps derived from tap, hip-hop and modern dance. And music for guitar,
bass and percussion composed and played by Paris King, Sekou Gibson and Ajayi Jackson
enhanced the drama. Memorable moments included Mr. Joseph's nervous twitching as he sat in
a gynecologist's waiting room, the monstrously twisted way he crept across the floor as a
personification of racism and ignorance and his frantic prancing as he portrayed a minstrel-show
entertainer. When he told the unborn son, ''You're three months in the womb and I'm wishing you
away,'' he followed this painful confession with desperate leaps and wild runs. But he filled the
birth scene with a sense of both effort and exaltation. The son, Mr. Joseph told the audience, is
now almost 3.
The final performance is tonight at Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, Chelsea.