darkerthanblue

by: Mark Campbell

This past weekend, I attended Secrets of a Black Boy, a play about 5 young black men written by Darren Anthony (trey anthony’s younger brother). I was lucky enough to travel with 35 young people from a variety of community organizations such as, Young Diplomats, Remix Project, Yorktown Child & family Services, Breaking the Cycle, Nia Centre, 180 Change Street, the Eritrean Youth Coalition, Toronto Community Housing, and Beyond the Lyrics. Check the pics here.

We were all lucky to witness this momentous event, five young black men on stage, doing their thing. It was fitting to see this after January 20th, the year keeps getting better. Darren Anthony & cast did an admirable job, despite having to live in the shadow of the massively successful Da’ Kink in my Hair. I must say though, it’s nice to see siblings supporting each other and ensuring they pull each other up, no crabs in a bucket here, straight up.

Secrets of a Black Boy is set in a community center in Regent Park that is slated to be demolished. The play takes us through a variety of issues via interesting soliloquies on topic such as spouse abuse, overpolicing, fatherhood and homosexuality. Al St. Louis played the elder statesmen Sheldon, who organizes a last dominoes game and who, through his words and actions, clearly articulates the human cost of Toronto’s massive gentrification project…. Lawrence Heights you next! Get familiar.

Samson Brown, played the young braggadocios Biscuit, a convincing depiction of the teenage black male in today’s society. His youthful playfulness and general exuberance kept the play lively and funny. At the point where Biscuit is being taught about good music, as opposed to the ever popular Weezy, I was really hoping to hear some Public Enemy, Pharohe or Tribe Called Quest, as the counter offer of good hip hop (it does exist, I promise). Instead, Sheldon impressed upon Biscuit the Legendary James Brown’s The Payback, a sampler’s goldmine which also played nicely into the hands of an older generation that has yet to hear anything worthwhile from the boom bap generation’s sonic creations.

Meanwhile, Sean, played by Shomari Downer, was by far the most controversial, elaborating-for an extended period of time-on my he loves white women. His explanation centered around feeling needed by white women and positioned his love for white women as a reaction to rejection by black women. A bit simplistic for my liking. If the play were striving for realness (as it claimed) then I think we should’ve also heard of some of the deeply embodied societal structures that teach everyone, man and woman, to love certain kinds of hair, skin tones and facial features.

Besides tackling issues around gentrification and the black man/white woman taboo Secrets also touched upon the issue of fatherlessness in the black community. I am very tired of hearing the media and all kinds of ‘experts’ blame ‘broken households’, more helpful at this point would be a discussion of the wider social constructions that continually make any kind of demonstration of black masculinity a contraband. So that for those that subscribe to the ‘provider, protector’ motto born out of industrialization, they quickly learn that western society was never designed for the equal participation of all men in European constructions of masculinity and its tightly regulated society. The landed gentry still stands on guard.

The Q & A at the end provide a much need opportunity for people to ask questions and seek clarification on some of the cleverly covered topics in Secrets. While I didn’t ask any questions, I was wondering where was the African presence in the play? There was no clear connection to the Continental African experience.

I found the end of the play to be the most powerful as Sheldon chants “We are here” and is joined by all the actors in a haunting, yet demanding refrain. Hopefully, Secrets will illuminate for the rest of Toronto society that we are STILL here, despite all of the ridiculous ways black life is circumscribed on the daily.