About 
2012
Print
Email
So there's this really interesting play happening in NYC right now. Stay with me, folks. I know most of you are not in NYC, but this is worth unearthing some lively discussion. The play's called Angela's MixTape [25]. It's produced by New Georges and the Hip Hop Theater Festival. Angela's MixTape is an autobiographical musical/poetic/comical/dramatic odyssey of the life of Angela Davis. No, not the Afro wearing, falsely-accused George Jackson-advocate of the 1970s, but Angela Davis, the niece.
Angela "Eisa" Davis grew up in Berkeley and Oakland, California. She grew up with her activist-attorney mother Fania Davis and her activist-most-wanted-professor aunt Angela Davis. Yes, she was surrounded by socialist teachings, African-inspired spirituality, visits from Toni Morrison as well as macrobiotic cuisine and neighborly nudists. Eisa, as she prefers to be called, was not always the ideal offspring in a family of women with uber-political and social- agendas. In fact, Eisa fought hard to mold her own identity, despite her namesake. She played classical piano, befriended non-black children and was obsessed with the music of her time [Prince, Public Enemy and early 90s British Imports]. And here's some real drama: besides, being encouraged as a child to do dramatic readings from her legendary aunts' autobiography, Eisa had not read the book until she was an undergrad at Harvard.
Angela's MixTape is a courageous piece of theater that doesn't necessarily poke holes in the legendary politics of Angela and her equally-dynamic sister Fania. However, it dares to question if a community's need for equality often trumps the needs of the children. Hey, this is not a new paradigm. From Malcolm X to King, the children of icons have revealed plenty about their compromised parents. So here's the question of the day: should we have empathy for children who grew up in the Fight for Justice, but had their childhoods trumped by the bigger picture; or should we advise them to bite the bullet and point them to the future when equality will be paramount and no one will be compromised?
Comments