The documentary is the latest film work of Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei
The black woman’s body has been viewed under a duo racist and sexist gaze since the founding of our country. Dating as far back to when the first black woman stepped onto U.S soil, blackness had always been ‘othered’: made to seem inferior or exotic in nature. So, it came as no surprise when the black woman’s body became a commodity to U.S slave masters and government officials like Thomas Jefferson. For too long the sexualizing and dehumanizing of black women had been swept under the rug as apart of everyday life, however the 2017 release of the film ‘The Rape of Recy Taylor’ rejects this silence and uses the theatre as a space to hold a mirror up to the face of United States history.
‘The Rape of Recy Taylor’ in title alone, is powerful: forcing you to say her name, and acknowledge what was done that night in 1944. The film is not for the faint of heart, as it deals with heavy realities and tells the story of Recy Taylor, the black woman who was gang raped by 6 white men who were never brought to justice.
Throughout the film, we follow the story of Recy as told by her brother, Robert, and Alabama historians. Director, Nancy Buirski, does a wonderful job of visually mapping and connecting Recy’s case with the heavy involvement women of color have had in pushing the civil rights movement forward. We are given a new understanding of civil rights leaders, like Rosa Parks, who dedicated much of her time post-Montgomery bus boycott to cases of sexual assault against black women.
Buirski does a great job of connecting all of the historical dots. We see how past racial positioning have shaped our current day social standings. No stone goes unturned as, Buirski even examines how the treatment of women of color has its lineage in shaping the way black family roles are set up.
Upon thinking about it, I can not name a film more important in 2017. In the wake of the Charlottesville riots, the film mixes past outrage with a present day viewpoint. The film is so powerful and emotionally charged it will leave viewers wanting to leave the theater to go out and protest more than 70 years later.
We screened the film at the 2017 New York Film Festival.
My time at the star-studded Black Aids Institute’s annual Heroes in the Struggle Gala was all that it was promised to be – a poignant night of great food, entertainment and most importantly, activism.
In a political environment such as our own, it becomes customary to question what is going on in our environment and look to those who acted before us for inspiration. Be that looking hundreds of years ago at revolutionaries and how they overcame monarchs, or even only fifty years ago and looking at labor unions.
Activism in China is no picnic.
After dropping “POC That Still A Ryda” and teasing the release of her new album, M.I.A. revealed that she is not allowed to enter the United States.
“It’s heavy, isn’t it?”
George C. Wolfe accepted his award graciously and with more than a little humor, hoisting the notoriously heavy Monte Cristo award up in his arms with aplomb and cheeky dramatics. This was not a stressful night. There was no suspense. There may have been only one winner that night, but everyone knew him, and no one was complaining.
The atmosphere on the red carpet was breezy and exciting, everyone there not in anticipation of either losing or winning, but just there to celebrate one man. And what a man he is. George C. Wolfe, renowned director of Angels in America and countless others, including Shuffle Along, which has just received 10 Tony nominations for its outstanding status as musical and civil rights activism, more than deserved the award bestowed upon him last night. And everyone seemed to think so.
Preston Whiteway, Executive Director of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, explained the award as such:
“The Monto Cristo award is named after the house where our namesake, Eugene O’Neill, grew up, and of course he set two of the greatest America dramas in that house, the Long Day’s Journey into Night, being revived this season, and Ah, Wilderness!, his only comedy. And so with that sort of balance on both sides of the scale there with theatre, with comedy and tragedy, I think it’s a perfect name for this award which is given to an artist who’s pioneered in the same way that Eugene O’Neill has- and on top of all of that, it was his father’s greatest role, the Count of Monte Cristo.”
He further went on to explain how Wolfe exemplifies a recipient of the award:
“Few can match George Wolfe’s trailblazing leader as a writer, as a director- he’s a multi-hyphenate, he’s a writer, he’s an actor, he’s a director, he’s an artistic producer, he does it all. There really could be nobody more worthy for an award honoring significant artists in American theatre.”
As for Wolfe himself, when asked about his pioneering work on African-American and LGBT theatre, he had only this to say, which he later repeated in his acceptance speech:
“I wouldn’t even call it activism, I just would call it – I don’t know, just responsibility. When you live in a world where you are in a capacity to hire people or you make decisions, then you may need to make decisions that are reflective of the world in which you live.”
Responsibility is something Wolfe holds very true to his heart. In his acceptance speech after the dinner, he thanked everyone in the room for their support as he existed as a fledgling young writer, then director in the theatre world. His last words were “Thank you so much”, and it wasn’t for the award, but for the help he had received along the way that led him to this moment, to being able to have such an impact on the world through theatre. He feels responsible in turn to “act as not only a director, but a mentor”. It’s the true spirit of the theatrical world- everyone collaborates. Whether they are actually participating in the movement itself onstage, like Savion Glover, Tony Award-winning choreographer that performed that night in celebration of longtime associate Wolfe, or assisting in offstage things like production, like the presenter Broadway producer Hal Prince, winner of the most Tony Awards ever, everyone is a part of the process.
George C. Wolfe understands this as a fundamental rule of theatre, and that, along with his genius and talent, deserves ample celebration.
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