In her speech, Michele Norris revealed that your personal lowercase history is just as important as your History.  Norris’s memoir, “The Grace of Silence”, is a personal family memoir that stemmed from a project about race at NPR.  Norris used the personal story of her grandmother’s job in the 1940s and 1950s to show that things are not always what they appear.

Norris’s grandmother traveled in a 6 state area as an itinerant Aunt Jemima for Quaker Oats.  Specifically, she did pancake demonstrations in small towns to teach people to make pancakes from pancake mix (She had to convince the farm wives it could be made with fewer steps – it was the beginning of convenience cooking).  Norris paused after relaying this piece of her family past, and she admitted she had often seen looks of confusion and surprise from guests.  The Aunt Jemima character began as a very politically incorrect vivacious slave mami, dressed in a hoop skirt with a big handkerchief tied around her hair.   Naturally, her family’s feelings toward this job were “complicated”.  But Norris saw her grandmother in a different life when she knew her.

I was struck by how wonderfully Norris described her grandmother – a society committee woman who was always dressed to the nines during Norris’ childhood.  This description carried over to the way she portrayed the Character of Aunt Jemima.  Her grandmother’s version of Aunt Jemima was a well-spoken, well educated woman who carried herself well because she was representing African-Americans in the Midwest.  Her grandmother took what could be deemed from the outside a racially degrading job and saw the opportunities available within it — she traveled, she made money and she introduced an educated African-American to small towns (as best she could while dressed in those clothes, I’m sure).I think the talk was important because Norris brought up an important point of making the best of situations.  While the Aunt Jemima advertising was very racist, her grandmother found a small diversion around it – she made something positive out of a trademark that was, to put it lightly, an outright racial slur.

In essence, family history is not limited to any particular race. Everyone has history, and it’s important to understand your culture and background.  The last token I took away from the speech is that being a journalist can lead you to explore personal stories that hit home.  This exploration helped Norris discover more about her family and probably made her racial research work during the 2008 presidential election that much more important to her.

This begs the next question: What exactly should an American Indian Center consist of?  After a semester of Diversity class, my mind wanders to depictions of what a true Native American looks like (they are different, and that’s the point) — how should this difference should be talked about at the Center?  As a white person, I would like to know more than some of the stereotypical and incorrect lessons taught in elementary and middle school.   The Center has plenty of books available about culture, but I would have no idea about these unless we hadn’t happened upon the open lounge.

The mission of the Center is to “bridge the richness of North Carolina’s American cultures with the strengths of Carolina’s research, education and teaching.”  The Center is specifically geared toward helping students with native backgrounds.  The center provides people with the opportunity to partner with other tribes and have proper research materials.  Programs at the center include colloquium series, tribal leadership workshops, scholarly conferences, and student leadership retreat.

In terms of strengthening student achievement by providing necessary mentoring and research materials, this center is great.  When thinking about broadening other non-native students’ perspectives, other options could be provided in order to educate those who aren’t of Native American background.

After looking at all of the tests, I decided that I would try the test that seemed to be the most interesting.   I consider myself tolerant of other religions but I was very curious to see if my own personal faith would translate into the test results.   As I was going through the test, I was very focused on getting everything “correct” because I was worried that anything I got wrong would be interpreted in a weird way.   During the test, I went through 14 segments of “positive” words each connected with a religion.  If a word was negative and I clicked the wrong button, the test let me know that I had clicked the wrong button.  I felt like it was easy to click an “i” instead of “e” due to the speed at which I was completing the exercise.

After viewing the results of the test, I was not surprised at the results.  According to the test, I view the Muslim religion in a more negative way than the Hindu, Jewish, and Christian religions.  While I do not personally hold anything against the Muslim religion, the amount of negative press and the amount of articles I read about the subject could have contributed to this result.  Honestly, they based the results on incorrect associations i.e. incorrect button pushing.  Apparently for the Muslim section I chose “negative” for what were supposed to be positive words… like “superb”, “excellent”, and “Koran”.

I’m not sure how much stock I’m going to put into the test results, but it at least made me take a step back and think about how I really feel about the Muslim religion…and also about how much I know/don’t know about religions other than Christianity and Judaism.

Carly

Later this week,  I’m going to post an audio clip from Kristin Wetherby, a UNC-Chapel Hill senior, who works at the box office.

UNC-Chapel Hill campus workers filmed the concert, and videos on YouTube of the event have not surfaced yet.

Here’s a video from the spring concert of Micah Caldwell, known in the group as “Mocah”,  singing “Ain’t No Sunshine”:

This was Friday’s encore song!
I’ll post links to new videos once they appear on YouTube.

Update: videos are posted on Facebook:

“Catch my Disease”

“Fireflies”

But the drama world has been busy with events:

• There was no dramatic performance, but The Center for Dramatic Art was a polling place for the local elections Nov. 3.
• “Wild Party” finished last week, and the “Daily Tar Heel” wrote a critique that quickly drew comments.
• Opportunities for volunteers to help with shows are advertised through the “New to UNC Drama?” Facebook wall.

Originally, my coverage of campus dramatic events focused on Pauper Players, Lab! Theatre, and other student groups.  Because A Cappella groups have a few performances over the school year, I am going to include comments from some of the shows here.  Specifically, the Achordants are performing Friday, Nov. 13, and Saturday, Nov. 14 at 8:08 p.m. in Hamilton Hall.  The male A Capella group is selling tickets in the pit this week.

Upcoming: an audio interview with Kristin Wetherby, a student who works at the Playmakers Repertory Company box office.

If you’re a UNC-Chapel Hill student looking for audition opportunities, auditions are happening tonight at the Center for Dramatic Art.

Here is a piece of a message from Erin Hanehan to students who belong to the “New to UNC Drama?” group on Facebook:
“‘Dr. Faustus’ auditions continue this evening. Audition slots are still available (sign up is posted on the Center for Dramatic Art callboard) and walk-ins are welcome…

Auditions are this Sunday and Monday (Oct 18 and 19) from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., in room 102 of the Center for Dramatic Art.   Sign-up for a 5 minute time slot on the callboard, and prepare a 1-2 minute monologue (can be contemporary or classical, whatever you’re more comfortable with).  Remember to print and fill out an audition form, which can be located on the student rep blog…

Performance dates for ‘Doctor Faustus’ will be December 4th through Dec. 8th, and the show will NOT require actors to remain in Chapel Hill for fall break or Thanksgiving break.”

If you are looking to be connected to UNC-Chapel Hill drama, I recommend joining the “New to UNC Drama?” group on Facebook.

Realism works

“Opus” chronicles the relationship of a famous string quartet.  The audience has a backstage pass as seemingly private arguments, discussions and heated practices occur. But it’s not all drama.  Opus pulls at the heart strings by giving us a look into the lives of 5 compelling individuals attempting to play as one.

The quartet

• Marianne Miller, who played Grace, performed the part of a newbie eager to impress.  At times, Miller had a tendency to spout out lines at a breakneck speed but gave a solid performance overall.  She successfully managed to portray a young violist who is confident in her musical ability.
• Ray Dooley’s years in the theatre were obvious as he performed Dorion as a maniacal genius who has the perfect ear for music.  As the group’s scapegoat, Dorion was also an easy character with whom the audience could sympathize.  Dooley’s age difference was noticeable but didn’t hender the chemistry with Elliot, played by Scott Ripley.
• Scott Ripley played the part of argumentative and anal quartet member Elliot.  Ripley brought an edge to the role with his passionate arguing.
• Jimmy Kieffer, who played the lovable Cello player Carl, perfectly fit the role of a dad living life to the fullest.

To see or not to see?

“Opus” is a show that music lovers and inexperienced newcomers can relate to because of the mix of gentle wit and serious undertone.  Funny one-liners like: “I once had an affair with a toaster…It kept popping out before I was done” kept the audience interested.  The show lasted for 93 minutes; this is an impressively quick show. GO SEE IT!