WHY IS NOBODY CALLING 911?
RESPECTING ART WITHIN IT’S CULTURAL FRAMEWORK.
This article is re-published from Indie Soul Magazine, written by Joanna Pickering, originally published on February 9th 2019.
Paul Calderon’s play “Master of The Crossroads” opens important dialogue.
by Joanna Pickering, Actress, Writer at Primitive Grace Theatre.
Master Of The Crossroads, produced by Primitive Grace Theater, tackles the story of an ex- war-veteran Jim-Bo suffering PSTD, his criminally deranged brother, Cornbread, and his anxiety ridden wife Yolanda — each trying to determine the fate (and ethnicity) of a man tied to a chair and held captive by Cornbread. It is set in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
It has gained rave reviews as “the most intense hour of theater ever experienced” “makes you believe in the true art of theater again” “the audience and actors reach a level of involvement and critical thinking that other plays rarely achieve” and “haven’t seen a show this freakin’ intense for a long, long time….”
The NY Times review, however, reduces the play to an exploration of “brutal masculinity” and “pseudo-shamanistic fervors” which she says makes no sense — and starting an online commentary regards the play’s cultural framework.
Obi Abili, on stage in Master of The Cross Roads, New York City, Photo by Joanna Pickering
The play is unarguably violent.
It focuses on themes of war, trauma, mental illness, PTSD and race. It explores the violent under currents existing in society, and why the production issues warnings for graphic violence, nudity and racial language.
The theatre’s mission is that the audience will be affected by Lorca’s concept of “duende” to
shift and expand one’s perception of reality. Lorca refers to this as “a demon-like spirit” “represented as an irrational being with an intense correlation to raw passion, desperation and a heightened awareness of death and suffering.”
The New York Times review states that the play “depicts a harrowing, one-way trip to hell” and a story “that begins with its intensity needle firmly in the red” and then has “no options left besides self-combustion.”
Despite the intended cynicism, this accurately describes the environmental tensions that can be pitted against some minority disadvantaged African American people, in modern day society, such as Baton Rouge, LA, and as intended by Mr. Calderon’s play.
The play’s framework is rooted in the existing model of systemic racism that is prevalent in US.
Yet, the review questions the lack of rationality (and so the ensuing violence) — based on one crucially flawed supposition:
“Why nobody is calling 911, a question you will ask yourself repeatedly during the show”
While this may be a flippant remark, it opens discourse we cannot ignore.
Already, there are many articles discussing the racial issues in US regards the white
privilege of 911, and why Black people are far less likely to call 911.
The New York Times relentlessly covers police brutality, misconduct and shootings, so it is a poignant moment that we need to remind that a young Black male is 21 times more likely to be shot by police than a young white male in US. To remind that civil rights for African American people are directly thwarted by policing in this country.
To mention, only the most recent brutal deaths of innocent Black men — Botham Jean (killed in his own home), Emantic “EJ” Fitzgerald Bradford (shot dead for walking in a mall), Jemel Roberson (a security guard holding a shooter and mistaken killed), DeAndre Ballard (shot by a security guard on campus).
To note, Baton Rouge, LA, is the epi-center of this storm.
It is a city where the murder rates remain high, where mainly Black men are murdered, where the police response rate to those murders is over an hour, and where many of those murders go unsolved.
From the fatal police shooting of an unarmed man, Ferguson, in Missouri, in 2014 — we have the statistically backed knowledge that police and community withdraw from each other in the aftermath of police violence, resulting in more crime.
Exactly, as happens in Master of The Crossroads, and exactly why nobody is calling 911. These points are addressed and answered in the dialogue by Calderon’s play — Jim-Bo
repeatedly states why he will not call the police (yet this is also overlooked in the review).
The reviewer instead goes on to disparagingly note “Amazingly, Jim-Bo continues to prepare to go to church, as if this were all business as usual.”
Again, this is exactly the point Calderon’s play is driving.
The anguished Jim-Bo, suffering from PTSD from the war and growing up Black in America has built an armoured wall of defence with his religion.
Again, in reality — the church is often the rock of hope, a bulwark against the incessant tidal wave of grief, rage and violence, that haunts such neighbourhoods.
Nixon Cesar, Sarah Kate Jackson, Obi Abili in Master Of The Crossroads, Photo by David Zayas Jr
A look at recent real news stories from Baton Rouge, LA will not only turn up real and shocking violence, but a Police Chief who forced his officers to pray to God rather that do their service duty.
While, of course, this is not representative of most people in all society, it is a realistic plausibility for these characters on stage.
The reviewer also rejected the possibility of brutal masculinity, on the same day when the world was outraged at the brutal violent racial attack on a famous Black actor; indicative of many African American people who suffer “off the scale” violence happening consistently in this country.
Obi Abili — (credited in reviews as “astonishing” and “magnetic” — and credited as leaving another leading theatre critic “moved, shattered, dazed”) worked with a PTSD therapist to prepare for this role.
The tone “from frenzied to hysterical” is rooted and validated in truth, as is recognised ritualistic violence, as PTSD symptoms. The physical and vocal histrionics are often the only vehicles open to dis-empowered people, when releasing unbearable internal tensions — especially in the realities of lower socioeconomic environs.
Imagine telling Hubert Selby Jr in Last Exit To Brooklyn — a banned, now credited explosive masterpiece — this was too much.
Even regards those accents that the actors “went to town with” and were “too hard to unpack” — should we not now be celebrating full diversity in these accents, appreciating their full rhythm and range on stages?
That the review misses all of this — and so the message of the play — and when addressing African American issues, is surely part of the problem.
We fully recognise that masculine violence can make women (and men) feel uncomfortable (and again, why the production issued a trigger warning) — but it is also vital that intersectionality is part of the feminist movement.
These explosive subject matters cannot be ignored. This is a play about the most vulnerable. To misunderstand it, is indicative of what non-white people are up against in life, and in making art.
This is not an insult to the reviewer, but a welcome discussion for Black art to be considered within its own cultural framework, and with respect the long standing structures of discrimination in America’s pathology.
In the words of Toni Morrison, “I don’t like to find my books condemned as bad or praised as good, when that condemnation or that praise is based on criteria from other paradigms. I would much prefer that they were dismissed on or embraced on the success of their accomplishment within the culture out of which I write.”
The play is a reminder that we need to think about what is happening for more “than a few minutes.” We may then understand why a playwright, aware of all this, drives such an angry vehicle, and is bravely non-compromising to white privileged sensibility.
Does Master of The Crossroads make sense?
Only so long as police brutality, white supremacy, and mass incarceration exist.
The Truth is hard.
Joanna Pickering is an actress, writer, and activist. She is a member of Primitive Grace Theater Ensemble. She has a degree in Mathematics, has published sociopolitical essays on diversity and gender inequality, and is a participant speaker at UN for #create2030 https://www.joannapickering.com/
https://www.instagram.com/joannapickering/
Paul Calderon is an Obie award winning, playwright, director, actor and co-artistic director of Primitive Grace Theatre.
https://www.paulcalderon.net/
https://www.instagram.com/paulcalderon4/
This article represents collective views from Primitive Grace Theatre Ensemble (artistic directors: Paul Calderon, David Zayas).
Master Of The Crossroads
Starring: Obi Abili, Nixon Cesar, Sarah Kate Jackson Written/Directed: Paul Calderon
Produced: Cathy Calderon, David Zayas
Show running thru Feb 9th New York City
Tickets on website.