Art Mirrors Life
Art mirrors life. Acting, singing, dance, digital and visual arts mirror all that they are surrounded by. From this, I question how might art come to aid the world around it, especially for at-risk youth? Actress and Teacher LaChrisha Brown had the same question.
Brown’s love for art began in the second grade. “There was a teacher named Misty Williams and she was a really mean person. One day the Christmas play came up, and they were looking for the lead girl for The Nutcracker, and Misty Williams walks around. She looks at me and she goes, ‘I think LaChrisha would be good as the lead’. I remember studying my lines in the hospital while I was getting ready for a vaccination, and I thought to myself in that moment I could do this forever,” she said.
Ever since her Nutcracker debut she has been an artist. Brown now holds a masters in theater from The New School of Drama in New York City. “ I said to myself a couple years back, What’s the use of doing my art if it doesn’t mean something? If it doesn’t reverb in the world.” she said.
Brown describes social justice theater as ,“theater that highlights and holds a mirror to certain social structures that we want to have conversations around.” Her most recent work in social justice theater is the verbatim play “Life, Death, Life Again”. The play acts out real interviews documenting the stories from previously sentenced juveniles that are now adults and is performed for people within the law, explaining the circumstances in which juveniles were sentenced and then what happened after.
“Life, Death, and Life Again” also interviews loved ones of victims and people from the Law-making and the executing bodies of government. Brown says that after the play, “…we have a panel where we get to to have a conversation and maybe come to a different type of conclusion, learn more information that you didn’t know and maybe even commit to being a part of changing the parts of the system that don’t seem quite right.”
After her role in the play as 14 year-old Paula Cooper, who murdered an elderly person after a robbery that went awry, Brown’s perception began to change about juvenile sentencing. “What I’ve learned is that things are not always black and white, which I understood already, but we never know the circumstances for which people find themselves in. The human brain doesn’t finish developing until 25. So, when a child is acting out at, even in violent ways that seem so violent and that warrant violent adult repercussions, It’s really not so. Everything in a child’s life is influenced by their parents, their community and poverty. Paula Cooper for instance had been beaten, seen her mother being beaten and sexually violated. There has to be a different type of way, like a restorative justice. I believe in restorative justice despite age, but I don’t believe that we should charge children as adults.”
Brown recalled that one time. “Life, Death, Life Again” performed at a courthouse to juveniles trapped by the system. “During the panel session, one of the juveniles said I was really touched by Sean story because Sean does get his life sentence changed. He got released early after serving 21 years. The young man felt such empathy for Sean. But he also felt so much hope. He was able to see how Sean’s life turned out, and how he was able to rekindle love with his high school sweetheart. Sean was able to have a beautiful story and really enjoy freedom.”
After hearing Brown’s experiences, I think Social Justice Theater is one of many artistic solutions that solve problems of a disproportionate and racially-biased system. Brown’s stories explain how theater can change the perception of one’s world and all the people who live in it. “Theater and Acting are hard. You are developing characters and creating certain depths of emotion. It requires your whole life. Your whole access of your body. It requires strength and endurance. It requires emotional accessibility. It requires mental stamina. So, when you’re developing a character putting up a production, I always likened it to sandpaper. It’s worth finding you,” said Brown.
The actress has also seen this sense of self awareness and self discovery in her students. “In teaching theater, I’ve seen students go from being so closed in, shy and feeling like they have no confidence; to being full, present and expressive. The students learn that it really isn’t about anybody else and nobody is waiting for you to fail. Everybody is present for you to be present. But you’re the only one that can establish that presence. And so to see a teenager or a child go through that trajectory, has been one of the most powerful things I’ve ever seen.” she said.
I am a firm believer that if youth have access to art, no matter in what form, they will have a better understanding of the world around them. Art is the only tool that can make the house that is our earth a home, despite poverty, homelessness, and other negating factors that could lead to the imprisonment of the nation’s youth. Art is life.
