BAC production 'Tenth' explores responsiblity of successful minority youth

"The Talented Tenth of the Negro Race must be made missionaries of thought and culture among their people . . . the Negro race, like all races, will be saved by its exceptional."

So said W.E.B DuBois, the African American leader who started the NAACP and coined the now-famous phrase "the talented tenth" as a label for the intellectual minority within a race whose job it was to elevate their peers.

Echoing the words of DuBois, The Black Arts Company, an artistic forum for minorities at Princeton, will be presenting a play by Yves Lola St. Vil called "The Talented Tenth" in their performance this weekend.

The Black Arts Company is one group, but consists of two performing troupes — drama and dance — which often merge to perform shows to incorporate skits and dancing, as they will do this weekend.

Mikaela Tyson '04, the company's drama director, explained why she chose this particular play: "The play appealed to me because I saw in these characters Princeton students, especially African American minorities."

In the play, four talented African American college seniors are used to present a fictionalized scenario of DuBois' theory, which deals with the issue of minority pressure to excel and uplift race status.

After their graduation, the four characters — Robert, Ethfiny, Lolita, and City — finally face and realize the social pressures and expectations of being exceptional minority students. Robert and Ethfiny, brother and sister in a hardworking, middle-class family, feel particularly stressed about fulfilling expectations to be exceptional African Americans, especially when deciding whom to date. The story of Ethfiny focuses on the difficulty of interracial dating; her parents and brother in particular discourage Ethfiny from dating a white person.

The storyline of the play discusses the same issues many Princeton students encountered during high school and probably still confront on campus —college expectations, interracial dating, minority status, and the burden of social awareness. To compensate for the "contamination and death of the Worst," as DuBois phrases it, each character in the play strives to fulfill social expectations, while City, the valedictorian and incredibly bright one, struggles throughout the play against this unwarranted responsibility.

The end of the play involves a debate on which responsibilities any talented minority should tackle to uplift their status. It is not difficult to relate this play to the lives of minority students on campus challenged by the same pressures to succeed and achieve.

Although focused mainly on drama this semester, the company also wanted to integrate dance and music in to the play. The play opens with a harmony, "Lift Ev'ry Voice," commonly known as the 'Negro Anthem'. Scene changes are set to popular music such as "Ms. Jackson" by Outkast, "The Next Movement" by The Roots, and "Black Ego" by Digable Planets. Additionally, there are two dance sequences incorporated into the drama.

BAC contacted the play's author, Yves Lola St. Vil, in order to further discuss her work. Excited and flattered, she spoke with them about her piece and even attended a dress rehearsal. St. Vil is looking forward to continued success, as Spike Lee, famed director who owns his own company "Forty Acres and a Mule," has agreed to produce a movie based on the play sometime in the near future.

BAC's repertoire is completely organized and determined by students. The group allows its members to move freely between the two performing arts and even encourages dual participation. Their work doesn't preach, but rather proposes issues for further reflection.

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"I'm not saying we should sit down and be retrospective," said Tyson. "Performance art is another way to express issues such as minority status to those who wouldn't normally be interested. We wanted the play to be thought-provoking regardless of race."

In an attempt to create an artistic forum for minorities, the Black Arts Company was founded in 1990. Its intention is to express the diverse experiences and encounters, not only of African Americans, but also the Hispanic, Jamaican, African, and Afro-Canadian students on campus.

Though not wishing to limit the talents of Princeton students simply to race or gender issues, the Black Arts Company performs a variety of entertainment to accommodate different cultural tastes.