On the stage, a man, stretched out. He gets up, women, men, in 1920s clothes and tuxedos, help him get dressed. After the sound of the drums, an air of blues on the guitar. A voice : “The slave will be punished with death on the declaration of his master. (…) No blacks in the room, we tolerate you on stage. » In a few minutes, we are transported from the cotton plantations in the United States to the Cotton Club, concert hall and dance hall in the Harlem district of New York. Cab Calloway, one of the stars of the place, sings Minnie the Moocher and its cheerful refrain, « Hidehidehidehi / Hodehodehodeho »the first of the songs of Black Legendsshow presented at Bobino, in Paris.
With nearly forty paintings, like so many songs, Black Legends is a tribute to the great performers, to the great tunes, to the evolutions of Afro-American music (from gospel to hip-hop, including jazz, soul, funk). With, as a common thread, the stages of the emancipation of the descendants of slaves, the affirmation of their identity, the fights led by men and women, anonymous and key personalities.
Rather than resorting to a vague plot with characters to go from one song to another, we preferred – more interesting and well done bias – to use excerpts from speeches (Martin Luther King, Barack Obama…), give historical landmarks through the different performers of the show and offer visual elements that underline the social significance of many songs, in an imagery brought into play for its evocative power. In white tunics and pointed hoods, members of the Ku Klux Klan come forward as the song is performed Strange Fruitimmortalized in 1939 by Billie Holiday – these “strange fruits” which hang from the trees being the bodies of torture victims whose only fault was the color of their skin.
Pedagogical message
There are protest signs during A Change is Gonna Comerecorded in January 1964 by Sam Cooke, a song of hope for change – the Civil Rights Act, signed on July 2, 1964, which should notably put an end to racial segregation, will come up against resistance for a long time. And raised fists for I’m Black and I’m Proud, by James Brown, in 1968, a hymn to pride. An African-American soldier sent to Vietnam is surrounded by hippies with long hair and afro haircuts during What’s Going On (1971), by Marvin Gaye, on the horror of the fights experienced by his brother.
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