Play addresses class divisions and politics during Harlem Renaissance
Jourdan Corbitt
May 8, 2008
Ohio University’s School of Theater is performing a play this week and next that features a ’20s Harlem “Renaissance” setting while exploring class divisions within the African-American community.
Written by Charles Smith, head of OU’s MFA playwriting program, “Knock Me a Kiss” opened Wednesday night in the Elizabeth Evans Baker Theater in Kantner Hall. It runs through Saturday, and then continues May 14-17, with all performances at 8 p.m.
The play is based on the true events surrounding the 1928 marriage of Yolande Du Bois to Countee Cullen.
The heroine, Yolande Du Bois (Ashley Henderson), is the daughter of W.E.B. Du Bois (David Emerson Toney), a central figure in the early African-American civil-rights movement and co-founder of the NAACP.
The play starts with Jimmy Lunceford (Tyler Rollinson), a smooth-talking bandleader, escorting Yolande to her parents’ home. After countless attempts at sliding his hands up her dress, Jimmy finally proposes marriage in what seems to Yolande to be a very unromantic manner. How unromantic? He suggests a trip to Dayton, Ohio for their honeymoon.
Meanwhile, poet Countee Cullen (Kevin Vaught) is desperately seeking a letter of recommendation from W.E.B. Du Bois. Du Bois insists that Cullen wed before he writes the letter. He advises Cullen to make a list of all of the eligible women, subtract their shortcomings from their attributes and pursue whoever is left. He compares the superior quality of wine via crossbreeding to marriage, insisting that an ideal marriage will serve as an example for the African-American community and help eliminate racist stereotypes.
Countee soon asks Yolande on a date and successfully woos her with his poetry. With two gentlemen callers, Yolande is forced to choose between her destitute sweetheart and the man her father approves of. In the dramatic end of the first act, she is confronted with two simultaneous wedding proposals in front of her parents; the two proposals become a battle between desire and duty.
An excellent comic relief to all of the heavy drama comes in the form of Yolande’s spunky friend, Lenora (Dionne Atchison). Equipped with witty one-liners, Lenora possesses an aura of street wisdom that often humorously simplifies Yolande’s existential dilemmas. When Jimmy approaches Lenora about the other man, she asks Jimmy to name the last time he bought Yolande flowers. When he seems puzzled, Lenora responds, “They’re like collard greens, but with little decorations on top.”
Inevitably, a problem arises in the marriage between Yolande and Countee as Yolande is forced to choose between a marriage founded on a lie or abandoning the arrangement her father supports. Even when Yolande confronts her father with the truth, he insists that her responsibility to the civil-rights “movement” is more important than her happiness. Not until her father stands firmly against her wishes does Yolande begins to understand the remarks her mother Nina (Casiha Felt) made about sacrificing herself for the movement.
Assistant theater professor Shelley Delaney, who directed the performance, said the decision to use this particular play came after the two actresses, Henderson and Atchison, performed a scene from it for one of her classes. Given the limited diversity within the school’s available talent, Delaney said she hopes this performance stands as a testament to the theater’s determination to present as many culturally diverse performances as they can muster out of the southeast Ohio demographic.
“Most racism isn’t based on hate,” playwright Smith said. He emphasized the play’s focus on class divisions within Harlem, stating that the African-American community does not exist as a monolith. He compared this outsider misconception to Don Imus, who was fired for referring to Rutger’s women’s basketball players as “nappy-headed hoes,” and then insisting it was acceptable because rappers use the language as well.
Smith noted that distinctions within the African-American community are varied and that realizing this should be a by-product of seeing the play.
Admission is free for Ohio University students with a valid ID. Tickets are available Monday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m. at the Box Office in Kantner Hall. The play contains adult content, so parental discretion is advised.
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