Stateside Experience
Published 9 October 2008
After being made aware of the decibel Performing Arts Showcase through a meeting with an Arts Council officer, Daniel Banks, a senior academic from New York University, felt he just had to attend to investigate how England 'does diverse arts'.
"My visit to the decibel showcase was a spectacular week. I attended the full week, including the International Symposium which took place on the first day. Being present at the Symposium and watching the showcases all week set me up very well for the presentation I gave on the New York University Hip Hop Theatre Initiative on Thursday.
"During the week I was able to meet many extraordinary artists and producers, with whom I hope to have future contact and to create projects. Of particular value were people from Theatre Royal Stratford East(London), Contact Theatre (Manchester), Punch, Apples and Snakes (Birmingham), Kala Phool (Brighton), Jonzi D (Sadlers Wells, London), actors Wale Ojo and Deborah Williams, dancer Shaun Cope, and Kompany Malakhi (Bristol; I have already invited Artistic Director Kwesi Johnson to teach a workshop at NYU.)
"International connections that I am sure will prove valuable include Gacirah Diagne (Senegal), Tang Shu-wing (Hong Kong – with whom, remarkably, I went to school in Paris 20 years ago), and Aubrey Sekhabi (South Africa). Most of these people attended the panel I was on, saw a video clip of the Hip Hop Theatre work I have been developing at NYU and taking around the world, and expressed an interest in having this work brought to their institution or city.
"I feel optimistic about the work in Black and Asian arts being done in the U.K. and find that there are important conversations happening on an institutional level that we could certainly benefit from in the U.S. There is also an important blend of art and activism that is happening on the level of professional theatre that many people are striving for in the U.S., but that seems to be easier to realize with the geographic proximity of England, as well as the better governmental funding of the arts.
"I spent a week after the showcase in London, meeting with some of the people I met in Birmingham. A meeting was arranged for me with Kerry Michaels, Artistic Director of Stratford East. I have been invited to return in November for a gathering of Black UK and French playwrights; although due to funding constraints, it does not look like that will be possible.
"Nevertheless, the time spent in England encouraged me that the work I am doing is needed and critical and it opened many doors for future collaboration and exchange. I believe that I also well represented NYU and the U.S., as, when I met people, they already seemed to know who I was and were anxious to hear about how I am building and growing the emergent genre of Hip Hop Theatre philosophically, pedagogically, and in terms of using the work as a tool for youth empowerment in an international context.
"Sincere thanks to the decibel programme at the Arts Council of England and the U.S. Embassy for making this visit possible."
Daniel Banks, Ph.D.
