McCann: Fall season abound with arts events

There are many more arts activities coming up this fall.

Andy Tribble Interpretive Marker

The dedication of the interpretive historical marker for Andy Tribble, an African American Broadway sensation and pioneering comic female impersonator of the early 20th century, will be at 2:30 pm. Oct. 6.

Tribble, who was born at Union City in 1876, will be honored with a marker that will be publicly dedicated that day at the Union City Park.

Déjà vu?

For those yearning for more of Daniel Boone, Barbourville’s Daniel Boone Festival runs Oct. 6-12.

Featuring a carnival, an antique car show, food booths, art, photography and quilt shows, it features two concerts: Walker Montgomery (“Simple Town”) at 9:30 p.m. Oct. 11 and 8:30 p.m. Oct. 12, Mark Wills (“Don’t Laugh at Me,” “I Do (Cherish You)” and “Wish You Were Here”).

Schedules, which are subject to change, are at danielboonefestival.com

EKU Art Exhibit

A group of exceptionally talented artists that includes Gary Bibbs, Frank X. Walker, Tammie Demessie-Shelton, Gary Nolan, Jr. and Bobby Scroggins are have been invited to display their art as part of an exhibit called “My Kentucky State of Mind: Contemporary African American Artists”.

The show runs from Sept. 30 to Oct. 24.

An opening reception will be Oct. 3 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Giles Gallery, Department of Art & Design, Eastern Kentucky University.

Louisville photography exhibits

Zed Saeed, a master’s photography student at the University of Louisville, is having an exhibit of his latest project, “Gentleman’s Clubs: Photography by Zed Saeed.”

Through photographs made with a large-format view camera, and hours of recorded interviews, Saeed’s project focuses on the “women who work at Louisville area gentleman’s clubs and presents their daily work-lives of emotional labor.”

The second photography exhibit is “Lyric Documentary: The Works of Walker Evans (1935-1936)” and features some of the most iconic photographs of the Great Depression.

That exhibit is curated by Saeed.

Both exhibits are free and open to the public Sept. 27 to Nov. 1 at Schneider Hall Galleries, University of Louisville, Schneider Hall; gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Actors Theatre of Louisville

Currently playing at ATL are two plays. One is “Dracula” based on the Bram Stoker classic and full of blood, terror and with a bit of sex; it runs through Oct. 31. The other play is “Hype Man: A Break Beat Play” by Idris Goodwin, which runs through Oct. 13. Tickets for both plays start at $35 and can be ordered by calling the box office at 502-584-1205.

Hype Man is a play about a hip-hop group on the verge of success and what happens when a 17-year-old African American is shot 18 times by the police. That shooting, turns the previously quiet hype man, Verb (Mykele Deville), into a Black Lives Matter advocate who goes to jail on multiple occasions for his beliefs and actions.

His white partner and rap artist Pinnacle (Shane Kenyon) doesn’t understand why Verb can’t wait until after they are successful — an appearance on the Tonight Show is imminent — before becoming an activist, and that Verb’s activism might derail their success.

What “Hype Man” makes clear is both how far we have come and how far we have to go to deal with the racial divisions so endemic in this country.

Coincidentally, Verb and Pinnacle have known each other since they were 7; they went to the same schools, lived in the same neighborhood; but their experiences were still different.

Even with all that in common, they still had vastly different racial experiences.

The nature of their differences is embodied in an event of their high school years: they were both jailed for being at a party where they were deemed “disorderly” and “loud.”

Verb spent a night in jail; Pinnacle was bailed out an hour or so afterwards, by an uncle, a cop.

Pinnacle asks Verb what he should have done. “Should I have spent the night in jail with you?” to which Verb quietly responds, “Yeah.”

In two lines is the embodiment of what it is to be white, what it is to be black in 21st century America.

The white teen had choices the black one didn’t.

Indeed, “Hype Man” illustrates vividly why black lives matter.

Bill McCann is a playwright, poet, flash fiction writer, and teacher who writes about arts events and personalities. Reach him at wmccann273@gmail.com.

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