Division in the Arts

For many Harvard students, groups like BlackCAST and the Asian-American Dance Troupe prove a much-needed venue for the intersection of minority concerns and their artistic endeavors. Jason C.B. Lee ’08 stresses the significance of showcasing the work of minorities in the performing arts: “There’s a rich artistic legacy within the black community that has produced defining works of art, whether it’s musically or in theater,” he says. “Having a forum to produce or reproduce these types of cultural expression within the black community at Harvard is very important.”

In a 1999 Crimson Arts exposé, Francesca J. “Frankie” Petrosino ’02 delved into the lack of ethnic diversity in the theater community. Fred Hood ’02, who directed “The Importance of Being Earnest” that year, felt minorities were unrealistic in their expectation of color-blind casting. “Theater is an unfair business,” he said. “Minorities inevitably will not have equal opportunities in casting because most plays are written for a white, realist audience.” Petrosino also cited the alienation of common casting and the niche groups of BlackCAST and the now-defunct AAA Players as reasons for lack of minority involvement in mainstream theater. Eight years later, it remains to be seen whether the problem has been fixed, or if there even ever was a problem.

Recently, KeyChange established itself as the first co-ed a cappella group to have an active goal of celebrating all types of black music. Association of Black Harvard Women secretary Kristen M. Jones ’08, one of the group’s founders and the director of BlackCAST’s spring show, says, “There’s something to be said for having an integrated experience, especially within the arts, but I also have really enjoyed directing BlackCAST and I think that space is just as necessary as one that’s very diverse.”

The Kuumba Singers of Harvard College seem to bridge this gap by celebrating black music with a distinctly multiracial choir. “The mission of the choir is to celebrate the creativity and spirituality of black culture,” says Naabia G. Ofosu-Amaah ‘07, the president of Kuumba. “Since the late ’80s, early ’90s, it’s been visibly more diverse. Different people in the choir have different ideas about the effect that it has, but I still think it comes down to the fact that the mission itself hasn’t changed.”

Petrosino urged minorities to get involved outside of ethnically defined groups. “How terribly backwards of all of us to have fostered the idea that the only place for minorities in theater is outside of the mainstream. We are not eighteenth-century Britain but a diverse university community. In theater, it is long past time for all our colors to mix.” Almost a decade later, the metaphor is still stirring, but it is impossible to be sure if it is still apt—if it ever was.