District News
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PHOTOS BY TIM WILSON
DJ the Leopard (Misty Demory), left, Wild Cow (James J. Johnson) and Big Fish (Paige Hernandez), right, tug on Zomo (Baye Harrell) to get back the items he took from them.
Hip-Hop Theater Festival Reaches Out to All Ages
By Timothy Wilson
Washington Post Staff Writer
The Hip-Hop Theater Festival
wasn’t much of a family affair when it began nine years ago. Its concerts, poetry jams, plays and workshops fo- cused mainly on events that were for adults, by adults.
But, as the late rapper the Notori- ous B.I.G. once said, “Things done changed.”
The festival provided a family- friendly option by presenting Grego- ry “Psalmayene 24” Morrison’s “Zo- mo The Rabbit: A Hip-Hop Creation Myth” for two free performances last week at THEARC in Southeast. The annual six-day festival nor- mally draws a devoted audience of theater buffs, playwrights and artists who are influenced by and immersed in hip-hop culture. But Kamilah Forbes, artistic di- rector for the festival, said the play seemed a natural fit as the objective shifted this year to increasing the of- ferings with performances that span “the gamut of age demographics.” “It’s really allowing us to expand our mission and vision,” Forbes said. “There’s definitely a certain shift
when programming for families.” The play, which was commis- sioned by Imagination Stage in Beth- esda and premiered in January, draws from a West African trickster tale about a sly rabbit on a quest to gain power. But in true hip-hop fash- ion, Morrison has remixed the tradi- tional narrative and doused it with some hip-hop aesthetics and ideals. “It’s done in a way that you might not recognize the original, but it still pulls from the spirit of the original,” Morrison said. A boom-box-toting, rapping rab- bit named Zomo, played by Baye Harrell, appears on stage at the start of the show and enlists the crowd in a familiar call-and-response ex- change: “Now somebody! Anybody! Everybody scream!”
The audience of parents and chil- dren responded on cue with loud shrieks of delight. However, Zomo’s delight is turned to dismay when he feels slighted that his talent is not accept- ed by others. He calls the Sky God on a cellphone to request the ultimate prize: power.
But the request will be granted only in exchange for three items:
day.”
Morrison said hip-hop has not done much to engage families, con- sidering that some parents came of age when rap music grew from an underground fad to mainstream ap- peal.
“I feel there is a huge void right
now in hip-hop that’s available for children to consume in a healthy way,” he said.
Benn and her husband, Gabriel,
have attended the festival for several years but had found it difficult to bring their children because of con- cerns about content and time con- straints.
Zomo (Baye Harrell) interrupts Sky God (Tuyet Thi Pham) during her yoga session to update his progress on getting the items she requested.
dance shoes from Big Fish at the Wa- terfront, cans of spray paint from Wild Cow at the National Zoo and turntables from DJ the Leopard in Adams Morgan.
After retrieving the items through crafty methods of deception, Zomo must decide which quality has more value: power gained through deceit or friendship gained through humil-
ity. Again, he appeals to the audience for assistance.
Meron Benn, 31, said her three children liked the exchange between the actors and audience. “Every single child loved it,” said Benn, who attended the show last Thursday evening. “My daughter loved the fish. My son loved Zomo. They wanted to come back the next
“This is one of the first times the family has been able to go to an event in years,” Benn said. “I didn’t have to find a sitter for anybody. I’m looking forward to more family- friendly events.” Forbes said the initial success of hip-hop theater for D.C. families should bode well for taking the festi- val to New York.
“There’s a possibility that we might bring it to New York,” she said. “This is definitely going to be a fixture as to how we program the fes- tival.”
District Extra Thursday, July 16, 2009
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