Singing on the Mountain: A View of Alternate ROOTS

“In the darkness, we walk with light
In the darkness, we walk with light—
Like the night blooming jasmine
We light up the night,
In the darkness, we walk with light….”

Imagine a room full of over 150 people passionately singing in ragged, beautiful harmony: it is not a choir, it is not a church or school, it is not a rehearsal for professional performance. But they are singing with great joy, openness and ease—celebrating the simplest and most elusive of human connections: mutual cooperation. Then imagine all of these people in the same conversation, with a common agenda, on the same page; sharing their work, sharing their dreams, sharing their lives.

This is Alternate ROOTS at its most human best. Once each year members of the board of directors of the Regional Organization of Theatres South meet to conduct business, network, share performances and peer critique, to eat and relax in a mountain setting—to share our successes, our struggles and our lives. In the last five years I have been personally transformed by attending these Annual Meetings. Each year I have grown more self-aware, more artistically focused and more conscious of the forces that shape my work and the communities in which I participate as an artist and a human being.

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for—
We are the ones, we’ve been waiting…”

These yearly transformations are directly attributable to interactions with the membership of Alternate ROOTS, and exposure to the diverse art work, ongoing cultural work and continuous community building that is presently reshaping the southeast region of the United States. Every year the Annual Meeting brings together a spectrum of very diverse people: people who are willing to approach and find ways to overcome the cultural barbed wire that surrounds every stratum of American and world culture: the arts, social mores, religious beliefs, economics realities, political structures and community life. These are people whose life’s work—the range of which is amazing, delightful, disturbing, edifying and challenging—is changing the world for the better.

When I got to ROOTS in 1989 it was a spiritual, artistic, familial homecoming! As playwright Jo Carson of Johnson City, Tennessee, says, “Who comes—is”; in a zen way she is correct. I had arrived in a place and time to meet with many others who had years of commitment to the path I was choosing. They are the elders, teachers, mentors who have so much to share with all of us. They are the storytellers, historians, modern griots and shamans, healers and teachers who know that when life is out of balance we must allow it to rebalance itself. They know we are all caretakers of life, entrusted to guard the planet. That is a major part of this work in the Southeast: creating art, building community.

Here at Alternate ROOTS I have met, studied with and witnessed performances and workshops by incredible performers, writers, composers, dancers, choreographers, storytellers, directors and administrators, whose genius has affirmed, shaken, awakened, challenged and nurtured my own: Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Celeste Miller, Alice Lovelace, Dan Kwong, Paula Larke, the Mad River Theatre Works and Keith Antar Mason. There have been formal and informal conversations with Liz Lerman (Dance Exchange), John O’Neal (Junebug Productions), Bob Lucas (Mad River Theatre Works), Kathie deNobriga (Executive Director, Alternate ROOTS), Adora Dupree (Carpetbag Theatre), Bob Leonard (The Road Company), Linda Burnham (Highways/18th Street Arts Complex), Lolita Woodward and Pamela Wright (ISIS Performance Company), director Steven Kent and many others who have forever reinforced, informed, shaped and nurtured who and what I am.

I have found colleagues, mentors, students, teachers and friends at these Annual Meetings, actively participating within a commonality born of participation, ownership, honesty, and a proactive stance toward oppression of many kinds. I have found extremely committed, talented, capable human beings who are busily transforming themselves, their families, their art work, their communities, their colleagues and the region. I have grown significantly, as an artist, a person and a citizen, as the direct result of being exposed to the work, the lives and passions of the membership. Being a part of this community has given me the support and self-permission to do my best work and to live my life as an artist in my community.

“We are going,
Heaven knows where we are going,
But we know within…”

In 1989 I survived two deaths. The first was the end of my life as a “starving artist.” My career as a multidisciplinary performer, choreographer, composer and writer had sustained me artistically and emotionally for over ten years. But now I was economically “secure” with consistency. The second was, that year I got sick and nearly died of pneumonia. In the hospital in New Orleans, the staff told me I was “the healthiest sick person they had ever met.” While I struggled for breath, life and survival I had some serious decisions to make.

Confined to bed with an I-V in one arm and wearing an oxygen mask 24 hours a day, I had time to face my self and ask some crucial questions. Among them: If I get out of here alive, what do I most want to do? Time telescoped, minutes elongated into hours, hours truncated into seconds. I had fevers, sweats, chills. Dreams. The nurse on duty whispered covertly, “Do you know about crystals?” My friends came. My family came. I ate. I meditated, rested, dreamed and recovered. I took stock of my abilities, goals, tools and dreams. In all this, it was my art (theater, music, dance), my family, my colleagues and my beliefs that supported me. Finally, I resolved to live and to grow. I got better. I survived. And suddenly I wanted more for my life.

“It will be hard, we know—
And the road will be muddy and rough
But we’ll get there,
Heaven knows how we will get there
But we know we will….”

My problem was I was too diversified. As a multidisciplinary performing artist, choreographer, composer, artist/educator, workshop facilitator, writer and producer, I recognized that even though I was being very creative and making a living from my arts disciplines something was missing. I came to ROOTS looking for a way to organize my myriad talents and business needs. I came looking for perspective and found brilliant colleagues, solid business models, a range of self-presentation models and an agenda that embraces me as an artist, healer, African-American male and survivor.

“There are those who want to set fire to the world
We are in danger…
There is only time to work slowly
There is no time not to love…”

At these meetings the questions I heard asked consistently were: What do you do? And: For whom is your work intended? In other words: what do you do, why do you do it, what effect do you intend to create, are you succeeding? The group offers formal and informal tools to help artists, presenters, cultural workers, administrators and others approach these questions. These tools include peer critique, mini-grants for artistic or technical assistance and workshops. It also offers regional events, festivals, showcases and gatherings that give the membership (and others) support to continually discover its own answers. The organizational discussions I heard were grounded in the mission statement and constantly referred back to it in a process-oriented fashion. The mission statement reflected the membership, the membership informed the agenda.

That agenda is: developing effective communication, the sharing of resources, fostering the development of new work, effecting social change through art, promoting cultural democracy within the organization and the region and creating partnerships with presenters reaching new audiences. Yes!

It startled and challenged me when, at my first Annual Meeting in 1989, a member asked me what I thought. A critical matter was being discussed in small groups after a large group meeting. Each small group was asked to discuss it further and then report back to the entire body. And they wanted my participation; they included me by simply asking, “What do you think?”

“Oh,” I thought. “It’s a democracy!”

At last! Eureka! I had stumbled upon attempted democracy in action—the actual attempt to include everyone who came: artists, teachers, cultural workers, writers, administrators and activists from the Southeast and around the United States. And the rigorous challenge of shaping a viable agenda that is inclusive.

“(We are) leaping the chasm—to visit difference—on the way to sameness…”

— Nayo Barbara Watkins
Durham, North Carolina

In the last five years I have observed and witnessed some of the common ground of the people who make up Alternate ROOTS. I have seen the ways in which the membership teaches itself and learns from its mistakes, how painfully we grieve over our real and perceived shortcomings and how quickly new manifestations of deeply held concerns can occur (the Community/Artists Partnership Project).

Wins and losses aside, I have observed and participated within this outstanding group of artists, administrators, activists and others, all struggling to somehow share what they know, to promote what they believe and to live what they dream. Many of them are at the front lines of the battles against oppression of every conceivable face: racism, sexism, homophobism, cultural elitism, economic and social classism, environmental racism, able-ism, anti-generational oppression against the elderly and the young, and a multitude of others. We are talking about and working toward better ways for people to see themselves, others and our society; we are working on our shared responsibilities if we are to have a functioning, healthy community. We are warning of the consequences if we fail to actively and effectively ensure each and every person can participate with parity. We are changing our lives.

“On the -ism trail…”

Imagine a room full of people. Supporting each other, challenging each other, nurturing each other. Then image a neighborhood, a town, a city, a state, a region, a country, a world. Here, in this strength of inclusion, we are struggling to move toward a viable human future grounded in the past, which we honor and acknowledge. We are struggling to participate in an America and a world society in which all can live, fully utilizing their gifts and growing to the extent of their own imaginings, contributing honorably to our local, regional and world communities.

In the last five years I have been artistically and personally fed by my interactions within the organization. From performances to workshops to discussions to late-night improptu music, dance, performance art and conversations at the Annual Meeting, I have grown significantly.

Kenneth Raphael (1954-1999) was a theater artist/educator at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and a dance artist/educator at the Contemporary Arts Center. He served as chair of the executive committee of Alternate ROOTS. This story was first published in High Performance #64, Winter 1993.

Song credits:

“In the darkness…” from “Nightblooming Jasmine” be Elise Witt
“We Are the Ones” by June Jordan and Bernice Johnson Reagon
“We Are Going” by T. Osei, L. Amao, M. Tonton, W. Richardson, R. Bailey and R. Bedeau
“It will be hard…” from “We Are Going”
“There Are Those” by Deena Metzger and Charlie Murphy

Original CAN/API publication: October 2003