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Klb
Newbie Poster
Username: Klb
Post Number: 4
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 09, 2004 - 12:07 pm: | 
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I know this is an old gripe and art/subjectivity thing but it burns me up that E Lynn Harris and the other chitlin' plays sell out and other very worth works suffer. I went to Def Jams Party of Words (all of you that want to slay me on the poetry v. spoken word thing save it) and you could literally hear an echo in the audience. Topdog/Underdog in a smaller venue still didn't fair much better. Blk America is suffering a slow cultural death or are we just back peddling into step and fetch it territory. |
Chrishayden
Regular Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 27
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 09, 2004 - 02:05 pm: |
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No we are not. Fine art has always had a smaller audience that mass art. More people have gone to the circus than go to see Shakespeare.
Symphony orchestras have to be heavily subsidized or they would fold.
White people are no different. Go among white people and see how many of them know who Dana Gioa is and then see how many know Stone Cold Steve Austin. |
Troy
Regular Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 44
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 - 07:27 pm: |
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Klb:
Playing devil's advocate (sort of), there are many reasons why a stage production of an E. Lymm Harris book would sell much better than topdog/underdog.
(1) More people are familiar with E. Lynn than anything associated with top dog
(2) I'm sure the tickets for E. Lynn cost less
(3) I'm sure E. Lynn's play did not have nearly as long a run as top dog so despite the smaller venue there were effectively more seats to fill over time.
(4) I also heard top dog was not such a great play (I did not see the play)
You could probably come up with more reason why more people would be at the E. Lynn play on any given night -- none of which have anything to do with cultural degredation.
People who do not care for an E. Lynn play simply don't go, but that does not automatically mean those people will go check out Mos Def. People who are not dying a cultural death can opt to do something else -- like reading a book, visiting a museum, going to an art exhibit, etc.
So I won't immediately draw the conclusion we are dying a slow death because and E. Lynn play is better attended on a given day that a Mos Def play.
Chris:
I understand Shakespeare was pretty popular amoung the masses in his day. I bet some felt he work, in it's time, was indicative of cultrual death. Perhaps people will be studying E. Lynn, Madea, and Michael Baisden plays 600 years from now in Universities on Mars.
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Theprophetess
Regular Poster
Username: Theprophetess
Post Number: 26
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, April 04, 2004 - 12:50 pm: |
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Yeah Chris, that about sums up the matter. It has nothing to do with the black race, rather it's a cultural thing in all societies of the world. True appreciation of true art in any form is always a 'minority only' appreciation. |
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