My Review on Black Heroes
Black Heroes is a production that allows young black people to understand what happened to the heroes we never knew about. It educates black people that we do have heroes and that they did do magnificent things and we need to take more pride in ourselves and be proud as a nation.
What I learnt:
I learnt many things I never knew and I feel a lot stronger and powerful as a black person; not physically but mentally and in spirit. For example, I bet you didn’t know Queen Victoria’s grandmother was a black woman making our old Queen quarter black. These are one of the many things I’ve learnt by seeing this two-and-a-half hour production.
The Aim:
I think that the aim of Black Heroes is to make young black people do more productive things than life than be outside all day with ‘their gang/clique’, and that they should think about all the opportunities our black heroes have given to us today and how much they suffered to do it.
Many black people are unwilling to admit that their African even though they know that’s where all our ancestors advance from. Many just say that they’re Jamaican or ST. Lucian or just from the Caribbean. The reason for this is that people always think of themselves as the better nation being Caribbean due to the fact that many Africans, today, are suffering through poverty. Until they saw just how many Kings, Queens and Wealthy Men/women there were in Africa until slavery. A well known one is Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt.
The Show:
Before the show started there was music to entertain. To start off a rap artist came on rapping powerful words and easily got the crowds attention. Some of these words explained that black people are always saying that they always want to be this person or that of a different way. He made us realise that we’re ‘black and we wouldn’t have it any other way.’ Then came a chorus singing ‘We need a hall of fame.’
After these two songs they went on to show us the kings, queens and wealthy men/women. They achieved this by bringing look-alike actors in bright stunning costumes on stage and explaining who they are and why they are a heroes or ‘sheroes’ in the hall of fame.
I personally thought that the most powerful and moving part was the closing act of the first half with Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X. All had the same idea but different ways of getting it. Garvey and Malcolm X were military where Nelson and Martin Luther were about peace. The 4 of them together helped change the world an helped change me as a person. I hope they changed many people the way they changed me.
The second half of the show was people we were more likely to know. Opera Winfrey, Pele, Mohammed Ali, Bob Marley and Diane Abbott were all in the hall of fame.
Overall a very moving production and I hope everyone enjoys/enjoyed it as much as I did.
Hakym (aged 11)
Heroes and Sheroes:Hackney Empire
On arriving at the Hackney Empire I was proud to see the masses of people queued up to see the performance. There were many young Afro-Caribbean people there, mostly aged from twelve to nineteen; there were also some Caucasian people there, which made me realise that they were also interested to find out about our culture.
The performance kicked off with a young rap artist filling us with words of meaning, his main message being ‘I’m black and I wouldn’t have it any other way.’ Which I think means a lot because many young people are trying to be someone they are not and I think we should be proud of the colour of our skin, light or dark. This act was followed by a presentation of the black kings and queens including: Cleopatra and Tutankhamen.
A presentation of black freedom fighters was shown with Rosa Parks and Olaudah Equiano. These heroes: Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela all ended the first half with numerous speeches. Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey believed that violence and force should be used to get what you want: whereas Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela believed in World Peace and that everything should be done by negotiation. One particular quote form Malcolm X is ‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and a life for a life.’ Martin Luther King reacted to this by saying ‘If we all followed this rule, the world would be a blind and toothless place.’ The overall message of the conference was that a black person killing another black person is wrong and has to stop, NOW. I think this is a very good message to the audience, full of young people because there is no reason why we should be killing our own.
The second half of the performance paid tributes to many different aspects of black history including: entertainers, athletes and inventors. Many people who I was familiar with were included for example: Oprah, The Williams sisters, Tupac and Bob Marley
The costumes were colourful and beautiful along with the props and make-up which contributed brilliantly to this magnificent performance. The cast managed to look exactly like the people they were symbolizing. The songs and singers couldn’t have been any better. The production ended with free giveaways and the audience stood to sing and dance to the theme song, the chorus being ‘We need a hall of fame, to preserve our hero’s name.’
This production taught me a lot of things that I would not have been told at school. I found out that Queen Victoria’s grandmother was black, the man who invented the traffic light was paid a mere forty pounds, the inventor of blood transplants, died having being refused a transplant himself and also that many of our great leaders were hung at early stages of their lives.
I left Hackney Empire feeling proud of myself as a young black lady and I felt that I knew a lot more about my history. This production was full of meaningful speeches and songs which gave a positive vibe. It was presented in a clear, precise and easy way to understand. This performance was a fantastic collaboration of singing, acting and dancing shown in an enjoyable informing way. It was a truly amazing performance to be enjoyed by the whole family; in fact I wouldn’t mind going to see it again!
Jasyme Robinson-Martin (13)
A number of shows are scheduled for 2007 so check itzcaribbean.com for updates.
