Givin' Props, cont.

3/12

So I had a wonderful opportunity to take one of the artists we're going to talk about, Ronald K. Brown [Ronald K. Brown/Evidence], to dinner. And I said, "Ron, who are you? What are you? What do you do?" Because Ron is one of those folks who often, like Rennie Harris, their work gets labeled, if not as hip-hop, as hip-hop based movement.

Ron said, "I am not a B-Boy unless B stands for Brooklyn." [LAUGHTER] He said, "No, my work is not hip-hop or hip-hop based. Hip-hop is not the starting point. I am telling stories. I am letting out the spirit. I am looking at things we missed when people talk about my culture. I work and create in Brooklyn where certain movements, gestures, and even aesthetics are just part of the way one lives, one eats, one breathes."

So I said, "Well, then how do you define your work?" And he used an unusual word. He said, "My work is traditional.

He said: “I draw upon traditional African dance. I draw upon traditional West Indian dance. And so does hip-hop. Hip-hop is not anything new. And that is true of almost every other dance—and certainly every dance derived from the Black aesthetic. It comes from a tradition. And if I would call my work anything," Ron said, "I would call my work contemporary, urban, African dance." Yes.

We all use information from other sources. It's okay to use the street. It's okay to do that. In music it's called fusion or crossover. In the performing arts it's called interdisciplinary. The problem comes when appropriation or imitation is the intent. That's where MTV misses the point. It misses the source. It misses the reason why we create. Because we don't want to romanticize the ghetto. We don't want to bastardize urban art forms. We want to be interconnected to the universe. That was Ron's word. “We want to be interconnected to the universe.” We want to be in touch with the creative spirit. MTV, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. It is simply a medium like the newspapers, magazines, and periodicals you write for. Whether the medium is good or bad, how the medium is used depends on you.

Commercial success, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. We know great concert dancers, we know bad ones. There will be great MTV choreographers and bad ones. Michael Jackson is not just well known—he is a bad ass choreographer. What we have to do is to be cautious of those who would imitate him.

So I would leave you with these two thoughts: Ask artists to define themselves. A young woman said to me recently at a conference on hip-hop theater, "I don't want to be called hip-hop just because I'm a certain age." And that goes back to what Robin said. I mean you all mention that you know the names KRS One, Chuck D. Do you know that KRS One is now 40 years old? And he still calls himself hip-hop. So it isn't just about youth. We keep using the term “urban.” I was on a PBS panel last week with Uso Endur [sp?] who performed at Lincoln Center Festival. And we had this conversation. And I said, "Why is it that your music along with everyone else's gets lumped into world music? What is that? What does that mean? You can be from Brazil or you can be from South Africa or you can be from Taiwan and your music is called world music."

The last thing: don't be afraid to say, "I don't know." There are young people in your community who know what good hip-hop dance is. Don't be afraid to ask them. When I travel to the African continent I go into cultures, countries, communities (that we call tribes) and I say, "Who are your masters? Can they tell me who is good in your culture?” Your young people know, our audiences know. I work in an urban environment called Newark, New Jersey, and, believe me, if I don't get it right those kids tell me. So I leave you with that and I thank you. [APPLAUSE]