One scholar bemoans’ verbal violence ‘
Northwestern University students canceled a music following pushback from some individuals over the use of the n-word by a figure.
Campus theater band Lovers &, Madmen canceled the remaining two reveals the first weekend of March following criticism from dark students.
The Stephen Sondheim musical” Assassins”, which debuted in 1990, includes the use of the n-word by John Wilkes Booth. ” The Ballad of Booth” has a series about an n-word “lover”. It is a insulting name the figure uses toward President Abraham Lincoln.
The Daily Northwestern reported:
Preceding the decision to forfeit the remaining shows,” Assassins” garnered a great deal of attention on social media after production team members uploaded a content warning to the” Assassins” Instagram account on Thursday ….
…The L&, M table uploaded the same article differently to its Instagram account before opening day and included a website in the user’s profile to a one-page record of resources related to the usage of the N-word. The report also offered three shot factors to explain what contextual and character development parts the use of the N-word adds to” Assassins”.
” We chose a present that contained the n-word, and we failed to engage in meaningful discussions with the Black community”, the theater group wrote in a speech. ” On Friday]February 28], the exhibit was performed twice with the addition of the n-word”.
The use of the n-word is “violence”, according to a scholar interviewed by the Daily Northwestern.
” Putting on this play and using that expression in that statement is a form of assault”, Noel Matthews said. ” Whether you are involved with it in only a theatre feeling or a non-theatrical feeling, using the N-word is aggressive. It’s language crime, and that should not be condoned by person”.
The” theater group” needs to do more to fight its “anti-Blackness”, according to another student.
” I think from now on, it’s about time to begin having conversations within both Northwestern, but particularly within the NU theater community, about anti-Blackness and what it has done to the Black kids in the theater community, Black students in the designer community”, Elebetel Negusse told the student newspaper.
One member of the group said it could not alter the songs without violating its rights deal with Music Theatre International, the student newspaper reported.
The withdrawal drew criticism from Northwestern University laws Professor Andrew Koppelman who called it “performative virtue-signaling”.
” After this sorry event, a wonders whether the theatre programme at Northwestern will ever attempt again to describe prejudice on the stage”, he wrote in The Hill. ” It will probably change, instead, to safer issues. One of the main ways in which tyranny maintains itself is by keeping citizens thinking about something else”.
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IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: An artist portraying John Wilkes Booth in the music” Assassins”. Unique Theatre/YouTube
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