An unexpected lesson...

Last night I had to work the 'WordPlay Gala' for my job at the Writers Theatre. This is the biggest fundraising event of the year for us! It was held at the Peninsula hotel in Chicago. It was a very high end exclusive event that was targeted towards all of our donors and board members that support the theatre. While the premise is to celebrate the success of theatre by enjoying a 5-course grand meal, serving premium wine and experiencing exceptional entertainment, the primary focus like all of our events in development is, to raise more money.

The part I played in the grand scale of things was small but beneficial =) One of my main responsibilities of the night was to sell raffle tickets. We were raffling off 15,000 dollar in cash and we were only selling 500 tickets(so chances were looking good for those who wanted to play) During the cocktail hour I worked the room in my sleek black dress, making sure I was selling those 100 dollar raffle tickets. I came up good and I couldn't help but laugh at the drunk C.E.O's and trophy wives who threw their black amex cards at me, purchasing up to 6 raffle tickets at one time! I couldn't help but think to myself, "damn, you just bought enough raffle tickets to pay my rent!!"

Following the cocktail hour and dinner, I had to work as an auction spotter. A fun experience. I had a section of tables I had to keep an eye on and encourage to bid. It was fun interacting with the people to raise their bids and create a sense of competition! It sorta felt like a a very intense game, where you wanted your section to go the highest! We had all types of nice treats for our donors to bid on. A premium instant wine cellar, trips to Tuscany, Cabo, etc but the craziest one was a trip for four, on a private jet to this premiere exclusive golf resort in NEBRASKA! One of our donors bought it for 23,500!! I was thinking who the heck buys a trip to NEBRASKA for 23,500 dollars???

But it was in that moment that it hit me! These elite people were not throwing their money away just because they wanted to go to Nebraska or Cabo! They could go to these places any time of the year, heck 5 times in one year if they really wanted! The money for these 'trips' were essentially going towards the support of the theatre, the support of the arts and more importantly the support of their COMMUNITY!

A lot of things were going through my mind towards the end of the night, as my co-workers and I shared drinks and laughter at the hotel bar. I remember when I began working in development my intention was to learn the insides of how to run a theatre company properly. I was excited because development is the core unit of any functioning theatre company. So I walked into this position thinking I would learn all the proper tactics and tools for funding and apply all my knowledge to my own production company(Don't Even Tripp Productions). But in the end, I've come to learn something even more valuable...

True funding, great support and ultimate success comes from the support of your fellow neighbors and community. For the first time ever in my life, I had a new respect for this elite crowd. In some ways or another, these people sorta resembled community leaders. Not in the traditional sense of what I viewed a community leader to be, but nevertheless they were dedicated, passionate and more importantly, they showed SUPPORT of those in their community and I had to respect that.

I then begin to think about the communities in which I came from...where was our support? where was our resources? why were we in such lack?

It's crazy because a good friend of mine who too has passion for the community and arts, is currently working as an office-clerk for Contra Costa County back in California. She is dealing with people who are on welfare. There is such a contrast in our jobs in the sense that I am working with individuals who write checks(HUGE AMOUNTS) and she is dealing with people who are trying to get checks(government aid)

The other crazy yet obvious contrast that we both have discussed is, how the people who are writing the checks are white and the people who are looking for the checks, are the people of color. This is by no means by pure coincidence(but we can discuss that in another blog) I want to stick to the topic of community. In the community of Glencoe(where I work) the demographics(by no surprise) are made up of affluent wealthy white people, they are in a position to give and support. And while some people may begin to think, 'well damn why don't they support those who are less fortunate? As oppose to writing a 23,500 check to go to Nebraska that will go towards their theatre company?!'

But my question is different...why don't we as a community take from their example and learn to support one another instead of looking for others looking to support us?

it's a simple question that can bring a variety of complex answers

but here is my simple take on it...

As a young African American women myself, since I came from a community that was in lack and that is still in need, who am I not to give back? Although I am not in the same financial position as the people of Glencoe, I too aspire one day to be in position where I can give tremendously! I also think it is important that we as a people do not forget that there are many other ways to give back outside of our money. Through your time volunteering, mentoring, setting up programs, or even setting an example by going to college or grad school to not only better yourself but your community, are examples of the little things that eventually turn into the bigger things that helps restore our communities.


Maybe I feel this urgent need to take responsibility for our communities because I hate that there are so many people of color in lack. I understand there are a number of institutionalized programs that promote injustices to keep us down, but I'm not looking towards those who are oppressing us to do something, I think we should instead look to ourselves. I want to see my community in a position where we are not looking towards the government to write our checks, but instead we're looking to write our own!

Despite all my conflicting thoughts, I am thankful for experiences such as last night. Last night gave me a new vision for Don't Even Tripp Productions. I now envision within 10 years, after we have our own offices(in the Bay Area, Chicago and San Diego) we'll be having our own Gala too. A night celebrating, arts, culture and education. Good food and great music!

We'll have an auction too! Except we won't auction off wine and trips, we'll auction off scholarships, tuition payments, housing, funding for schools, funding for the arts, etc... We'll have donors and board members(of all colors and different backgrounds) who support the arts and have a passion to give back to our communities that need it the most.

It's so funny how I thought the number one thing I was going to get from this job was learning structure and networking to build a proper board for the company. But if anything, this experience has taught me what really is important; which is staying true and connected to the community in which you came from...crazy how being away from my community has given me an even stronger drive to stay more connected =)


I've also come to learn that the best lessons in life, are the ones you were not expecting to be taught! And I am ever so thankful for this unexpected lesson =)

Blocks are meant to be KNOCKED DOWN!

I've been meaning to write a new blog but I've been so caught up with life and so close to finishing this play I told myself I wouldn't write anything else until it was done...

It’s still not done lol

BUT! It will be, REALLY SOON! Because I finally overcame that dreadful illness called writers block! Got some insight on how to finish this play! But anyway, that is not the point of this blog. Well sort of...you see, while riding the train today I was going over the notes for the play in my notebook when I came across this poem or I guess more so of ‘free write” or "venting forum" I wrote a few weeks back. Funny thing is, I was venting about having writers block. Who writes about having writers block right? lol, Well this free write started off as a vent that turned into something else that sort of gave me the determination to overcome my writers block.

I thought to share these scratches from notebook in hopes to maybe make you notice something about yourself and how you choose to express your thoughts and ideas, even during times of frustration. Whatever the case, enjoy the randomness!Because what i'm sharing below was taken directly from my notebook, off the top of my head, one frustrated writers block night lol


Writers block(Free write)
"writers block...when your imaginary friends don't wanna to talk you anymore" lol

Writing at a rapid pace
Letting the words finally get a taste…
Of paper!

No wait!
Scratch that,
it’s more like a sip

For the words
that sit on my lips
are dying to break free
jump off the paper and become
the human form of those jaw dropping, tear jerking
Lorraine Hansberry meets Langston Hughes BOMB DOT COM type of soliloquies

But let me stop!
because the truth is
This poem has no topic
Let alone any real thought

No. This right here(in a Katt Williams voice)

Is only a reflection of
My stupid ass freaking writers block!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I don’t even see why it’s called writers block
There isn’t a pad lock on my computer
Nor have my hands been mysteriously hidden from me
As if I’m in unfair biased game of hide & seek

I’m not blocked from writing!
Nor am I at lost on what to say...
I just can’t find the perfect way

To put all my ideas and words into there proper place!

Because if I allowed you to
glance into my notebook
And see the erase marks
Next to the elementary drawings of rainbows and Lollypops

Or the lyrics to my favorite slow jam tunes
right next to an unfinished haiku
that explains the meaning
Of the bay area term
‘what it do’

You might conclude…

I am a bit random.

But I can’t be alone.
Doesn’t anyone out there know how it feels?

When you’re half way through
Got a few good rhymes,
Some clever metaphors
that you thought were too cool

And then out of nowhere
You get really confused!
The creative juices stop flowing
And you don’t know what to do!

Kind of like right now!
My mind is flowing…
But I’m thinking about FOOD!

Damn.

Some Mac n cheese with the burnt edges sounds real good!!

I got work in 5 hours
And a presentation to do….
Talks about the Chicago blizzard
Protest in Yemen and
how Rahmn Emanuel was kicked off
the ballot fill my room

Makes me want to put CNN on mute!
Write my OWN commentary to
This depressing world news

My commentary would sound a little something like this:

‘Cure for AIDS
Summer is now extended for 100 more days!
No need to worry about gas prices
cause we all can fly for free!
All wars have ended in the Middle East

Our currency is replaced with
love and time
Tea party members and all ignorant people of the world
have lobotomies
and are granted with functional LOGICAL real minds!

People now inhale compassion
which means they only can exhale love
Heaven is now truly shinning in all our of lives
giving everyone access to the goodness of our lord above..."

But in this PERFECT world
Filled with IMPERFECT human beings
I really do not see how any of that, could ever be…

However I’m a realistic optimist
So we HAVE to keep hope alive!
So no matter what happens,
Please, I beg of you, Do not give up the fight!!

Damn.

I now see why it's so important for me to write

we have to express
we have to inspire
we have to fight
we have to show love
we have to give a voice to the unheard
we have to give a light to the ones in the shadows

we have to do something
especially when we don't like what is being done.

writers block
I now see your purpose
your block to my mind is the same as the injustices and inequalities
that show up in all over lives and even in this world we live in today

from the big blocks to small blocks
we all deal with something that is up against us,
but history has proven that those blocks
will and they can come down.

blocks of slavery
blocks of the Berlin wall
block of segregation
blocks of woman rights
blocks of the Jim Crow south

they all came down!

so if ALL OF THAT came down, and those before me
had way more against them, yet were still able to knock
those blocks down, what the hell is my excuse?

what is any of our excuses?

Anything that blocks you from your rights, your passions, your justice and your love, is only meant to come down. So what is blocking you and your loved ones? And how will you fight it to make sure it comes down?

That was my vent and free write...

Hmmm, all I can say now is, that I fight my blocks with words, and the words I speak/write do come to life!

Can’t wait to finish this play and then put it on, it shall be one less block i have knocked down! =)

-AJ Tripp

Who you calling an UNCLE TOM?

It’s so funny when you catch yourself in your own ignorance. However, I’ve come to learn, to admit when you are wrong essentially is showing the mature side of you that wants to be right.

So with that being said, this blog is an attempt for me to undo one of my wrongs and turn it into a ‘right’. Not just for the sake of my own ignorance but also to shed some light(knowledge) on others…

A few weeks back, beginning of December to be exact, my co-worker and I were doing training for this educational outreach program through my job. Currently for the months of January/February we're traveling to different schools setting up after school workshops with students going over Dramatic history/American playwrights. I was excited because I was assigned to assist with the group that was going over the history of Lorraine Hansberry and her famous play ‘A raisin in the sun.’ My co-worker was assigned the group that was dealing with literature adaptations to the stage. Unlike me, he's working with high school students and doing a workshop on ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I remember joking (as I always do with him) to make sure to go into great detail with the students on how NOT to become an Uncle Tom! The last thing we needed were more sell-outs.

My coworker automatically replied with great assertion. Defending Uncle Tom. Explaining how he was going to explain to the students who the true Uncle Tom was. He claimed the character Uncle Tom was a decent man, one who sacrificed himself for others. Uncle tom according to my co-worker, was a hero.

Considering I never was a master at hiding my reactions, the look of disbelief and shock was transparent as me being black and him being a white… there was no way to hide it. My co-worker then proceeded to ask me, if I had even read the book. I replied casually with a no. But his dramatic gasp for air and loud response of ‘ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Caught me by surprise. You would have thought I had somehow let down the entire black race by not reading this book...

But then again his disappointment was appropriate. Who was I to cast judgment on a book I never even read? My ignorance not only on the book but even the character was not the platform to state an argument that Uncle Tom was some ‘shuckin & jivin Massa loving sell-out!” My co-worker’s perception of the character truly me had me thinking, Who was Uncle Tom? And had I been misinformed?

So I didn't let my ignorance get the best of me. I did a little research on the book as well as the on Abolitionist Writer (Harriet Beecher Stowe) and came to discover some interesting facts on this famous American literature…

-This book is consider to be the first 'best seller' Selling over 300,000 copies. Some sources say it even outsold the Bible or it came close to being 2nd in the standings.
'
-It's also one of the first pieces of fictional literature to discuss the 'harsh' realties of slavery(though i personally have read others that tell way more horrid depictions). However, this book was still consider ‘revolutionary’ at the time considering it was written in 1851 and not that many books had been published speaking out against slavery and the problems in which it caused.

-It was also written in response to the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, which forced the northerner states to not harbor any fugitive slaves and return them to their ‘rightful’ owners
read more about here: http://americanhistory.about.com/od/beforethewar/a/fugitiveslave.htm

-It was also inspired by a number of real life slave narratives. One man in particular by the name of Josiah Henson

-Some sources even claim this book was one of the catalysts to spark the start of the Civil War…

Once I discovered the historical significance behind this story I was even more intrigued to read it…

And I did.
Finished it some time last week.

695 pages later…and I am left a with a number of thoughts, concerns and critiques on the overall book. But I won’t focus on that, that can be for another discussion or blog. I just want to focus on Uncle Tom.

To my findings, my co-worker was somewhat correct. In the book, Uncle Tom was a soft gentle man, resilient and strong. Naïve at times and even considerably mistaken for being passive, but he was written to display someone one resembled Christian benevolence. A man who remained strong and peaceful despite his harsh reality.

This was not the Uncle Tom I had been socialized to think of.

What was even crazier was how Uncle Tom is usually referred to as a black person who sales out their own race for the approval of white people. But the Uncle Tom in this book actually died for members of his race. This was displayed in the climax of the story when Uncle Tom refuses to reveal to Master LaGree where the young slave women(who were being sexually abused by him) had ran off to. Instead of “selling them out” Uncle Tom remains silent. He takes the brutal beating, which then results in his death.

This ending for Uncle Tom literally disturbed me. Not because how he died, because he was not the first or last of many African-Americans who died in such inhumane circumstances. What made me upset was how his character over time had been distorted and confused.

I came to discover before 1856 American Copyright laws did not grant novel authors any control over derivative stage adaptations. Meaning, just about anybody could take someone’s work and recreate it any form. And that's exactly what happened with Uncle Tom’s cabin.

Although the most recognized stage adaptation was Aiken’s version, which ran for over 50’s years, there was still a great number of other versions of Uncle Tom’s Cabin being depicted on stage reaching the masses. These versions fell into hands of the minstrel shows or 'black-face' producers. The producers of the early stage shows didn't “think” that they could attract an audience that would want to see a black slave who was patient, strong and kind. Their agenda, as it was with all these shows, was to portray blacks as being lazy, ignorant and inferior. Therefore, in the stage adaptation of Uncle Tom's cabin, Uncle Tom was transformed into a Goon. Someone who was ignorant, lazy, and submissive to his ‘massa’. Some producers even changed the ending of the story by having Uncle Tom rat out where the women slaves had ran off to.

And this is how the “sell-out" version of Uncle Tom was born.




Maybe I find this to be deep, because I myself as writer believe the characters that we depict in a form of literature, play or film not only reflect ones’ imagination but the realties in which we live in. I would be beyond upset if someone took one of my fictional characters and decided to change their beliefs, convictions or even their actions just to fit the agenda of the mainstream masses.

And if you still think I am going too far with this point. I am not. It is well known fact that art forms such as plays, films and even literature(such as Uncle Tom's Cabin) serve a vital role in our society not because they serve as pass times for mere entertainment, but because they also serve as a from of social discourse. They also motivate people to change or think about the world around them.

But outside of that, I guess a character like Uncle Tom provides meaning and history as to how some negative stereotypes or characters of African Americans came to light. It’s proof of how something that was meant to be a symbol of good can be turned into something completely opposite of that.

It sort of makes me question the current symbols we have in our mainstream culture today. Grant it, back in the days of ‘Uncle Tom’ black people didn’t have much rights or choices on how they were being depicted, let alone even how they lived(which was something I was reminded of when reading this story) But what about the black people of today? What is our excuse for the negative images being displayed in mainstream culture?

To sit back and accept these images as being "ok" or "cool" in my opinion is the new definition of the modern day “sell-out"

Maybe being a sell out isn’t someone who appeases to the likings of white people...

Maybe being a sell out is someone who chooses to not take advantage of the fact that they can go to school and educate their mind.

Maybe being a sell out is someone who chooses to not utilize their right to be heard and actually vote.

Maybe being a sell out is someone who is drowning in a complacent attitude instead of of growing in spirit of action.

Maybe being a sell out is someone who fits to the standard mold of being accepted as oppose to being the unexpected.

Maybe being a sell out is one who rather fit to image of Barbie Doll....





Or fried chicken eating rapper?


I mean you decide?

It's quite obvious to say Uncle Tom didn't have much of a choice on how his image or character would be sold, but we actually do. So the question I ask is...

what is it that you are or have been willing to sale yourself out to?

I can only imagine in a culture that advocates 'it's ok, as long as you getting paid' the type of answers people would say...

But back to the subject matter at hand… which is Uncle Tom

Uncle Tom
I write this as a reminder
of the things
i am willing and not willing
to sale myself out to you.

Uncle tom I write this for you.
To remind others that one story(your story)
Can be a testimony for change…

I write this for you.
To set the record and history straight
on what your character originally represented
and who he came to be.

Your character has inspired me
to create stories that reflect
the world in which I live in
and also a world
I one day wish to see…

Why? Well.... WHY NOT!??

I know I do not stand alone when I state this, for I do believe just about some(not all) people once in their life have been in a position where they decided to speak up for someone or something they believed in! I know I am not alone as I call out to the driven passionate individuals in this drama called life, who like to set/accomplish goals, discipline themselves for a better cause and maybe even do the unexpected.

However, in the midst of your 'courageous' or 'daring' behavior, you still manage to get one negative person who emerges from the mountains of 'I suck at life, therefore: let me rain on your parade!"" And it never fails as this resentful being, who is the poster child for 'existing as oppose to living, has the nerve to cock up their eyebrow, fold their arms across their chest and twist their lips to formulate the redundant question of..."why are you doing that?!"


My reply...my philosophy...my mantra, will always and forever be, WHY NOT?! =)

So yes, that is the answer for the start of this blog, WHY NOT?! =)

I haven't 'regularly' blogged since my last production(..and Angel Came down) and before that was when I studied abroad in Singapore(2006). Those were personal blogs centering around particular current themes in my life. This blog however, will have a theme of sharing random thoughts and discoveries centering around: history, literature, music, politics and/or maybe even the interesting/crazy bums I see riding the L to work. Which means I could be discussing anything from my thoughts about Obama's Healh Care Reform to Nicki Minaj's latest hair weaves....





Random thought: could you imagine what the topic of conversation would be if Nicki and Barack were to meet?? =P

So yes, while randomness may be the spark to the flame for this blog, the actual fuel to keep it burning will be the insight and inspiration I aim to offer through my discoveries. As a writer, i strive to bring purpose, humor and meaning to whatever I create! =)

THIS will be my winter blog! 10 degree and below Chicago winters are NOT THE BUSINESS!! While Chicago is a great city with a lot to offer, when the winter comes to seize control, this city becomes a God forsaken place of heart throbbing bitterness! This type of cold can be breed one of two things: alcoholics(cause people tend to just loathe at bars when it get cold) or children(it's cold...so people have sex)

I've decided to take a productive approach to this winter cold by indulging myself in a number of great books, dedicating myself to completing two plays(which will be DONE by March!) and NOW, this blog!

So yes!! The winter does have a purpose! This can be a good form of discipline. I also believe this will also be an outlet to share things that others may have already been thinking but just didn't have the time to write...

Let's see how this turns out =)

-AJ