Thank You Indiana University, 2/25/08

Written by Catzie [and Michelle in brackets]

[Over a year ago, I received an email from Joii Byrd, who is the Performance Manager at IU's African American Arts Institute (AAAI) about coming out to perform in their event called "Worlds Collide: Spirit, Soul, and Body." I think there was some concern about our profanity, so we had to wait awhile before we found out if we could be in this event. Happily, we were invited officially--though we were told to keep our profanity to a minimum. More on that later.

We were picked up at the airport by Johnny Campbell, the Tech Supervisor at AAAI, who told us interesting stories about John-Drop-the-Cougar-Mellencamp and KKK bumper stickers some folks out there have which read "KKK--the original Boyz-n-the-Hood." He also used to do sound tech with touring performance groups and comedians, including Rich Little.

Johnny dropped us off at Indiana Memorial Union, the on-campus hotel and conference center. Lo and behold, our room already can a guest:]

Our hotel room came with its own ladybug, right in the bed.

[We were hungry, so we decided to roam around IMU for food. We never expected to encounter a not-so-appetizing-attempt at a little taste of Philly:]

This is gross by all means. Seriously. Sandwiches should never be made into soups. [What was REALLY funny and a bit weird, too, was the guy who tried to hit on Catzie while we were taking this picture. He just kept talking and talking and talking . . .]

Would you believe these cakes are available and on display at the campus coffee shop? IU done came up big time. [They were real purty.]

[Finally, we had to get to the show. Another poet performing in this event was Tomas Riley, who is a member of The Taco Shop Poets collective. Here he is getting prepared in the Green Room:]

[Catzie and I took over all the floor space, you know, so we forced him into a small spot next to the filing cabinets. Here's the stage set-up:]

The stage was set up like a talk show. There were a couple of couches and a coffee table for the other artists to sort of chill on while waiting to perform.


In our most cheerful voice: "Welcome to the Yellow Rage Show, and we're your host Michelle and Catzie. Today's topic is "Sex, Race and Politics"

[Photo credit, Ben Skurvin, Courtesy of AAAI. In another photo credit to Ben, Here we are listening to Tomas reading poems from his book Mahcic:]

[This is Dr. James Mumford who also read his poetry--and that's Johnny setting up the mic:]

[Dr. Mumford had musical accompaniment:]

[We performed after Dr. Mumford. The crowd had wonderful energy and we had a great time performing. We had to issue a profanity warning at the beginning, and after we started doing "Listen Asshole," a woman hurriedly put her young daughter's coat on and left the show--but the rest of the show was PG for the most part b/c we couldn't do the profanity. A fact which upset some of the audience when we announced that we had to do a "clean" version of "A Little Too Much." Alas, "Woman Flava" was allowed to remain intact for all its "knock the taste out your motherfucking mouth" glory.

Here we are with Joii, Tomas, and Dr. Mumford. Photo credit, Ben again:]

[Aren't we short, goodness. Then we got to talk to some of the students at the show. Because we suck at getting these posts up in a timely manner, we missed promoting the theatrical production of American Ma(u)l that took place at IU last weekend. But here's a description of the show from the Theater Dept's link:

"With the country in recession and the nation mired in war, the newly elected President of the United States needs to kick start the economy. Suddenly a miracle solution appears. A new form of cotton has been cultivated, and with it the promise of prosperity returns, but labor is scarce. With no one to pick this new breed of cotton the President takes what he considers the only logical action: He rescinds the Fourteenth Amendment and re-institutes slavery. In this deconstruction of American history, playwright Robert O’Hara uses scathing satire, outrageous humor, and soaring theatricality to address the tenuous state of racial harmony in America today."

Interesting, huh? The IU production was directed by Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe. We're really sorry that we missed promoting it by a week, but here are a couple students who were in the production:]

Here we are with Eunice and Brianna, some students who are part of the Americal Maul Theatre Project. They came in bunches and talked to us afterwards including one of the guys who said we were "fierce!".

[Shouts to all the students we didn't get to take a picture with: Dawn, Thomas, Aaron, and Viet. Here's Tomas' book on the merch table:]

[Afterwards, we went to eat at some Irish restaurant in Bloomington. It was sorta snowing when we left--it was kinda big and slushy but almost snow in the fluffy sense--and the cool thing was that Tomas had never seen snow falling from the sky before. It was neat to see him look so . . . happy . . . seeing it. It reminded me of how magical snow can make you feel and how fresh and pure the world can look when its falling. Anyway, I should have taken a picture of it but, doh! I wasn't thinking about it.]

Afterwards we went out to an Irish Pub for dinner and I ordered a Black and Tan. But for some reason mine was more diluted than everyone elses.

Lamb and potatoes. Yummy. That green jello shot in the corner is actually mint jelly, which is the usual complement to lamb, but it was a little too candy-like for my taste.

Michelle's Chicken Cordon Bleu had so many green onions, they shoulda just re-named it Cordon Green. [Actually it was Chicken Kiev. I scraped all the scallions off.]

[We'd like to thank the other folks at AAAI for all their hard work making this show possible: Dr.Charles Sykes, Rebekah Moore, and Darlene McDermott (Jersey in the house!). We're sorry again to the cast members of American Ma(u)l for not being on the ball, but we hope they had a great show. We hope to see you guys at IU again soon!]

-Catzie [and Michelle in brackets]