HB on H Street
About 50 people squeezed into Dissident Display Gallery on H St. NE last Friday. Holly Bass performed an excerpt of Uppity Negroes on Parade called In Sect/Communication. The piece is a celebration/investigation of the booty. The booty that she always wanted but never had. The booty that is in our face in every hip-hop video. There’s more – I feel like it’s hard to do it justice!
Through inventive costuming, the piece is able to explore these concepts. She turns everything around and presents the booty as a way of communicating through shakes and bounces. It is not just a body part, it has a purpose! It was so fulfilling to watch it (10 minute piece) and then dialogue about it for 30-40 minutes. It generated so many topics: the recent Imus incident, what is beautiful?, creating an alternative hip hop video, what is racism, when do you choose to take offense. She had so many great lines like (I am paraphrasing) “Yes, we have freedom of speech, you can say whatever you want, but if you are getting paid to say what ever you want, you have to be prepared to face the consequences.” Another favorite line came out when Holly was talking about marketing her costume (2 playground balls that make a bouncy beauty like the “hippidy” hop toy) and said, “maybe it could be a toy in Japan!” It is so inspiring to watch artists taking risks, walking on the line of offending and enlightening.
The conversation continued as a group of friends and I walked out the door and drove a few blocks through the quickly changing neighborhood. A friend said, “as soon as you see 25 year old white people walking around, bye bye black people.” And that’s what we saw. And what do I do with that comment? That is pretty much talking about me, the white girl that ventures to a gallery on H NE to see her friend perform.