"Aspects of the African American Experience" panel discusses play

The GSU Center for Performing Arts hosted a panel discussion "Aspects of the African American Experience: Chicago Since the Civil Rights Era."  The panel, held on November 13, was a companion discussion held for the play "Speaking in Tongues: The Chronicles of Babel" which took place at GSU on November 17 at 8 P.M in the Performing Arts Center.  

The panel was hosted by David Hamilton Golland, Assistant Professor of History.  GSU students, Michele Nettles, Kristina Kloc, and Dorothy Adebayo were featured as presenters at the event. The author of "Speaking in Tongues", Shepsu Aakhu, was also present, as well as one of the people that inspired one of his characters, Michael.

The first presenter of the night was Michele Nettles, who presented "Respect: Black-on-Black Violence in Southside Chicago." She shared that her brother was a victim of a crime that took his life. Her brother's death was one of the reasons of why she is so passionate about the Black on Black violence in Chicago. Every year, this statistic continues to increase. She discussed several reasons as to why such crime occurs. Some of the reasons Nettles listed for the crimes are poverty, lack of role models, generations of males in jail, and segregation of Blacks in Chicago.  She suggested that there should be more mentoring programs for teens, better schools and housing, and for parents to interact more with their children in order to start decreasing Black on Black violence.

Kristina Kloc discussed "Delta Blues in the Big City: Music and the African-American Community Since the Civil Rights Era."  She said the cultural freedom  that Music gave to African-Americans because it gave them a way to expressed themselves freely. Kloc stated that when people hear music, they should "listen to the message it has because it can change a nation."

Dorothy Adebayo performed "Challenges, Struggles, and Triumphs: My Life from the Delta to the Southside."Adebayo gave a magnificent performance by composing her own poetry and reciting it along with music playing in the background. Throughout her poetry, she projected the journey of her life, along with all the struggles and great accomplishments that the African American community has been through.

Shepsu Aakhu ended the panel discussion by speaking about the play and what it means to him. Aakhu said that through his play, he wants to portray the lives of African Americans. He wanted to tell people the stories that sometimes are not told through the play. Michael, one of his inspirational characters, spoke about his experiences. He talked about his life and his experience growing up as a minority and how he is so glad to be able to share his life through his inspirational character in "Speaking in Tongues"