Visiting Artist Experience At Wexner - Day Three

I spent the third day (Wednesday, July 31) of my visiting-artist residency at the Wexner Center editing narration that I'd recorded the previous day. The narration will be used in the documentary I'm working on, Lady Wrestler: The Amazing, Untold Story of African-American Women in the Ring.

While working on the narration yesterday, I edited the sound file in the Final Cut video-editing software on my laptop so that it can be transferred to the Wexner's more robust Avid editing system.

Editing the narration was a painstaking process, requiring me to go through each and every take of 17 pages of "dialogue" that I wrote and recorded. I'm going to have to re-record a few lines where my diction was sloppy, or I didn't place the emphasis on the right word.

Since the documentary is just under 90 minutes long, dropping in the new narration under each scene took several hours. I ended up working well into the night, leaving the Wexner facility at around 1 a.m.  Rather than exhausted, I felt energized, since this is work I'm passionate about and have wanted to do all my life.

Maybe it was the environment. Being at the Wexner Center, where creativity thrives, is like being inside the Dream Factory.

Plus, I know that "real" filmmakers (i.e., the ones that don't have to work a day job) have to power through when trying to complete a project. Cast and crew work ridiculously long hours even on the most well-organized movie sets and TV shows.

A highlight of the day yesterday was a lunch break in which I strolled around campus and ate lunch in the Oval outside Bricker Hall, which I used to do back in the '90s when I took English classes there. It was a nice walk down memory lane.

Visiting Artist Experience At Wexner - Day Two

I spent much of the second day of my visiting-artist residency at the Wexner Center (Tuesday, July 30) as a "microphone fiend," to quote the lyrics of the classic hip-hop track by Eric B. and Rakim.

I spent a couple of hours in the Wexner's sound booth re-recording narration for the documentary I'm putting the finishing touches on, Lady Wrestler: The Amazing, Untold Story of African-American Women in the Ring.  

I've always been a huge music fan, so it was kind of cool getting to "rock the mic" - although I couldn't sing my way out of a paper bag! 

Recording the narration is an interesting experience, especially since I've always had a love/hate relationship with my voice. Sometimes I wish my voice weren't so deep and distinctive, but I guess the upshot is I can use it for projects like this. 

Sometimes it pays to sound like a two-pack-a-day smoker, even though I've never smoked a cigarette...

Visiting Artist Experience At Wexner - Day One

One of the major projects I've been working on for the past few years is a documentary titled Lady Wrestler: The Amazing, Untold Story of African-American Women in the Ring. The story chronicles courageous black women who battled racism and sexism to become world wrestling champions in the '50s, '60s and '70s - several of whom still live in Columbus.

To put the finishing touches on this labor of love, I'm really grateful to be able to spend this week as a visiting artist at the Wexner Center for the Arts on the campus of The Ohio State University, my alma mater. 

The first day (Monday, July 29) was mainly spent getting settled and transferring audio and video files from the Final Cut Pro video-editing software on my laptop to Wexner's professional editing suite in the Avid format, which is the industry standard for film, television, etc.

It's really exciting to be able to be in this laboratory of creativity. 

Zimmerman Verdict Has (Re)Ignited National Conversation on Race

Like the rest of the nation, I've been pondering the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial. This case, and the ongoing question of whether Zimmerman was motivated by race during that ill-fated encounter with Trayvon Martin in February 2012, has brought the complexity of race in America (back) to the forefront.

When it comes to race, this nation seems to take a step forward and then two steps back. The nation elected, and then reelected an African-American president. But now stands sharply divided along racial lines in how we view the Zimmerman verdict. When President Barack Obama was elected in '08, there was a lot of media hype about the U.S. having magically become a "post-racial" society overnight. I didn't buy into that wishful thinking for one moment. 

From my perspective, it seems inconceivable that an armed adult could fatally shoot an unarmed minor and face no legal consequences - regardless of race. 

Although I grew up in an interracial family with three white stepparents and four biracial siblings, went to a predominantly white private school during my formative years and have always had friends of different races, I'm confused by many of the racial issues that have been raised by the George Zimmerman case.

There is a long-held stereotype that "one drop of black blood makes you black." This phrase has primarily been applied to biracial people who have one black parent and one white parent, yet are automatically considered to be "black."

In Zimmerman's case, does one drop of white blood make you white? His mother is Hispanic and his father is white. So does Zimmerman identify as white? (Of course, Hispanics can be of any race, which further complicates the question.)

If Zimmerman had his mother's Hispanic surname, would he have been perceived by the nearly all-white jury as "exotic," "other" and, therefore, dangerous?

The media is often quick to lump "black" and "brown" people into the same "underprivileged" category. So is Zimmerman not "brown"? Does he get some kind of special "hall pass" from "brown-ness" because his father's white? I have biracial and light-skinned African-American relatives who are Zimmerman's shade - and even lighter!

And what if Zimmerman were a dark-skinned Latino like, say, Sammy Sosa? Would we all be seeing this case differently?

The irony is that there are many areas of the country in which Zimmerman himself would be profiled. If the so-called neighborhood watch volunteer encountered the border police in Texas or Arizona, would he be perceived as just another law-abiding white American, or would he be asked to show proof of citizenship?

This case has certainly raised more questions than it has answered.

As the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington approaches, I wonder what Dr. Martin Luther King would say about all this. One thing he might do is encourage people to not only pray for the Martin family, but for the Zimmerman family as well: Pray that if Zimmerman did act with racial animus when he shot Trayvon Martin, that he see the error of his ways, have a genuine change of heart and maybe even become an advocate himself for healing and unity. 

Since the Zimmerman verdict, I've been moved to see peaceful protest rallies attended by people of all colors. If there's any good that has come out of this whole ordeal, it's that it has (re)opened the conversation about race in America.

CW's 'L.A. Complex' Is A Summer Show I'll Miss

 

 

One of the shows I’ll miss this summer TV season is The L.A. Complex, which ran last summer on the CW and was one of the best shows on TV. With its primary setting being an apartment complex centered around a swimming pool, The L.A. Complex was reminiscent of Melrose Place, only with acting that was a tad less over the top and storylines that were more grounded in reality.

The hour-long drama followed the lives of several aspiring young actors, musicians and writers who are trying to make it big in Hollywood. Of course, there were plenty of love triangles, backbiting and endless drama to spice things up.

One of the best “amenities” about The L.A. Complex was its diverse casting. One of the major plot lines involved an African-American rapper who was struggling with his sexuality. The rapper was also trying to reconnect with his long-lost father, who had recently been released from prison and was trying to turn his life around. Also, the owner of the apartment complex appeared, at least, to be Hispanic or Arabic. 

Other characters included a young woman who was raising her little brother, a child star wannabe; a struggling actress who signs on to do a reality show similar to VH-1's Celebrity Sober House and has to battle the manipulative producers trying to invent phony conflicts between the residents; and an up-and-coming actor who agreed to fake a relationship with a famous actress who wants resuscitate her career by staying in the tabloids.

The L.A. Complex deserved a renewal for another season, and at the very least could have served as an interesting summer replacement series for the CW each year. Its premise would have lent itself to a rotating cast, and maybe cameos by real-life rappers, singers and actors could have boosted its ratings. But the network “powers that be” opted for an eviction. Oh well…

A Few Thoughts On The Tragedy In Boston

A few thoughts on the tragedy in Boston:

This one hit home with me because I'm a runner. I've never done a marathon, but I've done the Columbus (Ohio) half-marathon and a few 5- and 10ks. When a race starts, I always get a surge of energy from being surrounded by people - a "wall of humanity."

The morning after the Boston Marathon bombing, instead of doing my usual indoor cardio workout, I felt like getting out and breathing fresh air. So I went for a run on a route near my house that I've been doing for years. It felt like a tribute run, of sorts, for the people affected by the events in Boston.

Whoever is responsible for this tragedy, domestic or international,  obviously wants to disrupt our way of life. So it seems to me that one of the best things we can do is continue going about our daily routines.

And I can think of no better way to start the day than with a run.

 

My Funny, Awkward Moment With Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Junot Diaz

I had a funny, awkward moment with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz when he came to speak at OSU on March 19.

Diaz appeared as part of Ohio State’s President and Provost's Diversity Lecture Series. As a Dominican-American who writes stories in which characters of all different races interact, he certainly fit the bill.

As a fellow writer, I enjoyed hearing Diaz speaking about his writing process and reading passages from his latest book, an engaging short-story collection titled This Is How You Lose Her.

I was fortunate enough to be able to do a phone interview with Diaz for the Call and Post newspaper before he spoke at Ohio State. Since winning the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for his debut novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Diaz has been a very busy man and I was pleasantly surprised that he made himself available for an interview.

When I emailed Diaz through his website, I was amazed that he replied almost immediately and said he could do the interview. He quite generously offered to do the interview upon returning from a trip abroad to Japan and a full day of teaching English lit at MIT in Boston, so we spoke at 11 o’clock one night. I was a bit groggy and had a little trouble formulating my questions, but he answered each question thoroughly and intelligently.

I went up and introduced myself to Diaz when he got done speaking at the event at OSU's Student Union, but because the line was so long, I didn’t get to converse with him.

The funny, awkward moment happened like this: I noticed that Diaz and I were wearing the exact same black peacoat and tried to joke about it by telling him, “Nice jacket.” He was so distracted, signing books for the dozens of people waiting, that he didn’t notice we were dressed alike and didn’t pick up on the joke. Oh, well…

Meeting a Pulitzer Prize winner was an enjoyable experience nonetheless.