HGSE News: "The Respect Project" at the Askwith Education Forum

"And I submit that nothing will be done until people of goodwill put their bodies and their souls in motion. And it will be the kind of soul force brought into being as a result of this confrontation that I believe will make the difference."
—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Kirvan Boyd and Delina Sales dance a confrontation between a 'cool' young man and a young woman who refuses to let him define her by her appearance.

Martin Luther King, Jr. would be proud.

In honor of Dr. King's birthday, students from the Boston Arts Academy (BAA) put their bodies and souls in motion and thrilled a packed house at the Gutman Conference Center on January 17, 2001 with their performance of "The Respect Project," a series of monologues, dramatic scenes, dances, and songs inspired by HGSE's Fisher Professor Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot's 1999 book, Respect: An Exploration.

Lawrence-Lightfoot introduced the production and the performers by telling the story of the development of her book into a performance piece by BAA's students, teachers, and visiting artists. She spoke of her excitement at the idea that Respect "might possibly find its way into popular culture...that it might be danced in the streets!" And she expressed her pride in the results of a "long, arduous, and exciting journey...a wonderful experiment in teaching, learning, and artistic creation...What a great way to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday!"

With music ranging from Steven Sondheim's America to an angry rap about self-esteem written and performed by student Anh-Tuan Trinh, and with dialogues and monologues exploring both the absence of respect and the power of its presence, the production portrayed the lack of respect shown to deaf students, and to people of differing sizes, colors, ambitions, ethnicities, and neighborhoods, as well as the struggle to empower oneself and others through respect.

'Keep doing what you're doing, and hopefully adults...will surround you and encourage you,' said Wyatt Jackson, artistic director.

The whole BAA company rocked the house with their energy, and with the breadth and depth of their talents.

The production ended with an exuberant dance to Aretha Franklin's "Respect" as the appreciative audience rose to its feet, clapped in time, and sang along.

"We have all learned a tremendous amount about the meaning of 'respect' in creating this show," says artistic director, Wyatt Jackson. "It's about...making sure everyone's voice is heard. If you're going to do a show about respect, you have to be ready to give that to everyone who is a part of it. In a city like Boston that has dealt with a lot of disrespect—social, religious, economic, racial—all of these issues came right to the surface."

About the Respect Project
"The Respect Project" is the culmination of two years of Boston Arts Academy workshops and seminars centering around issues of respect. It was written collaboratively by students and teachers from the BAA with the help and encouragement of outside artists and educators such as Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Tony Award-winning director George Faison, poet Thema Simone Bryant, and playwright Lois Roach. The production was directed by Juanita Rodrigues and produced by Rosalind Thomas-Clark, both of whom teach theatre at BAA. Bosnian composer Svetlana Bukvic-Nichols provided musical direction, and Wyatt Jackson, a native Bostonian hip-hop artist, dancer, and director, was the artistic director. The production was funded by grants from the Boston Foundation, The American Composers Forum, and Anna Deveare Smith's Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue.

Sociologist Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot was the first African-American woman tenured and the first to hold an endowed professorship at HGSE. Upon her retirement from the faculty, the chair she currently holds will be renamed in her honor, making her the first African-American woman in Harvard's history to have an endowed professorship named for her. Lawrence-Lightfoot is the author of seven books, including Respect, I've Known Rivers (1993), which explores the development of creativity and wisdom using the lens of "human archaeology," and Balm in Gilead: Journey of a Healer (1989), the story of her mother, Dr. Margaret Morgan-Lawrence, one of the first African-American women to graduate from both Cornell University and Columbia University's School of Medicine. In 1984, Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Prize Fellowship, sometimes referred to as "the MacArthur genius award."

The Boston Arts Academy is a collaborative project between the Boston Public Schools and the ProArts Consortium, an association of six internationally renowned institutions of higher learning specializing in the visual arts, performing arts, and architecture: Berklee College of Music, Boston Architectural Center, The Boston Conservatory, Emerson College, Massachusetts College of Arts, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. As a pilot school within the Boston Public Schools, the BAA is charged with being a laboratory of innovation and a beacon for arts exploration and education for the Boston school system.

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