2011 July | OnBeat

Corcoran Performance This Saturday, 1pm to 3pm!

The good folks here at OnBeat will have the good fortune of collaborating with the prestigious Corcoran Gallery of Art this weekend. We have been asked to do a bboy/funk style dance performance as part of the ongoing “Chris Martin: Painting Big” exhibit that will be on display at Corcoran until October 23.

What’s the connection, you might ask? Well it turns out that Chris Martin, now a renowned painter that has exhibited all over the world, is a proper D.C. native. In fact, a big influence on his work has been a lot of the funk-based music that he grew up listening to on D.C. radio stations, and he still listens to artists such as James Brown and Aretha Franklin while he does his painting, including some of the pieces that will be on display this weekend. Chris Martin and the people at Corcoran thought it would be neat to have an exhibition with performers dancing to the same type of music that has been a big influence on Chris Martin.

Here’s a link that describes Chris Martin’s exhibition, including some pretty cool time lapse footage of the set-up of the giant 26-foot high paintings that will serve as the backdrop for our performance.

http://www.corcoran.org/now/martin/index.php

While we at OnBeat of course support art in all forms, we have a particular soft spot for funky music, and count several bboys among our membership. So we are delighted to be able to take part in the event at such an accomplished venue. Hope you all can make it!

The event is FREE, this Saturday, July 30 from 1pm to 3pm. We will perform and conduct a basic dance workshop on the art form of bboying/breakdancing.

The Corcoran is located at the corner of 17th and E St NW, right next to the White House.

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The Passing of Georgia House Bill 87… OffBeat

This post was inspired by a video shot, edited, and sent to me by OnBeat contributor Edgar Lituma (You will find the link listed at the bottom of this page). It features aspects of a prostest organized against Georgia’s recently enacted House Bill 87 (HB-87). HB-87, otherwise known as the Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011, was created with the intention of aggressively removing ”illegal aliens” from the state. This bill, at the time of passing, included provisions that would have allowed law enforcement to stop “suspicious” persons and force them to produce documentation; moreover, those caught helping or showing hospitality to these undocumented and suspicious persons would be subject to punishment themselves. Does this sound like anything else you’ve read about in the news lately? Did we learn anything from the failures in Arizona?

The good news is that we have learned a little and both of these provisions have, since the filming of this protest, been halted by a federal court judge on the basis they were unconstitutional… No shit! The bad and frankly disturbing news is that these provisions were passed by elected officials in the first place.

Before I go any further, I need to mention the purpose of this post is not to tackle the issue of immigration as a whole nor is it to address other aspects of HB 87. The many variables in these complicated equations could not be justly addressed by this relatively short post, and I admittedly am not qualified for that job. My impetus for writing about this issue stems from what I feel is a lazy and bigoted attempt by the Georgia House of Representatives to deal with undocumented residents.

I grew up in Atlanta. I still consider Georgia home in many regards and take pride in telling people where I am from. I just can’t swallow the fact that the place in which the civil rights movement was rooted, has a ruling body that was able to look at the travesty in Arizona and say, “Hey, great idea, we should try that in our state”. The aforementioned provisions are analogous to the ones that made Arizona the veritable pariah of the country. I just can’t believe a group of well educated individuals who were elected to hold the peoples’ best interests would allow something like this to happen. The fact that these provisions were halted instills faith in the concept of checks and balances, but the fact that they needed to be halted is overarching.

The bill, regardless of its current status, has already served to promote racism. A provision that would encourage law enforcement to interrogate “suspicious persons”… come on; The U.S. is the worlds largest melting pot and home to persons of every race and color on the planet, documented or otherwise. However, I doubt Georgia’s finest would have been told to go after anyone they suspected of being an undocumented Swede. And punishment for helping someone with undocumented status!? Did the House want Georgia’s citizens to show them the contents of their attics? (I had a tough time deciding weather I should reference “The Diary of Anne Frank” or “1984″)

The bottom line is that illegal immigration is a complicated issue that must be addressed in one form or another; addressing it properly will require a complex approach, but this approach should serve the sole purpose of improving the state and must not promote fear and mistrust amongst its residents. The Georgia House of Representatives, in my opinion, took reckless and miscalculated measures in an attempt to solve the “illegal alien problem” with one fell swoop. The reality is, these undocumented residents are just that… residents. Whether you hate it, love it, or are completely indifferent to it, they are a significant and integral part of Georgia. The use of fear mongering and force to quickly rid the state of their presence is analogous to ripping a support beam from the basement of a building. Would that cause the building to collapse? Maybe, maybe not. Do we really want to find out?

Thank you for reading – we welcome your comments.

Jay

P.S. -

Edgar’s video can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UsNsKll2Nw

If you are interested to learn more about HB-87, and want to know who is behind it:

http://www1.legis.ga.gov/legis/2011_12/fulltext/hb87.htm

Information about the 6 arrestees and their cause can be found here (courtesy of Edgar Lituma):

http://www.thedreamiscoming.com

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2011: 07/08
POSTED BY: Jay
CATEGORY: OffBeat
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Corcoran Performance This Saturday, 1pm to 3pm!

The Passing of Georgia House Bill 87… OffBeat

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Corcoran Performance This Saturday, 1pm to 3pm!

The Passing of Georgia House Bill 87… OffBeat

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