Showcasing Black History

One voice from the past often heard during February’s Black History Month is that of writer-poet James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938). In his 1912 “The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man,” he wrote: “The colored people of this country know and understand the white people better than the white people know and understand them.”

That may be as true today as it was when Johnson penned it, and it’s also an important reason why a little more attention should be paid to Black History Month. As Johnson also said in “Autobiography,” “Every race and every nation should be judged by the best it has been able to produce, not by the worst.”

Weldon’s writings are but one part of a distinctive show at North Hollywood’s Raven Playhouse during Black History Month. It’s called “Freedom Passages,” a collage of poetry, prose, music and speeches celebrating the black voice in America during this century. Besides works by Johnson, the cultural montage of “passages” will represent Langston Hughes, Toni Morrison, Nikki Giovanni, Lorraine Hansberry and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., among others.

“Passages” features Barbara Mealy (with Masequa Myers and David Connell). Mealy, whose career began at Baltimore’s Arena Players, has been seen on such local stages as the Inner City Cultural Center and at the Celtic Arts Center, where she directed a highly acclaimed production of “The Blacks.” The evening is directed by Peri Cousins-Harper.

In a conversation at the theater, Cousins-Harper talked about the need for young black people to keep digging into the past for their heritage, which may not be happening as much today as in decades past.

Young African Americans, said Cousins-Harper, seemed to have a greater interest in the arts--contemporary and from the past--during the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Mealy reminisced about that period of social growth in America. “This was a time,” she said, “when there was such a great creative surge. So much new black writing, new plays to be done, and exciting new poetry styles. Right now I don’t think there’s quite that kind of thing going on.”

Both Mealy and Cousins-Harper hope that young people will come to the show, because in their staging they go even farther back than the ‘60s.

“It’s sort of forgotten historical things we’re doing,” said Mealy. “We want students to come, but we’re not trying to educate with this program. This is more of an entertainment. If something gets through, that’s wonderful.”

Some of the material comes from what is known as the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, named for the growth of cultural awareness in the African-American community at that time. It was marked by the emergence of such towering figures as Paul Robeson and author-poet Langston Hughes.

James Weldon Johnson was also an integral part of the Harlem Renaissance, and Mealy talked of how Johnson, a New Yorker, went to the South and became acquainted with the black communities there. He went to churches and funerals and was so taken with the sermons that he wrote them down, so they’d be captured for all time.

“And what he wrote down is really impressive,” Mealy said. “This was in the early ‘20s. Nobody would have heard them again if Johnson hadn’t written them down. So I like to think that we’re carrying that on a little bit.”

Also included in the program, said Mealy, is the Negro National Anthem. “I mention that because a lot of people don’t know that it exists.”

Said Cousins-Harper: “It has been in our lives since the 1930s, ever since I can remember. Whenever black people had a meeting or a gathering that was secular, they played and sang the Negro National Anthem, entitled ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing.’ ”

The first stanza reads, “Lift every voice and sing/Till earth and heaven ring,/Ring with the harmonies of liberty.”

It was written in 1900 by James Weldon Johnson.

BE THERE

“Freedom Passages,” Raven Playhouse, 5233 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m. Ends March 2. $12. (213) 660-8587.