When Jordan Laffrenier completed his minor in English as part of his honours degree in theatre at York University, no Black poet was a part of the syllabus: an omission both glaring and wrong. His new work-in-progress, A New Black Poet, is a step towards rectifying that.
A New Black Poet is being presented as a SummerWorks Lab Residencies and Outside the March Pop-Up Experience (supported by TD Bank Group through the TD Ready Commitment), August 27-29, 2021. Its origins lie in a personal experience that affected Laffrenier profoundly. The ashes of poet Langston Hughes, long revered as the father of the Harlem Renaissance, are buried under one of the floorboards of the New York Public Library beneath a mosaic engraved with lines from his poetry. While he visited the library one day, Laffrenier palpably felt Hughes’ presence. This experience was his inspiration. A New Black Poet centres on Elijah, an aspiring poet who has taken to wandering the library alone after hours. He has visited this same mosaic many times, while repeating “my soul has grown deep like the rivers”. One evening following a difficult birthday, Langston Hughes himself appears to Elijah, as if in a dream . . . and so begins A New Black Poet.
This new work-in-progress celebrates the poetry of Bill Gunn, Jean Toomer, Lorraine Hansberry, Toni Morrison, Ishmael Reed, Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison and Gill Scott Heron. For Laffrenier, it is a love letter from the living to the dead. And the Pop-Up Experience will provide the public a window into the work as it evolves at 1282 Bloor Street West. They will have the opportunity to see Laffrenier working in collaboration with the multidisciplinary composer and musician Beau Dixon, co-director Aaron Jan, and choreographer Shakeil Rollock, as they explore setting the poems of Langston Hughes to music, and the immersive potential of modelling this piece off of a series of academic lectures.
Despite their hectic schedule, Laffrenier and Jan spared time for a quick Q&A to provide insights into this intriguing and compelling multidisciplinary work.
SM: I love the premise of A New Black Poet. Tell me how you came up with the concept. How long have you been working on developing it to the stage that you will present at SummerWorks?
Jordan: Of course! The idea for A New Black Poet really came to be while I was living in New York. Lanston Hughes’ ashes are buried under one of the floorboards in the New York Public Library. I used to frequent that library, and one day while I was there I could feel his presence in a way that was palpable and that feeling became the show.
The show has been in development with Outside the March for a year, as part of their Forward March Program. It’s been an excellent experience; they are super supportive, and I am really excited to see the piece be presented in this way.
SM: I understand that A New Black Poet will be a pop-up experience where audiences can get a “window” into your creative process. Do you want to speak about this way of experiencing the work-in-progress?
Aaron: Yeah! We’re really playing with the idea of having two rooms and two drastically different experiences in both rooms (with a stationary audience). The Pop Up site is interesting because it’s divided into two spaces linked by a 10-foot opening. We’re using the whole shop and pumping sound outside the space, so I actually think the experience may be more rewarding if viewed from the outside, as the audience can freely walk between both windows and see both parts of the show simultaneously if they choose.
SM: What would you like people to know about the collaborative aspect of A New Black Poet as well as your collaborators?
Aaron: It’s a really fluid way of doing dramaturgy! Something I’m trying to do more in my practice as a director and dramaturg of new work is building in other creative departments into the development process (i.e., the design and choreography develops simultaneously alongside the script, rather than being tacked on at the end).
What I love about our team and this process is that everyone on the team regardless of their discipline has an equal voice at the table in terms of helping the script, design and choreography develop alongside each other. Multiple perspectives make the work stronger if you set up a container beforehand. Also, it’s a fantastic team. Really grateful to be collaborating with Shakeil, Echo, Jordan and Dante on this thing.
SM: Do you have an end vision for A New Black Poet yet?
Jordan: The long-term vision for this project is to have it be part of a collection of short plays which each focus on one black poet. I have a minor degree in English with a focus in poetry, and we never read black poets while I was in school, which is a mistake. This feels like an opportunity to engage with their work both for me and for audiences.
SM: What has been the biggest surprise to come out of working on A New Black Poet and also the biggest challenge?
Aaron: As a challenge, COVID regulations for sure. Creating an intimate movement piece where audiences are in the same space as performers while being distanced from them has been a challenge that I think we’re slowly solving creatively. In a perfect world, the choreography and movement would be all around and through the audience (the uniqueness of the pop-up space lends itself to fascinating and intriguing possibilities) . . . but we’ve had to pivot.
The largest surprise I think has been how easy it’s been to come back after not being in studio environments, working on shows, for over a year. Maybe it’s just me, but I think I’m a more patient director now, someone who’s more interested in play and rolling with the punches than getting it perfect or executing a complex move pattern. I’ve spent a lot of the pandemic interrogating my own process as a theatremaker, and seeing how naturally the process has evolved (and not worrying about mistakes or incomplete sections!) has been kind of surprising. We’re in service of the playwright and the work.
The Pop-Up experience of A New Black Poet runs 45 minutes and is free of charge. Reserve tickets here.
© Arpita Ghosal, SesayArts Magazine, 2021
