UMass Amherst Hosts Talk Inspired by Suzan-Lori Parks' VENUS

By Natalie Grillo

Sarah Bartmaan also known as the Venus Hottentot, was a Khoisan woman from South Africa who lived during the early 19th century. Because of her large buttocks, she was taken from her country and put on display all over Europe and was considered a freak.

In the show Venus, author Suzan-Lori Parks remembers and re-imagines this historical figure and looks at how the mainstream culture views Black bodies. Venus ran from March 28-April 6 at the Curtain Theatre at UMass Amherst. All shows were sold out.

On a beautiful Friday afternoon in the UMass Fine Arts Center atrium during the second week of the show's run, a small group gathered to discuss and examine the relationship between Baartman's image and the image of "Video Vixens" in Hip Hop today. The panel at this discussion included dramaturg Adewunmi Oke, Hip Hop activist Rosa Clemente, and DJ Reborn. Adewumni started the conversation by talking about sampling and remixing. With this, Hip Hop artists take familiar sounds of phrases from other songs, and remix them with their own. As Adewumni put it, "It adds much more meaning to the song if you can recognize the sample." She then went into more detail about Sarah Bartmaan's life. After being put on display, Sarah was dissected by a French anatomist. Until 2002, her genitals and brain were put on display in Paris. Dating all the way back to the early 19th century, Sarah Bartmaan's body perpetuated a hyper sexualized image of women of color. She had to sex up her image in order to sell more tickets to the show, which is similar to what is being done now, especially with video vixens.

Hip Hop activist Rosa Clemente was next to speak. She talked about what Hip Hop is, which was something I did not know much about. Rosa explained that Hip Hop is not rap, and how progressive media does not give Hip Hop the space to talk. People assume that Hip Hop is sexist and violent, and Rosa admitted it has been sexist since it started. However this is because we live in a sexist and patriarchal society. Hip Hop music is addressing a lot of things that people do not want to talk about. The lyrics discuss how difficult it is being a woman and being subject to attack. The biggest selling Hip Hop artist Rick Ross crossed the line when he recently released a song about drugging and then raping a woman. Rosa addressed this by saying, "Put out what you want, but I am going to hold you accountable. How are we going to teach young boys not to rape?"

DJ Reborn was fascinating to me, because I always just thought DJ's picked what songs they wanted to play. As DJ Reborn described her job, it is like playing an instrument; you need to practice. Not only is she a DJ, but also teaches children how to DJ, and teaches them lyric analysis, and why they are listening to certain music and what it means. When DJ Reborn is playing and performing the music, it is all about layering things and putting together sonic collages. She also make sure she says "no" to certain kinds of music that degrade her, for example she will not play Chris Brown.

After the discussion, DJ Reborn gave a demonstration on sampling and remixing. It is often things that are not being expressed or talked about. In Venus, the story is remixing Bartmaan's life. If you look at video vixens today, they are often doing poses that Baartman first did. I learned a lot from this discussion and it really opened my eyes to the world of Hip Hop. I was always very critical of that type of music, and thought it was degrading, especially to women. What I learned is that it is much more of an expression of thoughts and issues that are going on in the world.

To learn more about UMass Theatre, visit http://www.umass.edu/theater/index.php

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