Jasmine Guy spent the first part of her career making her name known, most notably, as the lead actress in The Cosby Show spinoff A Different World. But today, Guy uses her talents to make something else known — an important and perhaps lesser-known piece of America’s cultural heritage.
Specifically, Guy is singing, dancing and talking through a stage show to make more people aware of a period in American history which she believes points both to modern race-relations issues and toward reconciliation: the Harlem Renaissance.
With her partners in the Avery Sharpe Trio, Guy is bringing the story of the Harlem Renaissance to Birmingham this week. Raisin’ Cane: A Harlem Renaissance Odyssey will bring the lessons learned through art, music and poetry to the stage at Samford’s Wright Center at 7 p.m. on Sept. 18.
The Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s brought the talents of a large number of African-American writers, artists, actors, dancers, singers and political and social thinkers into prominence, including Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, W.E.B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, Marcus Garvey, Fannie Hurst and Duke Ellington. That’s a simplified synopsis of a wide-ranging, and influential movement that would see creative people of various stripes and ethnicities supporting ideas of raising the profile of black Americans onto a higher plane culturally and in the eyes of the wider society.
An education
Raisin’ Cane is aimed at expanding the discussion of that period, which Guy says is not nearly as well understood as it should be. The cast has taken the show all over the country onto stages in schools, theaters and community centers. This is its first time in Birmingham.
“The Harlem Renaissance is a wonderful decade in our American history from the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression where there were a lot of moneys going into Harlem … and it was the first of a lot of art, literature, thought—political thought, philosophical thought — as well as visual arts and poetry,” Guy said. She was brought into Raisin’ Cane by Avery Sharpe, who she’s known about 30 years since they collaborated on Bubbling Brown Sugar, a musical revue based on music popular during Harlem Renaissance.
“He called me about eight years ago and said, ‘We need an actor to do the reading for this music that we’ve written and this story that we’re trying to tell.’ And we started doing that in colleges and community centers in the Northeast. And I realized, ‘Wow — this is really a show.’ And over the years we’ve developed more and more where I’m singing more, I’m dancing more. It sounds less like a lecture and more like a celebration of this time,” Guy said.
Fitting the accomplishments of the Harlem Renaissance into a 90-minute show has been tricky, Guy said, but, she added, “I love the show because it’s a celebration of our American history and a part of our history that we’re not taught about. We don’t learn this in school.”
Raisin’ Cane aims at schooling the audiences that come to it, but that takes time, and it helps when the audience responds, she said.
“I think people don’t know what to expect and they kind of have to go on the ride with us, which is like an odyssey — which is why I like that term,” she said. “I have to set up how these artists were creating. I feel that it’s my historic duty to have them understand where these people were in their lives 100 years ago.
“And what is so amazing to me is the relevance of the piece. That every time something happens in our current events I can recite that poem that night and go, ‘Oh, this still rings true. This is still part of what we’re trying to say in America.’ I have the help of Countee Cullen and Claude McKay and Zora Neale Hurston and Gwendolyn Bennett and W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington, you know. So it’s really quite a journey where we can say this is how America was formed, as well.”
Truth telling
Guy sees a connection between the story of the Harlem Renaissance and current issues relating to race and policing and civil unrest.
“If we as Americans tell the true story of how America was built, was formulated, and the actually conflicting times that our forefathers had in creating this story — I mean we are a country based on slavery and the annihilation of the Native Americans,” Guy said.
“We have to tell that truth in order to get to a point of forgiveness, reconciliation, so that we are not victims and we are not guilty. We have to admit that we tried but we have these major problems in the development of democracy — of a true democracy. And we’re still struggling with making that truth known.”
She said the relations between people in the U.S. can only improve when historical truth is told. “If we keep lying, it’s like in a bad relationship, you know,” she said. “You can really only heal if you tell the truth.”
Raisin’ Cane helps tell the truth, and it delivers a message about what can happen when people work together across racial lines, Guy said. “I believe it tells a glorious truth of how we are at our best and I believe it gives us all a sense of pride. Not just black pride or white pride, but that when we work together this is what we can accomplish and this is where we can go, and this is the contribution that we can give to the world. We can give the blues, jazz, poetry, art.”
The cast will take the show to several other stops after Birmingham, in a year when they will perform in Washington, D.C., Indiana, Florida, and New York. Guy said that she makes Raisin’ Cane a priority because she believes in it.
“Sometimes I know in my gut when something is right, when something feels good and this is the kind of work that I want to bring to people,” she said. “But until I have an audience and know that it resonates with them, sometime I need that justification.” Audiences connect with the show, she said.
“It’s enjoyable to do, but it’s enjoyable to watch and I know by the letters I get and the response that I get [including] social media that it is resonating and it is necessary. And it brings to life things that we learn in history class that may be pretty boring until you go, ‘Oh, that’s what they were talking about.’”
Talking back
The audience is diverse in age, she said, with generations coming to the show. A big part of it is a talkback, where Guy and the audience carry on a conversation about the Harlem Renaissance.
“The audience is always mixed. I love shouting out to the audience and going, ‘Y’all know what I’m talking about? Do you know what I’m referring to?’ and to hear back from them,” Guy said. “I do break that fourth wall pretty early in the show. I know it makes me feel good, when I hear, ‘Yes, we know what you’re talking about. We’re with you, we understand. We get it.’ It’s an emotional journey as well and a painful journey. I love that contact that I have with the audience. I love that they’re able to talk back to me.”
Raisin’ Cane includes a syllabus to provide the audience background on the material in the show, which schools have sometimes used to teach poetry, writing or art. In one show, Guy said, the lobby of the theater was full of artwork done by kids. “They had done portraits of their favorite Harlem Renaissance artists. We suggested it and offered it and the syllabus is available. But it was upon the teachers to actually read the syllabus and teach it.
“We had the talkback with those kids that had actually been taught about the Harlem Renaissance and were just amazed at how much they knew, how much they understood.”
At this stage in her career, Guy said, doing a traveling show that transcends entertaining to address an important social and historical message, is a profound privilege.
“I’m really grateful to be able to do this at this point in my career. I understand how most people know me and that was another great legacy. But I also have said to myself, ‘Okay, now that I have name-value in some way, how can I bring something great to the people — people that have supported me without even knowing who I am?’ And this gives me an opportunity to say ‘Thank you.’”
The unmentionable
Jasmine Guy’s long career has included studying at Alvin Ailey’s American Dance Center and working with Will Smith, Debbie Allen, Halle Berry, Vanessa Williams and Mandy Patinkin, among others in numerous television shows. She has appeared in movies with Spike Lee, Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor, and in numerous stage shows.
Still, she is undoubtedly known best for her breakout role as Whitley Gilbert on A Different World, a show created by Bill Cosby as a spinoff of his own popular sitcom.
Guy’s visit to Birmingham provided the opportunity to ask her about one of the biggest news stories of the past several months: Cosby’s ongoing fall from grace. Cosby, once extolled as America’s favorite TV father, has been defending himself against a cascade of charges and accusations that he drugged and sexually assaulted numerous women during the height of his popularity.
Few of Cosby’s most closely related celebrity connections have condemned him. Some have been silent on the allegations. Guy didn’t want to talk about the unfolding drama that has wrecked Cosby’s career and tarnished his legacy.
Asked if she had any thoughts about the recent controversy, Guy’s response was terse. “No, I don’t.” She said questions about Cosby have only come to her “rarely.”
Raisin’ Cane: A Harlem Renaissance Odyssey starring Jasmine Guy and the Avery Sharpe Trio will be Friday Sept. 18 at the Wright Center on the campus of Samford University. For tickets, visit tickets.samford.edu or call (205) 726-2853.