Monday, August 8 to Thursday, August 11 – “Island Possessed” and “A Touch of Innocence” by Katherine Dunham and “Kaiso!” (a collection of writings)
I’m putting all of Dunham together because the posts would never end if I didn’t.
On Monday, I had work in the morning and it was a wild day, so I stayed at home with my tea and read “Island Possessed.” On Tuesday, I worked out in the morning and spent the afternoon at Kafein. On Wednesday, I spent the morning at La Colombe (another favorite, really great coffee and tons of working space/a great atmosphere) before going to Nando’s (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) for lunch. On Thursday, I worked out some more before going to Sol Cafe in the afternoon (decent coffee, great atmosphere).
I read “Island Possessed” first, and I’m not entirely sure why I did that. “Island Possessed” is a recollection of Dunham’s time studying in Haiti, and starting with this was sort of a weird way to toss myself into her life. Fortunately, from classes and studying her before, I had a general sense of her life so I wasn’t totally thrown off.
“Island Possessed” was a weird one. Dunham considered some really important and interesting issues, like how class and race issues translate internationally, being accepted into new communities, different types of being black, etc. One thing that came back in “Kaiso!” was the notion of research versus experience, and the idea of researching by experiencing–something relatively unheard of in Dunham’s time, from my understanding. But the part I remember most is her discussion of zombies, which she (and apparently the community she was in in Haiti) took very seriously. I don’t really have a lot to expand on that or say about it, but suffice it to say it was bizarre.
“A Touch of Innocence” was SUPER intriguing to my literary side because, although it was a memoir of Dunham’s youth and a collection of anecdotes about it, IT WAS WRITTEN IN THE THIRD PERSON. Dunham refers to herself as “Katherine Dunham” or “the girl,” and it’s written as a novel. It blew my mind. I have so many questions about it. I want to read more about it. I’m sure another of these posts will have to do with that. It was crazy.
“A Touch of Innocence” also continued the trend I’ve seen so far of choreographers of color recounting childhood abuse or struggle; Dunham was physically abused and sexually assaulted by her father multiple times throughout her childhood. Reading about this was harrowing, for multiple reasons–the content, of course, but also the fact that it was in the third person made it feel removed, which was a bizarre way of seeing it.
“Kaiso!” was a MONSTER of a book. It was a huge collection of writings by and about Katherine Dunham, so it naturally covered a lot of area. One recurring theme that I really appreciated was the idea of intelligent dancers. Dunham was HIGHLY educated, more so than any other choreographer I’ve read about thus far. As a result, she believed strongly that dancers should understand and appreciate the history of the dance they’re doing, and that dancers should be educated outside the realm of dance. As a Northwestern student, where the dance program is alllllll about being an intelligent dancer, I appreciated this a lot.
There were tons of other really important and intriguing elements–form versus function, police brutality, screen dance, biorhythms–but I won’t bore you with them just yet. But who knows, maybe they’ll prove relevant later, or even in my eventual thesis!