How did Black and White racial categories come to be?
MCRC is happy to have two films accepted to the Cincinnati Fringe Festival this year. Both films draw on the arts to explore questions of how Black and White racial categories, identities and communities were born. The films use the visual, performing and creative arts to explore the emotional story of why the Black-White divide has always been treated as the fundamental racial divide in the U.S. By emotionally engaging with this divide, it opens the door to deeper and more inclusive conversations about race.
DUE TO COVID19, The films Are available streaming on demand from June 4 - 19. the ticket price of $10 includes online access to both films.
About the Films
Art by Aspen Kowsky
Why White?
This film opens with a white-appearing patient struggling to declare “White” as his race on a medical form. He asks, “why do my doctors need to know my race?” and “why am I called “White” anyway?” which begins an exploration of how the labels “White” and “Black” came to be and opens the conversation of how White carries the weight of race.
Scriptwriters: Joan Ferrante and India Sada
Film Production and Editor: Bryan Lierer
Art by Aspen Kowsky
I am White Like You, Right Mom?
In this film, a white-appearing mother must explain to her black-appearing daughter that “you’re not white exactly.” The conversation expands and reveals the story of why, in the U.S., parent and child can be labeled as different races and how race invades the family space.
Scriptwriters: Joan Ferrante and India Sada
Film Production and Editor: Bryan Lierer
featured actors & artists
Actors
Bob Allen, White Category
Kearston Hawkins-Johnson, Nurse, Friend
Sally Modzelewski, White Classified Mother
Brian Robertson, White Classified Male
Director of Theatrical Scenes
Daryl Harris
Poets/Spoken Word Artists
Kirsten Barrix
Brent Billingsley
India Sada
Onyinye Uwolloh
Visual Artists
Michael Coppage
Tabitha Kelly
Aspen Kowsky
Sherman Parnell
Gabrielle Siekman
Composers
Parrish Wright and Johnny Payne, BeatBuilders
Trauma Therapist
La Shanda Sugg, Labors of Love Counseling and Consulting
Sociologists
Joan Ferrante
Lynnissa Hillman
The Emotional Force of Race
MCRC will be exhibiting its thought-provoking art show “The Emotional Force of Race” as part of Visual Fringe, happening throughout the Fringe Festival at Fringe HQ (i.e. the Know Theatre).
Engaging with race through the arts allows us to explore the origins of emotions that we may think we can keep hidden, even as we feel their weight in interactions and relationships with people classified as a different race. The work of healing requires us to acknowledge our emotions and reconcile with them.
Exhibit Information
Location: Know Theatre / 1120 Jackson St., Cincinnati, OH 45202
Dates: June 4th – 19th
Hours – See cincyfringe.com for event hours
Weekends: 12:30AM – 12:00PM
Weekdays: 5:00PM – 12:00AM
Ticket Information: Exhibit will be accessible to Fringe Festival ticket holders. View ticket purchasing options at cincyfringe.com. For ticket questions, contact Cincy Fringe at (513) 300-5669
About MCRC
The Mourning the Creation of Racial Categories (MCRC) Project partners with visual, creative and performing artists to tell the stories of how people in the United States were divided into a handful of unequally-valued racial categories. MCRC artists examine moments when racial categories overwhelm relationships and identities. Emotionally engaging with these stories prepares people to address racial divides and begin the work of healing.
The MCRC Project is a collaborative project facilitated by Joan Ferrante and Lynnissa Hillman, both of whom are sociologists at Northern Kentucky University.
Joan Ferrante is a sociologist, educator, author, consultant, speaker, filmmaker and founder-director of The Mourning the Creation of Racial Categories (MCRC) Project. Lynnissa Hillman is a sociologist, educator, dancer, talent scout and has served as a key consultant to the MCRC Project since its founding in 2016.
MCRC is a highly collaborative and interpretive project that uses dance, music, theater, poetry, and visualization to tell the human stories behind the creation of racial categories in the U.S. One hallmark of the MCRC Project is that discussions of race are infused with art, which promotes engagement, not defensiveness.
While teaching courses about race, Ferrante and Hillman observed their students wrestling with the weight of their racial classification. They became convinced that academic concepts alone, however compelling, were not enough to engage students in deeply meaningful ways. The two sociologists facilitate collaborations with visual, performing and creative artists (including students, faculty and community artists) to engage audiences creatively and emotionally with race. The collaborations are preserved in film. The latest films are entitled, Why White? and I am White Like You, Right Mom?
