Press

In WBUR’s ‘The Artery:’ With ‘I Am A Man,’ Castle Of Our Skins Rewrites The Narrative Of Black Masculinity

05.28.2019

Anthony Green and Ashe Gordon after “Love Affects” in 2014. (Courtesy Monika Bach Schroeder)
by. Jacquinn Sinclair
Fed up with low wages and poor working conditions, more than a thousand black sanitation workers flooded the streets of Memphis on Feb. 12, 1968. The men, pushed to the breaking point by the death of their colleagues, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, who were “crushed by a malfunctioning truck,” went on strike. They protested with bold signage that decried “I AM A MAN.”

That declaration demanding dignity and equality is at the center of Castle of Our Skins’ (COOS) latest project, “I AM A MAN 2019,” premiering June 2. Through music, film, history and more, “I AM A MAN 2019” examines that historical moment through the lens of contemporary concerns of black masculinity and humanity.

The week-long celebration of men fighting for equality, past and present, includes a free screening of Raoul Peck’s James Baldwin documentary “I Am Not Your Negro,” community sing events, poetry workshops and community conversations. Seattle Symphony’s acclaimed cellist Seth Parker Woods will perform on June 6, and a final concert on June 8 will include music by Blind Tom (a piano genius enslaved his entire life), Grammy-nominated queer vocalist Julius Eastman and COOS’ guest composer-in-residence and Fulbright scholar Brian Raphael Nabors.

Read the entire article as it originally appeared in The Artery here.