Behind the scenes of “This Is Princeton: Black Lives Matter”

Every year, the Performing Arts Council (PAC) of Princeton University, together with the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students (ODUS) work in conjunction to produce “This Is Princeton” (TIP), an annual performing arts showcase that spotlights the rich arts culture on campus. Last semester, the two organizations decided to give TIP 2015 the theme of “Black Lives Matter,” in honor of the recent activism on campus. As a result,the Fields Center is also sponsoring the event this year, and the PAC has selected an Artistic Advisory Committee of undergraduates for the first time.

Given the theme of “Black Lives Matter,” the support of the Fields Center, which sponsors many cultural events on campus, has been integral to the planning process. In addition, the Artistic Advisory Committee, which is composed of students in various performing arts groups, has been influential in spreading the word on campus.

Naimah Hakim ’16, the member of the Artistic Advisory Committee responsible for pitching the “Black Lives Matter” theme,said that she had reached out to the PAC Board because she felt “moved by the recent surges in campus activism and national activism related to the Black Lives Matter movement.”

According to Hakim, she was most interested in how the performing arts community could use art as a medium to promote dialogue on an important social issue. “We have two projects that are going on: one was rooted in getting art leaders to talk about why art is important to the world, and the second part was the idea of putting on a show where people could create art that spoke to a theme,” she said.

Organizing the show was not without its challenges. Committee member Kovey Coles ’15 explained, “The theme of ‘Black Lives Matter’ was a very daunting task ... One of the challenges was figuring out what kind of tone we wanted to convey in the show, because ‘Black Lives Matter’ can be interpreted in many different ways.”

According to Coles, many events themed “Black Lives Matter” come off as melancholy. “But I believe it's more complex than that, and that's what we're trying to show,” he said.

Rather than dictating a somber tone, the organizers decided to leave room for the performers in the show to set different moods to the theme. “We wanted to choose something that was going to spur creativity without limiting people,” Hakim said.

All the members of the Artistic Advisory Committee are involved in arts groups on campus, and therefore all contributed to identifying which student groups were well-equipped to speak on this year’s theme. Committee member Nonny Okwelogu ’15revealed that this was also initially a challenge, as the organizers had to ensure that the selection of student groups was racially and socially diverse. “I think it was important that we had inclusion in the show, because we're trying to fight against the idea of exclusion,” she said.

To get over this obstacle, PAC and the Artistic Advisory Committee held “office hours” in January, where they invited individual artists and different arts groups to pitch their ideas and to raise any questions they had on the event’s theme. According to Hakim, “We marketed ‘office hours’ for artists to ask us questions and talk through the meanings of racial sensitivity and political art — what they looked like with the different genres, bodies and voices.”

One of the Committee's goals is to keep the conversation on the “Black Lives Matter” campaign alive, because the movement is still relevant despite having started months ago. “We don't label ourselves as activists per se ... butwe wanted to keep attention to the [campaign], because it started a little while ago,” Committee member LorenzoLaing ’16 explained. “But this is something that's not just a fad, this is something that's life,” he said.

The organizers are looking forward to the collaborative pieces involving groups that wouldn’t normally perform together. This is the first time that spoken word has been included in “This is Princeton,” and it is also the first time visual arts has been included in this event’s history. In TIP 2015, art forms such as slam poetry, videography, photography and sculpture will be incorporated to express one theme. The showcase, which has yet to take place, has already sparked a lot of enthusiasm and generated many conversations on campus.

“You don't have to be a loud person to be an activist, and the performing arts is another way to show that,” Laing said.