2017 Projects and Performances
Performance
The following projects and performances were created by students in the 2016-2017 African American Read-In Service Learning Course at Penn State Altoona taught by Robin Reese on the theme Performance.
Performance has always been a vibrant part of African American history and culture. What is performance? Film, theatre, spoken word, dance, rap, comedy, spectacle, hip-hop, R&B, opera, gospel, and performance art are all performance. From oral narratives of enslavement and spirituals as acts of protest to the pageants of W.E.B. DuBois, the Negro Units of the Federal Theatre Projects, the Black Arts Movement led by Ed Bullins and Amiri Baraka, and the cycle plays documenting each decade of the Twentieth Century by August Wilson; from Mahalia Jackson to Michael Jackson, Queen Latifah, and Prince, this year we will celebrate all that comprises performance in African American literary and cultural traditions.
We will allow our theme to inspire us to engage with the performance works of African American artists and those African American scholars and citizens who write about Black arts. We, as community members, can read these works together, share and perform them, and also create new works based on performances, lyrics, and existing works. Additionally, we can discover and explore the many performative aspects of written works in any genre by Black American authors, the performances these works embody, enact, and inspire.
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#DifferentHashtags#DifferentBodybags
Jessica Lynn Janczewski is both an English and criminal justice major, graduating in 2018. She is from 
Philadelphia and attended J.R. Masterman High School. She prides herself in her involvement on campus, being a former RA, Thon captain, and research assistant; and a current member of the Criminal Justice Organization, the CrimJ National Honors society, Alpha Sigma Tau sorority, and Alpha Lamda Delta honors society. She also and tutors at the writing commons on campus. She plans to attend law school and pursue her dreams of being a criminal lawyer. Her goal in the African American Read-In class is to spread knowledge and promote equality throughout the Penn State Altoona campus.
Leila McCrumb is a senior, majoring in Integrative Arts with a focus in theater. She has loved and been involved in theater f
rom an early age. In 2013, Leila played the role of Titania in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; she also performed in Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive in the role of Li’l Bit, and most recently in Tennessee Williams’ 27 Wagons Full of Cotton. This is Leila’s second year of involvement in the African American Read-In. Last year, she presented her piece, “Man and Woman Speak Langston Hughes.”
Ger Jamie Ogot is a sophomore, majoring in psychology. Her ancestry is Kenyan and she is very involved in and an activist of basic human rights and tolerance. This can be seen by her support of the Black Lives Matter movement and her use of social media as a platform to advocate conscious love and social awareness. Recently, she served as a panelist for the Black Student Union at Pennsylvania State University, at an event discussing police brutality. She plans to enlist in the military after graduation.
In their collaborative slam poetry and song compilation performance piece, Jess, Leila and Jamie respond to police violence and hate crimes against Blacks in America. The collaboration offers different voices brought to life by the artistic visions of each member of the group: the song “Doubting Thomas” by Jamie, the spoken word piece “Bloodshed: A Facebook Commentary” by Leila McCrumb, and the slam poem “Don’t Shoot” by Jess. All three also took inspiration from Black performance as an impactful and powerful craft as well as their classmates’ constructive criticism as the piece took shape. Links to videos of their performance, also featuring Ciara Archer, Payton Covington, Mikayla Loudenslager, Joshua Nolte, and Karol Rodriguez, can be found below.
To watch a video of “Don’t Shoot” performed on February 12, 2017, click here.
To watch a video of “Don’t Shoot” performed on February 13, 2017, click here.
To watch a video of “Bloodshed: A Facebook Commentary” performed on February 13, 2017, click here.
To watch a video of “Doubting Thomas” performed on February 13, 2017, click here.
To watch a video of “Doubting Thomas” performed on February 12, 2017, click here.
Out of Wh/ack
Ciara Archer grew up in Roselle, New Jersey and attended Union County Vocational Technical School. She is currently a freshman at Penn State pursuing a B.S. degree in Criminology. Working with fellow students, she hopes to open the eyes of the public through spoken word. To make a difference in 
the world she strives to one day be an attorney.
Payton L. Covington is a junior at Penn State, pursuing a B.A. in integrative arts with specializations in theatre and music production. Combining these two art forms, she intends to become a skilled, intellectual entertainer, the next Aaliyah, Keke Palmer, or Tupac Shakur. Her goal is to inspire other avant-garde, multi-talented creators to challenge themselves and go beyond what they feel is their artistic “limit.” She says, “The options in entertainment are limitless.”
Joshua Nolte is a Penn State Senior graduating with degrees in English and Political Science in May of 2017. He gre
w up in the city of Pittsburgh. Upon graduation, he hopes to get involved in the government of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, primarily assisting with the legislative process. He has a long term goal of going to graduate school in literature and becoming a professor of English. He hopes his involvement in the African American Read-In will deepen his understanding of Black culture and experiences in the context of American society.
This spoken word collaboration that addresses double-consciousness began with the desire, shared by all three students, to examine the African American educational experience on multiple levels. Joshua addresses his experience as a white growing up in a mostly black inner city school. Ciara, who is African American, addresses the internal struggle encountered in her transition to a predominantly white school district. And Payton challenges the misperception that education is owned by, created by, and solely for whites.
A video of the performance, performed on February 13, 2017, can be viewed here. (Apologies for the missing opening minute; a corrected video will replace this one soon!)
Race: A Love Story
Aaron James is now in his junior year here at Penn State where he studies theatre and communications in the letters, arts, and
sciences major. He has been involved with theatre throughout his school career, starting backing elementary school. His most recent performance was as Dwight in Dead Man’s Cell Phone, which was produced by Things Unseen Theatre at The Church in the Middle of the Block.
Mikayla Loudenslager is a senior at Penn State Altoona pursuing a BA degree in letters, arts, and sciences, with a minor in 
English. She grew up in Tyrone, PA, where she attended Tyrone Area High school. Her goal is to become a well-known photojournalist and travel around the world capturing the essences of other cultures. She hopes to learn about diverse life styles and share them with the rest of the world.
During the process of preparing for the AARI, a question that Aaron and Mikayla, both white, kept asking themselves was “who has the right to have a voice about the obstacles faced by African Americans?” This led Aaron to write Race: A Love Story, a ten-minute play that focuses on a mixed race couple as they deal with the backlash and trials that come with living in today’s society. The inspiration for this work came from reading plays from some of the greatest American playwrights, Black writers including August Wilson, Lorraine Hansberry, and Suzan-Lori Parks. He hopes that this project proves that anyone can contribute to the conversation that has been started by these great artists. Mikayla added a social science research dimension by going out into the community to perform Aaron’s play to gauge audience reactions. She had audience members fill out surveys which she then used to write her case study, offered here as a companion piece to Aaron’s play.
Click here to view a performance of Aaron’s play on February 13, 2017.
(Apologies for the missing opening minute; the script in its entirety may be read here!)
Click here to read Mikayla’s case study (highly recommend viewing the video of Aaron’s play first!).