Co-op High School showcases African-American arts for Black History Month celebration

NEW HAVEN >> Students at Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School, who study within “majors,” each reflecting a different art form, this week combined their talents into a showcase for Black History Month.

According to Jireh Holder, a third-year Yale School of Drama playwright who directed the school’s performance of “The Fire Next Time,” it was the first time many of the students, who spend class time laser-focused on their own fields, such as creative writing, visual arts, music and dance, were exposed to the work of their classmates.

The performance, so named for the novel by James Baldwin, served as an inspiration for Holder’s approach, he said.

I used the James Baldwin method, to dig into the range of experience,” he said.

Students performed monologues exploring a range of topics within the black experience, such as cultural appropriation, self-love, beauty norms and sexuality. Selections from the chorus, band and orchestra included spirituals and songs from the last half-century, including “At Last” by Etta James, “Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson and the theme song to the blaxploitation film “Shaft.”

Christopher Huggins, a former dancer with theAlvin Ailey American Dance Theater who previously taught two master classes at the school, choreographed an original routine for dance majors.

Timothy Jones, the school’s arts director, said the night’s events were in the works since November.

“I’m happy with the movement we have on Black History Month here at Co-op,” he said.

The night also marked the first time students curated a gallery, which is visible through windows on the corner of College and Crown streets.

Curators Gabriel Abdul Karim and Albert San­ders, both seniors, said they wanted to include a wide range of history and experience, but to display it positively.

“No pieces here make me want to cry. It’s all positive,” Abdul Karim said. “We want to show we know our history, but to put a teenage flair on art.”

Among the approximately 30 pieces on display are the two selected paintings, collages, sculptures, photographs and an original outfit.

Sanders said the two focused heavily on pieces that showed human faces. Among the student work, Principal Val-Jean Belton had a work on display, transposing a pinwheel pattern over an iconic “Hope” poster of President Barack Obama.

Senior Christina Jones, a visual arts major, had three works in the room. In one, she did a self-portrait of herself wearing yellow, eating a pineapple. The acrylic-on-canvas work, which she refers to as “Tina y Piña,” portrays a “carefree black girl,” she said. Another work, meant to replicate a landscape, was inspired by an analogy Jones’ friend had made in a college essay: that parting her hair was like Moses parting the Red Sea. In the work, a woman’s oceanic hair is parted down the middle with a desert sky above.

According to Jones, her favorite piece was a photograph of her younger sister, Jasmine, painting affirmative messages about blackness. Jones said she believes the importance of representation cannot be understated, and identity is important to teenagers looking for a place in the world.

“I feel like we’re often underrepresented in art, so I feel empowered,” Jones said of the exhibit.

Superintendent of Schools Garth Harries was present and said he sees the gallery as a “great example of the work our students do and the thought that goes into it.”

“This is another thing in a long series that makes me proud of our students,” he said.

Reach the author at bzahn@newhavenregister.com or follow Brian on Twitter: @brizahn.