Amid recent discussions of race on campus, The Dunbar Baldwin Hughes (DBH) Theatre Company stands as a platform for creation of dialogue through African and African-American art and literature.
The group produces plays, skits, monologues, poetry recitals and creative dance presentations created by black artists. Their goal is to both showcase the work and generate an open discussion about the experiences of the African-American community.
According to its director Benedict Dorsey, the company was created in the early 1990s to provide an outlet for underrepresented students to explore their culture and hone their theatrical skills.
Junior Diamond Pollard, a member of the company since her freshman year, elaborated on the opportunity that DBH provides.
“I think like any cultural group, be it DBH or Kranti, or Hopkins Hareepa, students of color want a way to express themselves creatively,” Pollard wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “The African-American community has such a rich performing arts tradition, particularly with theatre, and DBH is absolutely vital to exploring that.”
According to the company’s president, sophomore Jack Cullinane, the company has seen a decline in membership and in company enthusiasm.
“This latest wave of students has not had the same kind of passion,” he said. “A large part of it is that DBH’s connection to the community was lost. People just have a hard time putting the same passion into it that previous generations did. Barnstormers and other theater companies are just generally more popular just generally among students now.”
Despite dwindling interest in the theater group, it is hoping to revitalize awareness within the Hopkins community with its current production For Colored Girls which will take place in the Swirnow Theatre at 8 p.m. from April 30 to May 2.
The choreopoem, which DBH has performed four times previously, is centered around the lives of seven nameless women who are drawn together through similar experiences of racism and sexism.
“This production is significant during this time because it addresses some major ills of society: domestic abuse, date rape, abortion, and discrimination,” Dorsey wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “Currently, America is dealing with race relations, Black-on-Black crime, and killings of Blacks by police officers. Colored Girls cries out for all people of color.”
Dorsey also described the production as one that is comprised of both upsetting and uplifting moments.
“The choreopoem is a dark play, but there are moments of extremely bright lights for the women,” Dorsey wrote. “For about seventy-five minutes, seven women representing different colors from the rainbow share the struggles of being a woman and black though, music, dance, and poems. I believe all women will be able to relate to this production on one level or another.”
In its discussion of gender and race, Cullinane hopes that the show will create a dialogue on campus about these issues, especially in the aftermath of Freddie Gray’s death and the subsequent protests.
“Colored Girls talks about a lot of things that are very relevant to the Hopkins community, not just stuff that is going on with the protests,” he said. “Not only does it provide a really great kind of escape, it is still able to start a conversation, and that is ultimately what needs to happen with a lot of these problems.”
Cullinane also said that the production is more important than ever in light of the unrest in Baltimore.
“As DBH we are part of the black community, both in Hopkins and in Baltimore, and so, in almost a kind of solidarity, we want to make sure that this production is available. This is one way that we can do our part for this cause,” Cullinane said.
Pollard wrote that the show sheds light on issues within the African-American community that have been overlooked recently, especially with regard to women.
“This show is significant, one because it is one of the most prominent shows in the African-American theatre canon; two, because with everything going on in this country supporting and shedding light on the struggles of men of color, this show is exclusively about the struggles women of color go through, particularly African-American women,” she wrote. “It’s really just another way to give a voice to the voiceless, even if it is a dramatized account.”
The theatre group has also recently become involved in a petition surrounding Dorsey’s sudden, unexplained resignation from the post of Senior Associate Director of the Office of Student Financial Services. Although Dorsey has continued to hold his position as DBH director, its members are asking for answers from Hopkins administration.
“It’s not a war cry or anything like that,” Pollard wrote. “We just want Mr. Dorsey and the University to know how much of an impact he makes on the students who interact with him. And we want to know why he left his position in Financial Aid.”
Cullinane echoed Pollard’s sentiments on the effect Dorsey has had on students in the company as well as the entire Hopkins community.
“If nothing else, DBH is a testament to his work on campus, and that’s one of the many reasons to try to keep it alive,” he said, “We want to keep him on campus; we want to understand why he had to leave campus. If nothing else, because we are a factor in that community — that’s why we are a part of that petition.”
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