I slept like a brick last night. I went to bed around 2 or so and slept till 11, which was wonderful given that I haven't been able to sleep past 8 with the whirlwind that last week was. Sunday night was the Boston Children's Choir Fall Family Kick-off Concert, or at least that's what the program said. It was nine million children in black slacks and their bcc button-downs, with three teaching fellows to wrangle them all, and I've gotta say we did a mighty find job! We were expected to keep all of the singers upstairs above the auditorium in classrooms that served as holding tanks, but the rough bit was keeping them quiet.
The kids that I rehearse with and teach (those from the central location on Shawmut ave and not those that are in the extension neighborhood choirs) are very obedient and sweet and usually, when I hold up two fingers and sing "Do" they quickly quiet down and mimic me.
It was a strange experience with the other kids, however. I'm kind of embarrassed to say this maybe but I had a really hard time with the young black girls; girls as young as 6 gave me an unbelievable amount of attitude! They weren't being directly rude to me, but it was more a matter of seeing them be rude (and in some cases cruel) and impatient with their peers. Crappy language across the board, constant yelling, one girl had a problem with kicking people, they pushed the people in line in front of them, and one girl kept yelling "Oh you don't know!" every time she was asked to quiet down no matter who was asking her. All of the boys were totally rambunctious, black, white, sparkley, they were all bouncing off the walls, but the girls behavior was blatantly divided by race. The white girls kept to themselves, playing with each other's hair, singing, one group played some game on paper to which they'd just made up the rules. Many girls, black and white, played hand-clapping games ("down down baby, down down the roller coaster, sweet sweet baby, I'll never letchya go, shimmy shimmy coco pop, shimmy shimmy rye...") that I remember playing when I was in 2nd and 3rd grade, but they played only with friends of their race, and I couldn't hear the white girls from down the hall. I feel like kind of an asshole talking about these racial divisions like this but I honestly had a really difficult time with these young black girls, and I'm not writing about this with any spin, it's just what I saw. I found myself losing patience with them quickly, I heard myself reprimanding a little black girl who had gotten up to go to the bathroom without permission with words that were much harsher than I would have used if she had been white. I also felt myself responding to the attitude I got from them defensively, it actually hurt my feelings, I felt frustrated and as though I wanted to exercise my authority. We were told by the Artistic Director Anthony (who is also incidentally black) that we were allowed to pull from the concert any kids who were grossly misbehaving and they wouldn't perform, which I didn't do but my GOD I really wanted to. And what's unfortunate is that if I'd pulled the kids that deserved it, the treble choir (made up of the younger singers) would have been about 90% white! I may be overreacting in my guilt about this, but it was a little rough backstage last night. The concert itself went off well, but the teaching fellows were exhausted.
One nice thing: I was warming up and conducting the Premier Choir before they went on, and one of their pieces was "Ain'-a That Good News"...which I sang in Chamber Choir at Marlborough. Just grinning as I ran it with them...what a great way to come full circle.
As I've been writing all this I've also been switching back to work on my grad essay which is coming along nicely. I'm desperate for feedback though; it needs eyes on it other than mine. Sometimes with the right music playing I end up writing things that would be far more appropriate for self-indulgent poetry than a Statement of Objectives essay for grad school.
In other news, we've apparently run out of oil in our house (Gwen has a call into Larry, our landlord) so in the meantime there's no hot water, no heat, no, um, nothing. So I'm a shivering fish walkin' around in sweats with her big ol' comforter around her shoulders.
Alllllso...I think I'mma make a Thanksgiving mix cd, y'know, for cookin' to. I can't wait to take those long cold walks down Boldwater after dinner! Oh, and the pie. Cannot wait for the pie. I've been talking to Chef Tony at upstairs about various recipes for vegetarian stuffings as opposed to the escarole mushroom that Kate claimed Mum was tired of, and Tony has recommended potatoes as another base, although I'm worried that'd be too starchy for Nancy. Also, potatoes? Really? Kinda dull. Lame, Tony. I think we're gonna hafta keep looking. I'm also really looking forward to the Thanksgiving 5k that Oak Bluffs organizes. I always have these wildly romantic fantasies about my entire family at the finish line when Peter and Cheryl and I cross, actually it's more like Cheryl and Peter.....................and Mollie cross the finish line. There's one family that always t-shirts made up that says "Merriman Family Thanksgiving 5K Team!" and they all cheer and encourage each other and sometimes I'm a little bitter that most of my family is at home sleeping. Although, Mum and Allan always come and eat pancakes where it's warm while Cheryl and Peter and I are racing, and by the time we all finish they're outside to cheer us on. AND by the time that I finish, Mum, Allan, Cheryl and Peter are there, so that makes me feel pretty fuzzy and loved. Still...can't wait. *smile*
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Good for people to know.
Post a Comment