We were transported to watch a play called Cedar House at the Perseverance Theater. It was written and by Ishmael Hope and actors were Ishmael and Frank Katasse. The play is based on stories related by Robert Zuboff, Tlingit stories of the Raven. The stories are interesting and beginning to be more familiar to me in their context, although I admit they often don't neatly wrap up at the end like I am used to in our bedtime stories and tales, and I am left to wonder " is that IT?" The moral of the story isn't made as a summary. I especially enjoyed their dance. My mind wanders, and I think it could easily be transposed to a gangster rap concert sans crotch grab. The movements seem more akin to that, to tribal dances, than to, say, a polka. Dancing is universal.
They took questions afterwards and a man in the audience asked if they minded non-Natives adopting Native art forms. Ishmael said that culture isn't race, it's what we learn; you don't water each other down, you thicken the soup.
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