0:00:03.063,0:00:04.507
The archive.

0:00:05.317,0:00:08.659
One may envision rooms and shelves

0:00:08.683,0:00:11.147
stocked with boxes[br]and cartons of old stuff.

0:00:11.623,0:00:15.298
And yet, for those who are[br]patient enough to dig through it,

0:00:15.322,0:00:18.099
the archive provides[br]the precious opportunity

0:00:18.123,0:00:19.877
to touch the past,

0:00:19.901,0:00:22.426
to feel and learn from the experiences

0:00:22.450,0:00:27.453
of once-living people who now seem[br]dead and buried deeply in the archive.

0:00:28.038,0:00:32.363
But what if there was a way[br]to bring the archive to life?

0:00:32.387,0:00:35.226
Jon Michael Reese: "The world[br]is thinking wrong about race."

0:00:35.250,0:00:38.453
Melissa Joyner: "This country insists[br]upon judging the Negro."

0:00:38.477,0:00:40.056
JMR: "Because it does not know."

0:00:40.080,0:00:42.049
AYGTK: What if one could make it breathe?

0:00:42.073,0:00:44.731
MJ: "By his lowest[br]and most vicious representatives."

0:00:44.755,0:00:45.905
AYGTK: Speak.

0:00:45.929,0:00:47.968
JMR: "An honest, straightforward exhibit."

0:00:47.992,0:00:49.311
AYGTK: And even sing to us,

0:00:49.335,0:00:51.752
so that the archive[br]becomes accessible to everyone.

0:00:51.776,0:00:54.307
What would performing[br]the archive look like?

0:00:54.331,0:00:57.447
A performance that is not[br]simply based on a true story,

0:00:58.264,0:01:01.598
but one that allows us[br]to come face-to-face

0:01:01.622,0:01:04.188
with things we thought[br]were once dead and buried.

0:01:04.212,0:01:05.229
(Piano music)

0:01:05.253,0:01:08.006
This is what "At Buffalo,"[br]a new musical we're developing,

0:01:08.030,0:01:09.188
is all about.

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Using collections[br]from over 30 archival institutions,

0:01:12.768,0:01:18.572
"At Buffalo" performs the massive archive[br]of the 1901 Pan-American Exposition,

0:01:18.596,0:01:20.619
the first World's Fair[br]of the 20th century,

0:01:20.643,0:01:21.914
held in Buffalo, New York.

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Now, if you've heard of this fair,

0:01:23.643,0:01:26.942
it might be because this is where[br]then-US president, William McKinley,

0:01:26.966,0:01:28.132
was assassinated.

0:01:28.156,0:01:30.379
For nearly 17 years,

0:01:30.403,0:01:33.474
I've stayed inside the gates[br]and the archive of this fair,

0:01:33.498,0:01:35.482
not only because of that story,

0:01:35.506,0:01:38.958
but because of a real[br]life-and-death racial drama

0:01:38.982,0:01:41.387
that played out on the fairgrounds.

0:01:41.411,0:01:44.696
Here, in a place that was like[br]Disney World, the Olympics,

0:01:44.720,0:01:46.974
carnivals, museums, all in one,

0:01:46.998,0:01:51.236
there were three conflicting displays[br]of what it meant to be black

0:01:51.260,0:01:52.807
in the United States.

0:01:52.831,0:01:55.544
The archive says white showmen presented

0:01:55.568,0:01:57.687
a savage black origin,

0:01:57.711,0:02:00.846
in the form of 98 West[br]and Central Africans,

0:02:00.870,0:02:02.576
living and performing war dances

0:02:02.600,0:02:06.160
in a recreated village[br]called Darkest Africa.

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And across the street,

0:02:09.093,0:02:11.966
a happy slave life,

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in the form of 150 Southern[br]black performers,

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picking cotton,

0:02:17.109,0:02:19.355
singing and dancing minstrel shows,

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in a recreated antebellum attraction[br]called Old Plantation.

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As a response,

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the black Buffalo community championed[br]the third display of blackness.

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The Negro Exhibit.

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Codesigned by African American[br]scholar W.E.B. Du Bois,

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it curated photographs,[br]charts, books and more,

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to show black Americans[br]as a high-achieving race,

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capable of education and progress.

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When I first encountered this story,

0:02:50.648,0:02:52.957
I understood from my own life experience

0:02:52.981,0:02:55.997
what was at stake to have members[br]of the African diaspora

0:02:56.021,0:02:57.688
see each other like this.

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For me, as the child of immigrant parents[br]from Ghana, West Africa,

0:03:02.212,0:03:04.156
born in the American South,

0:03:04.180,0:03:06.925
raised in Manhattan, Kansas,

0:03:06.949,0:03:08.124
(Laughter)

0:03:08.148,0:03:11.275
and having attended the same[br]elite school as Du Bois,

0:03:11.299,0:03:14.037
I could see that the Buffalo fair[br]effectively pitted

0:03:14.061,0:03:16.126
the black Northerner[br]against the Southerner,

0:03:16.150,0:03:17.989
the educated against the uneducated,

0:03:18.013,0:03:21.195
and the African American[br]against the African.

0:03:21.510,0:03:23.298
And I wanted to know,

0:03:23.322,0:03:28.369
how did these three distinct groups[br]of black folk navigate this experience.

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Unfortunately, the archive[br]had answers to questions like this

0:03:32.895,0:03:35.172
underneath racial caricature,

0:03:35.196,0:03:38.775
conflicting information[br]and worse, silence.

0:03:39.212,0:03:42.307
(Piano music)

0:03:42.331,0:03:46.739
Still, I could hear musical melodies

0:03:46.763,0:03:48.046
and see dance numbers

0:03:48.070,0:03:49.454
and the rhythms of the words

0:03:49.478,0:03:51.977
coming off the pages[br]of old newspaper articles.

0:03:52.001,0:03:53.675
And learning that this World's Fair

0:03:53.699,0:03:57.641
had music playing everywhere[br]on its fairgrounds,

0:03:57.665,0:04:01.561
I knew that live, immersive,[br]spectacular musical theater,

0:04:01.585,0:04:04.601
with the latest technologies of our time,

0:04:04.625,0:04:09.260
is the closest experience that can bring[br]the archival story of the 1901 fair

0:04:09.284,0:04:12.060
out of boxes, and into life.

0:04:12.585,0:04:15.600
Stories, like Tannie and Henrietta,

0:04:15.624,0:04:18.409
a husband and wife vaudeville duo in love

0:04:18.433,0:04:21.553
who become at odds over performing[br]these "coon" minstrel shows

0:04:21.577,0:04:23.877
while striving for their[br]five-dollar-a-week dream

0:04:23.901,0:04:25.918
in the Old Plantation attraction.

0:04:25.942,0:04:28.657
Like African businessman John Tevi,

0:04:28.681,0:04:30.363
from present-day Togo,

0:04:30.387,0:04:33.791
who must outwit the savage rules[br]of the human zoo

0:04:33.815,0:04:35.926
in which he has become trapped.

0:04:35.950,0:04:39.490
And stories like Mary Talbert,

0:04:39.514,0:04:41.990
a wealthy leader[br]of the black Buffalo elite,

0:04:42.014,0:04:43.216
who must come to terms

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with the racial realities[br]of her home town.

0:04:45.903,0:04:47.928
MJ: "The dominant race in this country

0:04:47.952,0:04:49.990
insists upon judging the Negro

0:04:50.014,0:04:52.545
by his lowest and most[br]vicious representatives."

0:04:52.569,0:04:54.879
AYGTK: Like Old Plantation[br]and Darkest Africa.

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MJ: "... instead of by the more[br]intelligent and worthy classes."

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AYGTK: When fair directors[br]ignored Mary Talbert

0:05:00.582,0:05:04.117
and the local black Buffalo community's[br]request to participate in the fair,

0:05:04.141,0:05:06.275
newspapers say that Mary Talbert

0:05:06.299,0:05:08.887
and her club of educated[br]African American women

0:05:08.911,0:05:11.252
held a rousing protest meeting.

0:05:11.276,0:05:13.093
But the details of that meeting,

0:05:13.117,0:05:15.410
even down to the fiery speech she gave,

0:05:15.434,0:05:17.426
were not fully captured in the archive.

0:05:17.450,0:05:21.212
So, "At Buffalo" takes the essence[br]of Mary's speech

0:05:21.236,0:05:23.421
and turns it into song.

0:05:24.251,0:05:27.122
(All singing) We must, we are unanimous.

0:05:27.744,0:05:31.527
We must, we are unanimous.

0:05:31.551,0:05:34.003
MJ: We've got something to show --

0:05:34.027,0:05:37.717
we're going to teach a lesson in Buffalo.

0:05:37.741,0:05:41.302
It would benefit the nation

0:05:41.326,0:05:45.365
to see our growth since emancipation.

0:05:45.389,0:05:51.445
Colored people should be represented[br]in this Pan-American exposition,

0:05:51.469,0:05:55.064
it would benefit the nation

0:05:55.088,0:05:59.492
to see our growth since emancipation.

0:05:59.516,0:06:05.988
(All singing) They made a great mistake

0:06:06.351,0:06:11.951
not to appoint someone from the race.

0:06:13.382,0:06:16.103
We must, we are unanimous.

0:06:16.844,0:06:20.325
We must, we are unanimous.

0:06:20.349,0:06:21.915
We must, we are unanimous.

0:06:21.939,0:06:26.423
AYGTK: Mary Talbert successfully demands[br]that the Negro Exhibit come to the fair.

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And to have the Negro Exhibit in Buffalo

0:06:29.186,0:06:33.868
means that the musical must tell the story[br]behind why Du Bois cocreated it ...

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and why Mary and the black elite[br]felt it was urgently needed.

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JMR: "The world is thinking[br]wrong about race.

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They killed Sam Hose[br]for who they thought he was.

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And more men like him, every day,

0:06:53.934,0:06:57.694
more Negro men, like him, taken apart.

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And after that -- that red ray ...

0:07:02.980,0:07:04.647
we can never be the same.

0:07:05.665,0:07:09.204
(Singing) A red ray

0:07:09.228,0:07:10.481
[A man hunt in Georgia]

0:07:10.505,0:07:12.435
cut across my desk

0:07:12.459,0:07:14.648
[Mob after Hose;[br]he will be lynched if caught]

0:07:14.672,0:07:16.918
the very day

0:07:16.942,0:07:20.224
Sam's hands were laid to rest.

0:07:21.974,0:07:28.951
Can words alone withstand the laws unjust?

0:07:28.975,0:07:30.263
[Escape seems impossible]

0:07:30.287,0:07:35.715
Can words alone withstand the violence?

0:07:38.038,0:07:43.109
Oh, no, oh.

0:07:43.133,0:07:44.368
[Burned alive]

0:07:44.392,0:07:45.727
[Sam Hose is lynched]

0:07:45.751,0:07:50.656
Oh, no, oh.

0:07:50.680,0:07:52.613
[His body cut in many pieces]

0:07:53.426,0:07:56.410
Oh, no, oh.

0:07:56.434,0:07:57.831
[Burned at the Stake]

0:07:57.855,0:08:00.085
[Ten Cents Slice Cooked Liver.]

0:08:00.109,0:08:01.575
[Fight for souvenirs]

0:08:08.760,0:08:12.046
(Both singing) Who has read the books?

0:08:12.070,0:08:17.006
Our numbers and statistics look small

0:08:17.030,0:08:22.124
against the page.

0:08:22.148,0:08:25.577
The crisis has multiplied.

0:08:25.601,0:08:28.307
Our people are lynched and died.

0:08:28.331,0:08:30.688
Oh, Lord.

0:08:30.712,0:08:36.509
Something must change.

0:08:38.762,0:08:43.371
AYGTK: Something must change.

0:08:44.397,0:08:47.633
"At Buffalo" reveals[br]how the United States today

0:08:47.657,0:08:51.197
stands at similar crossroads[br]as 1901 America.

0:08:51.617,0:08:55.172
Just as the name of Sam Hose[br]filled newspapers back then,

0:08:55.196,0:08:57.834
today's media carries the names of:

0:08:57.858,0:08:59.521
JMR: Oscar Grant.

0:09:00.101,0:09:01.523
MJ: Jackeline [unclear].

0:09:01.910,0:09:03.377
Pianist: Trayvon Martin.

0:09:04.021,0:09:05.355
AYGTK: Sandra Bland.

0:09:06.133,0:09:07.831
And too many others.

0:09:08.834,0:09:12.849
The 1901 fair's legacies persist

0:09:12.873,0:09:16.103
in more ways than we can imagine.

0:09:18.315,0:09:19.498
MJ: Mary Talbert

0:09:19.522,0:09:21.623
and the National Association[br]of Colored Women

0:09:21.647,0:09:24.522
started movements against lynching

0:09:24.546,0:09:26.537
and the myth of black criminality,

0:09:26.561,0:09:30.101
just as black women today[br]started Black Lives Matter.

0:09:30.601,0:09:33.481
JMR: And some of the same[br]people who fought for

0:09:33.505,0:09:35.357
and created the Negro Exhibit,

0:09:35.381,0:09:37.292
including Du Bois,

0:09:37.316,0:09:39.920
came to Buffalo,[br]four years after the fair,

0:09:39.944,0:09:42.135
to start the Niagara Movement,

0:09:42.159,0:09:45.506
which set the groundwork[br]for the creation of the NAACP.

0:09:45.530,0:09:47.212
AYGTK: It's not just black folks

0:09:47.236,0:09:50.030
who had the peculiar experience[br]at the 1901 fair.

0:09:50.403,0:09:53.310
An official handbook informed fair-goers:

0:09:53.334,0:09:55.349
MJ: "Please remember:"

0:09:55.373,0:09:57.348
JMR: "... once you get inside the gate,"

0:09:57.372,0:10:00.166
AYGTK: "... you are a part of the show."

0:10:01.071,0:10:03.141
Performing the archive in "At Buffalo"

0:10:03.165,0:10:05.768
allows audiences to ask themselves,

0:10:05.792,0:10:08.307
"Are we still inside the gates,

0:10:08.331,0:10:12.929
and are we all still part of the show?"

0:10:17.072,0:10:20.485
(Music ends)

0:10:20.509,0:10:27.396
(Applause and cheers)