Donald Byrd's fifth Ailey commission draws on the Company's theatrical roots and legacy of addressing social injustice. The work's title references a 1921 tragedy that happened in Tulsa, Oklahoma's segregated Greenwood District. At the time, it was one of the country's most affluent African American communities, known as "Black Wall Street."
On May 30, 1921, an incident occurred in the elevator of a Greenwood office building; nobody truly knows what happened, but a young Black man was arrested for attempted assault on a White teenaged girl. The next day, a newspaper report about the arrest incited an armed White mob, and things quickly escalated.
Over the next day, the mob grew in size and burned much of the neighborhood to the ground, killing as many as 300 Black people, and leaving another 10,000 homeless. Afterwards, the Tulsa Race Massacre was quickly erased from the nation’s memory, but the story has resurfaced in recent years in anticipation of the event’s centennial in 2021.
PRESS COVERAGE
NBC 4 video, 12/1/19: Positively Black: Donald Byrd
Tracie Strahan speaks with Tony-nominated Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater choreographer Donald Byrd about “Greenwood,” a new piece that premieres Friday at New York City Center.
TDF article, 12/2/19: How Do You Explore the Tulsa Race Massacre Through Dance?
"In the piece, which is startlingly cinematic, Byrd juxtaposes the incident that set off the massacre against the story of a black family struggling to survive it. In the middle of the action, an "anti-Greek chorus" influences the events with militant precision. Byrd shows three different versions of what may have happened in that elevator; all lead to the same devastating violence."
WNYC Interview, 12/6/19: Donald Byrd’s Theory of Disruption
"Well, I think it's for everybody, meaning that it's not because I think Black people, many young black people, in particular, don't know any of these stories from that period in time. It's for many white people who don't know them as well. And so it really is for a broad spectrum of, of audiences. And you know, the public that because it's unknown, it's not like it's the Declaration of Independence. And we might note something about it. These are things that have actually been forgotten. And in some cases, they were forgotten because they were deliberately kind of wiped from the consciousness by taking things out of the public record or the public records disappearing, that reference them. So it's really kind of trying to put it back in the public consciousness again."
View this interview on the Ailey Pressroom
The world premiere of Greenwood is made possible with generous support from an anonymous donor, and The Fred Eychaner New Works Endowment Fund.
Members of the Company in Greenwood, photo by Paul Kolnik
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Members of the Company in Greenwood, photo by Paul Kolnik
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Members of the Company in Greenwood, photo by Paul Kolnik
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Members of the Company in Greenwood, photo by Paul Kolnik