Below are a series of posts about the music 15 year old junior skater Moa Iwano of Japan and her choreographer Benoit Richaud have picked for her SP. The posts were made in the "Programs by Discipline" thread.
For those who don't know the songs involved, they were:
"Sinnerman" by Nina Simone (with lyrics):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4ovLrvq2do
"Strange Fruit" (Iwano is using the Nina Simone version, not the Billie Holliday version.)
The lyrics used by Nina Simone are here:
https://genius.com/Nina-simone-strange-fruit-lyrics
The Nina Simone version is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvwlPKCfkIM
Golden Skate posters have been discussing where the line lies between following the well-known artistic tradition of representing tragedy and "cultural appropriation/cultural disrespect."
An added issue is whether this song would be appropriate for Starr Andrews, a senior African-American skater, or for any other senior skater?
Is it never appropriate, or inappropriate only for junior skaters, or appropriate only for African American skaters, or always appropriate?
And, would you like to see such a program?
Strange Fruit is explicitly, and graphically, about lynching. For those who do not know the terrible history of lynching in the US,
here is a link to the American Black Holocaust Museum, which memorializes the victims of lynching:
http://abhmuseum.org/category/lynching-victims-memorial/
and a link to the recently opened National Memorial for Peace and Justice:
https://eji.org/national-lynching-memorial
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/25/us/lynching-memorial-alabama.html
Almost 4,400 people of color have been known to be lynched in the US. The last known lynching was of Michael Donald in 1981 in Alabama. This is not ancient history:
https://blackthen.com/michael-donald-last-noted-african-american-man-lynched-by-the-ku-klux-klan/
LINKS TO THE SOURCES FOR THIS PROGRAM, from @rabidline:
For those who don't know the songs involved, they were:
"Sinnerman" by Nina Simone (with lyrics):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4ovLrvq2do
"Strange Fruit" (Iwano is using the Nina Simone version, not the Billie Holliday version.)
The lyrics used by Nina Simone are here:
https://genius.com/Nina-simone-strange-fruit-lyrics
The Nina Simone version is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvwlPKCfkIM
Golden Skate posters have been discussing where the line lies between following the well-known artistic tradition of representing tragedy and "cultural appropriation/cultural disrespect."
An added issue is whether this song would be appropriate for Starr Andrews, a senior African-American skater, or for any other senior skater?
Is it never appropriate, or inappropriate only for junior skaters, or appropriate only for African American skaters, or always appropriate?
And, would you like to see such a program?
Strange Fruit is explicitly, and graphically, about lynching. For those who do not know the terrible history of lynching in the US,
here is a link to the American Black Holocaust Museum, which memorializes the victims of lynching:
http://abhmuseum.org/category/lynching-victims-memorial/
and a link to the recently opened National Memorial for Peace and Justice:
https://eji.org/national-lynching-memorial
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/25/us/lynching-memorial-alabama.html
Almost 4,400 people of color have been known to be lynched in the US. The last known lynching was of Michael Donald in 1981 in Alabama. This is not ancient history:
https://blackthen.com/michael-donald-last-noted-african-american-man-lynched-by-the-ku-klux-klan/
LINKS TO THE SOURCES FOR THIS PROGRAM, from @rabidline:
Can I make a request for you to add the links of where Moa's programs were announced to the start of the thread (your post)? It can help other GS posters to look up on the sources, and know what the extent of the news covering this program so far. I know it's mentioned in the posts below but it's easy to miss them.
:
- https://twitter.com/AxelQuadruple/st...22600009277445
Quadruple Axel's tweet on 27 July 2019, part of their program reports from the Japanese Junior Camp (held in Chukyo University last week), which is the first time "Strange Fruit" was mentioned (also mentioning Nina Simone). Quadruple Axel is a Japanese figure skating magazine publication, they usually release Japanese Men-focused magazines but they also do figure skating reports in Japan.
- https://twitter.com/sportsjapan/stat...07907101499393
Jack Gallagher's tweet on 8 July 2019, which was earlier and only mentioned Sinnerman for the SP. Jack's a figure skating reporter for The Japan Times.
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