{"id":30290,"date":"2020-02-17T08:24:32","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T13:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=30290"},"modified":"2020-02-17T08:28:47","modified_gmt":"2020-02-17T13:28:47","slug":"music-spoken-word-and-video-details-the-legacy-of-the-14th-amendment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2020\/02\/music-spoken-word-and-video-details-the-legacy-of-the-14th-amendment\/","title":{"rendered":"Music, spoken word and video details the legacy of the 14th Amendment"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If You Go<\/h3>\n

What:<\/strong> The 14th<\/sup> Amendment: All a Cryin\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

When:<\/strong> 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 24<\/p>\n

Where:<\/strong> Barking Legs Theatre, 1307 Dodds Ave.<\/p>\n

Admission:<\/strong> Free<\/p>\n

Information:<\/strong> https:\/\/barkinglegs.org\/event\/details\/all-a-cryin-the-14th-amendment\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The people are smiling\u2014including a young girl\u2014obviously having a good time. An enormous crowd gathers on and around the Walnut Street Bridge in downtown Chattanooga.<\/p>\n

The objects of their happiness? Dead black men and women hanging from trees, telephone poles and bridges, the victims of lynchings.<\/p>\n

Such harrowing images are part of the short film, The 14th<\/sup> Amendment: All a Cryin\u2019<\/em>, which is part of an event set for Feb. 24 in Barking Legs Theatre.<\/p>\n

The amendment says all U.S. citizens, regardless of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, are entitled to equal protection under the law. The 18-minute film contends that, despite the amendment\u2019s promise, those protections are not always honored when it comes to African Americans. To make its point, along with the lynching photos in the film it includes video snippets showing violent takedowns and shootings of blacks during arrests in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent pretty much two whole days finding the material and having this growing feeling of dread in my stomach as I watched all of it,\u201d said UTC videographer Jacob Cagle, who put the film together. \u201cIt was so profoundly horrific. You feel absolutely lost and helpless after spending hours watching and rewatching the footage, just trying to find some reason in all the chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

Executive Producer Nicole Brown, academic advisor and adjunct faculty member in the Department of Communication, says the film isn\u2019t pointing fingers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not bashing anyone. We\u2019re just telling the truth of the history,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The upcoming presentation of the film at Barking Legs is not just a journey of visual horror. Opening the program are the Singing Mocs, a new\u00a0a cappella\u00a0<\/em>group at UTC who will add its voices to a recitation of the Langston Hughes poem, \u201cLet America be America Again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film also features a spoken-word performance by Barking Legs\u2019 Marcus Ellsworth as well a string quartet performing a musical piece written by Jonathan McNair, UC Foundation professor\u00a0in the UTC Department of Music. The piece also is titled The 14th<\/sup> Amendment: All a Cryin\u2019<\/em> and is based on an old spiritual, \u201cListen to the Lambs All a-Cryin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAround 2015, I started following a newsfeed that was posting videos of African Americans being brutalized by police at routine traffic stops. And that was really painful, and made me really troubled and angry. And I decided that I had to do something,\u201d McNair says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I thought about the subject matter, the refrain of the spiritual called \u2018Listen to the Lambs All a-Crying,\u2019 it began to occur to me. Who are the lambs all a-crying? The people who are being brutalized and killed. Their families who have lost their loved one. Maybe they had children, maybe they had siblings. They certainly had parents. They had friends in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the musical piece, each instrument and the music it plays corresponds to one of those affected people:<\/p>\n