The NAACP Presents: The Cotton Club

On the evening of Tuesday, November 13th, the Frostburg State University chapter of the NAACP, graced the college campus with an evening of elegance. The civil rights-based organization recreated the famous "Cotton Club," a host to the New York nightlife, popularized throughout the Harlem Renaissance.

The Cotton Club operated from 1924 to 1940. Though the club featured incomparable performances by famous black entertainers (Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, The Nicholas Brothers, Louis Armstrong, and Billie Holiday, to name a few), the audience was white-only. Scat singing, tap dancing, orchestral jazz compositions, and theatrical poetry readings, hosted the club's stage often disguising the protest songs and heavy hearts of the African American entertainers that created them.

The "Cotton Club" located in Harlem, New York

 



Frostburg State's NAACP kept many of the traditions of the club alive, discarding the white-only regulation. The show opened with a jazzy, modern dance to "Miss Celie's Blues,(The Color Purple)," performed and choreographed by FSU student Elisia Daniels and myself. Theatrical readings of Democracy (Langston Hughes), Negro Woman (Lewis Alexander), If We Must Die (Claude McKay), and Trees (Angelina Grimke), were prepared by students Jason Baccus (President of FSU's NAACP chapter), Losan Miller, Crystal Nwabuko, and Lauren Rich (Entertainment Chair for FSU'S NAACP chapter). FSU student Kristen Miller sand a slowed version of Ella Fitzgerald's "Undecided." The entire show averaged a brief 25 minutes at best. The final performance was a tap dance to Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington's collaboration "It Don't Mean A Thing," performed by me.

Audience members complained that the entertainment segment for the evening was too short; I agreed. In fact, serving the meal (linguine tossed with sun dried tomatoes and spinach, seasoned broccoli, sauteed chicken, mashed-red potatoes, yellow cake, and fresh dinner rolls) lasted about two times as long as the show. This can be attributed to the student organization's poor planning method.

In true college student form, praising the god of procrastination, the students threw together a show less than a week before it was to open. Being there myself and spear-heading the evening's entertainment, I observed the late arrivals of the student performers carelessly waltzing into the show's first and only run-through. Because many of the students were so late, the run-through never happened and the house doors were opened. The show went on with a heaping helping of dropped light cues, awkward transitions, nerves, and unclear messages. Being the perfectionist that I am, I was very disappointed with the show that lacked luster. I had to find out what went wrong. The students (performers and employees of the LANE Center staff) spewed off a number of excuses as to why so many things failed. I felt like a teacher that just graded a set of tests, that all the students had failed.

Despite the many mistakes that are deemed illegal in the realm of the theatre, the audience seemed to enjoy the show and the night went on. Students who attended last year's creation of the "Cotton Club" said that the show was "way better!" It was nice to see something new in Frostburg, not to mention for a great cause. Each audience member was required to bring two canned goods to support the student organization's Thanksgiving food drive for families in need. There was no entry fee.

What should you take from this?
1. FSU's NAACP has performed an act of kindness for its community, while paying homage to its past.
2."The Cotton Club" is a timeless landmark in New York and history.
3. Procrastination is never wise, professional, nor successful.