Artists invoke hope for MLK Day on Vashon

The event this year coincided with the presidential inauguration.

Storyteller Eva Abram and dancer Franchesska Berry brought the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to center stage on Jan. 20, captivating an audience of more than 100 at Vashon Center for the Arts, including many families and young children.

The event opened with a performance by the Vashon Island High School band, led by conductor Britt Dahlgren, of several anthems from the Civil Rights Movement.

Abram began her opening remarks by acknowledging the weight of this year’s MLK Day, which coincided with the second inauguration of President Donald Trump.

“Some see it as a turning backwards of the hard-won achievements we made toward equality and justice,” Abram said. “For those of you who might be concerned or feel a bit hopeless, I think if Dr. King were here, he would acknowledge that your concerns are legitimate. We are in for unprecedented times, tough times. Dr. King knew a little bit about that.”

Abram then told the story of Linda Brown, the young girl whose defiance against segregation became the face of the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

Franchesska Berry’s many accolades include an honorary membership to the National Ballet of Senegal. She wore Senegalese clothing of vibrant blue and pink while she presented two dances that fused ballet, modern, African diaspora styles, and Sabar, a traditional Senegalese dance.

After the performance, Berry described with teary eyes the moment, right before stepping on stage, when her daughter called and told her that former President Barack Obama had been booed by onlookers at Trump’s inauguration.

“It just broke my heart,” Berry said.

Nevertheless, her performance was triumphant and optimistic, her face upturned and set in a proud smile as she danced to “I’ll Rise” by Ben Harper.

Abram returned to the stage embodying Miss Ruby, an elder who she knew from her childhood in Louisiana. In a southern drawl, she recounted Miss Ruby’s personal experience growing up in the Jim Crow South, facing harassment and intimidation.

In adulthood, Miss Ruby “politely but firmly” stepped in front of an old white woman who’d cut her in line at a butcher shop, demonstrating defiance against racial prejudice.

“That took some guts in them days, let me tell you,” Abram said, as Miss Ruby. “I passed on my defiant ways to you children. But just as I passed on my defiant ways, some prejudiced white folk passed on their prejudiced ways, and now we spend generations trying to undo all of that mess.”

“The people in my little neighborhood and many little neighborhoods all across the country, they didn’t make headlines as many others did,” Abram said, returning to her own cadence. “But their actions ate away at the obstacles against us, just as termites would eat away at a mighty oak. Eventually, that tree is coming down, and like an old rotten tree, Jim Crow fell.”

As the performance came to a close, Abram encouraged attendees to gather in the lobby and stop by the craft tables and enjoy food by noted chef Chantel Jackson, owner of Thyme Well Spent.

At a crafts table, attendees Victoria Elizondo Hopper, Cameron Young Cooper and Deborah Perpetua worked on collages featuring quotes and photos of Dr. King. They reflected on Abram’s storytelling, and its focus on inspiring the next generation.

“She personalized the stories she acted out, and that was very powerful,” Hopper said. “She actually became those people.”

Abram researches those whose stories she tells on stage to better embody their essence and experience.

“It helps me remember, takes me back to our ancestors, to bring them forward and let other people experience what they experienced,” Abram said. “It reminds people that we’re not that far away from those times. We’re not that far away from each other.”

Mari Kanagy is a contributing journalist to The Beachcomber.

This story has been corrected. An earlier version misidentified “Miss Ruby” as Ruby Bridges, the civil rights icon of the school desegregation crisis. Though both were Black women from Louisiana who stood up to racial prejudice and who were mentioned in Abram’s speeches, they are separate people.