Black history musical debuts in Sacramento, takes show on road
SACRAMENTO — Ahead of Black History Month, a group is showing history through a new lens, bringing the past to life.
Inside the Safe Credit Union Performance Arts Center Tuesday morning, a side of history seldom revealed awaits.
Brandon Brown is challenging minds to reconsider what they think they know. He's the creator of a Black history musical, "Our Story."
"One thing is clear: anytime I ask a simple question — 'What have you learned for Black history?' — it's slavery or segregation," Brown said.
Off stage, Brown is CEO of School Yard Rap, a media company creating educational content.
When the mic is in his hand, he embodies his rap persona Griot B, spitting bars about Black inventors, pre-colonization and historically Black colleges and universities.
The performance comes at a time when conversations on race lead to fiery debates, especially about what can and cannot be taught in the classroom.
"But you got to know the truth," Brown said. "You have to understand the truth. You have to accept the truth for you to be able to accept things to change that truth — or at least change things about the systems that came about the truth."
So, Brown uses the musical as a soft landing for talking about race. Crowd participation is a must, which may be easy when students are the audience.
But for the first time, "Our Story" is opening to the general public by hitting more than 10 California cities. The musical is coming back to Northern California with stops in Modesto and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Tickets are selling fast with some shows already sold out.
When asked why he's taken the show on the road, Brown tapped into his career as an educator.
"I think I'm traveling with this on the road because we can't work in isolation," he said. "We have to make sure – or at least my focus as an educator, as a griot – I'm educating everyone and trying my best to bring that education in places where it may not normally be accepted and definitely in places where it's not being taught."