Black Magic Woman: Performing for 1,400+ Emory Students

During this year’s New Student Orientation, I performed alongside five of the most courageous and compassionate souls I’ve met at Emory.

We are Issues Troupe, a spoken-word performance group that spotlights and seeks to remedy social justice issues within and beyond the Emory community. Each year, our main event is a surprise performance during New Student Orientation. As always, first-year students filled our gym's bleachers for a special "presentation" but were given no context about what was to come. Two of the performers were presented as speakers while the rest of us sat in the bleachers as undercover freshmen until our grand reveal. Then, at one of the most pivotal moments in the dialogue, we stormed the stage. Through the power of spoken word, we shared our lived experiences with the over 1,400 incoming students, orientation leaders, residence life staff, faculty, and administrators in attendance. We explored issues of identity, including gender, race, sexuality, nationality, class, and disability status. The social justice issues surrounding these identities are of utmost importance to new students as they now find themselves surrounded by thousands of people whose stories they may not know, but in which they now play a crucial role. As part of Creating Emory, our performance showcases our efforts at creating communities where everyone is met with acceptance, compassion, and respect, amid all of the identities they may hold.

Director: Malcolm Robinson, Emory Office for Racial and Cultural Engagement || Performers: Jalyn Radziminski Smith, Wei Wei Chen, Chloe Camp, Julia Byrne, John Mizuki, Kira Tucker

Glimpse the *magic* of this transformative experience by watching below (for the family, friends, and other lifelong fans who can't wait any longer to see their favorite Pumpkinhead perform—see the start times marked K in parentheses).

Introduction - two Issues Troupers take the audience by surprise with their politically incorrect introduction of “student involvement opportunities" at Emory.
Part I (K 2:45) - each Issues Trouper performs a solo based on some negative experiences they’ve faced, specific to the identities they embody.
Partner Scene Interlude (K 16:20) - we re-enact situations in which we’ve faced micro-aggressions from friends and loved ones.
"Once upon a time, a long, long, time ago..." - we each recount an identity-specific “slap in the face” that we’ve experienced throughout our lives.
Part II (K 27:15) - we respond to the solos in Part I with positivity.
Finale

All of the amazing people involved now hold an extremely special place in my heart. Cliche as it may sound, we formed a bond like family throughout our many weeks of planning and rehearsal. I've also shared such beautiful moments connecting with so many incoming students who had the courage to approach me and share their gratitude for our performance. So many people told me they truly saw themselves reflected onstage and felt like their struggles were heard in ways they had never been before. As a first-year student in their place (literally), I could have never dreamt of sharing my deepest truths atop this grand stage just a year later. But I will never forget the hurt that turned to pleasant surprise, validation, and inspiration upon realizing what the Issues Troupe segment truly entailed, as well as its impact far beyond a mere performance. I appreciate Emory's commitment to being an institution where such rare and real messages are not silenced, but instead provided powerful platforms. I will always hold dear my fellow performers, our director, my poet and theater mentors, and everyone who has shared their stories, investing every ounce of support that made such a momentous experience possible.