{"id":176442316,"date":"2014-09-01T02:20:51","date_gmt":"2014-09-01T07:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/?p=176442316"},"modified":"2014-09-01T02:20:51","modified_gmt":"2014-09-01T07:20:51","slug":"history-aida-overton-walker-queen-of-the-cakewalk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/2014\/09\/01\/history-aida-overton-walker-queen-of-the-cakewalk\/","title":{"rendered":"HISTORY: Aida Overton Walker  &#8211; Queen of the Cakewalk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><strong>BLACK POT MOJO<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blackpotmojo.tumblr.com\/post\/96307095524\/aigeoldsoul-the-queen-of-the-cakewalk-aida\" target=\"_blank\"><time datetime=\"2014-08-31\">31 August 2014<\/time><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-large;\"><strong>AIDA OVERTON WALKER<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-large;\"><strong>Queen of the Cakewalk<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/blackpotmojo.tumblr.com\/image\/96307095524\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"aigeoldsoul:&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;br \/&gt;\n&lt;p&gt;The \u201cQueen of the Cakewalk\u201d,\u00a0Aida Overton Walker addressed Black writers\/critics\u2019 disregard for and criticism of the acting profession in a December issue of\u00a0The Freeman. After first addressing the main topic at hand, she proceeded to suggest proactive steps that could prepare up-and-coming black performers for the stage. Below is an excerpt from her article:&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;br \/&gt;\n&lt;p&gt;&quot;I have stated that we ought to strive to produce great actors and actresses; by this I do not mean that all our men and women who possess talent for the stage should commence the study of Shakespeare\u2019s works. Already, too many of our people wish to master Shakespeare, which is really a ridiculous notion. There are characteristics and natural tendencies in our own people which make as beautiful studies for the stage as any to be found in the make-up of any other race, and perhaps far more. By carefully studying our own graces, we learn to appreciate the noble and the beautiful in ourselves, just as other people have discovered the graces and beauty in themselves from studying and acting that which is noble in them. Unless we learn the lesson of self-appreciating and practice it, we shall spend our lives imitating other people and depreciating ourselves. There is nothing equal to originality, and I think much time is lost in trying to do something that has been done and &quot;overdone,&quot; much better than you will be able to do it.&quot;&lt;\/p&gt;&lt;br \/&gt;\n&lt;p&gt;The Freeman\u00a0(Dec. 28, 1912) - Link&lt;br \/&gt;&lt;br \/&gt;\n\" src=\"http:\/\/33.media.tumblr.com\/82c2222cf52cea9ed61b0cbd0b9e3ca0\/tumblr_naz6ykeGVd1thcc0uo1_1280.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/aigeoldsoul.tumblr.com\/post\/95951923954\/the-queen-of-the-cakewalk-aida-overton-walker\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">aigeoldsoul<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">The \u201cQueen of the Cakewalk\u201d,\u00a0<strong>Aida Overton Walker<\/strong>\u00a0addressed Black writers\/critics\u2019 disregard for and criticism of the acting profession in a December issue of\u00a0<em>The Freeman<\/em>. After first addressing the main topic at hand, she proceeded to suggest proactive steps that could prepare up-and-coming black performers for the stage. Below is an excerpt from her article:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\"><strong>&#8220;I have stated that we ought to strive to produce great actors and actresses; by this I do not mean that all our men and women who possess talent for the stage should commence the study of Shakespeare\u2019s works. Already, too many of our people wish to master Shakespeare, which is really a ridiculous notion. There are characteristics and natural tendencies in our own people which make as beautiful studies for the stage as any to be found in the make-up of any other race, and perhaps far more. By carefully studying our own graces, we learn to appreciate the noble and the beautiful in ourselves, just as other people have discovered the graces and beauty in themselves from studying and acting that which is noble in them. Unless we learn the lesson of self-appreciating and practice it, we shall spend our lives imitating other people and depreciating ourselves. There is nothing equal to originality, and I think much time is lost in trying to do something that has been done and &#8220;overdone,&#8221; much better than you will be able to do it.&#8221;<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\"><em>The Freeman\u00a0<\/em>(Dec. 28, 1912) &#8211;\u00a0<a title=\"Google News Archive\" href=\"http:\/\/news.google.com\/newspapers?nid=2306&amp;dat=19121228&amp;id=UhsnAAAAIBAJ&amp;sjid=bQMGAAAAIBAJ&amp;pg=6232,3335143\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Link<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">(via\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/classicladiesofcolor.tumblr.com\/post\/96299000599\/aigeoldsoul-the-queen-of-the-cakewalk-aida\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">classicladiesofcolor<\/span><\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>+++++++++++++++<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">BLACK POT MOJO is the occasional musings, magick, &amp; lore of writer <strong>Sheree Ren\u00e9e Thomas<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&gt;via:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/blackpotmojo.tumblr.com\/post\/96307095524\/aigeoldsoul-the-queen-of-the-cakewalk-aida\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/blackpotmojo.tumblr.com\/post\/96307095524\/aigeoldsoul-the-queen-of-the-cakewalk-aida<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; BLACK POT MOJO 31 August 2014 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; AIDA OVERTON WALKER Queen of the Cakewalk aigeoldsoul: The \u201cQueen of the Cakewalk\u201d,\u00a0Aida Overton Walker\u00a0addressed Black writers\/critics\u2019 disregard for and criticism of the acting profession in a December issue of\u00a0The Freeman. After first addressing the main topic at hand, she proceeded to suggest proactive steps [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[6],"tags":[4,12,11],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176442316"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176442316"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176442316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176442352,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176442316\/revisions\/176442352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176442316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176442316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176442316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}