BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — February is Black History Month, and it's a time for everyone regardless of race or ethnicity to celebrate and learn more about Black history. That's the goal of the play OURStory: The Black History Musical Experience, opening soon the Historic Bakersfield Fox Theater.
OURStory started in a classroom where an 8th grade teacher created songs for his students to help them learn history. Now those songs are taking center stage in auditoriums across California. Back then, Brandon "Griot B" Brown, CEO of School Yard Rap, was known as Mr. Brown.
"I was a U.S. History teacher. World History teacher. 7th and 8th history," said Brown.
One day in the school cafeteria, one of the students put Brown's lyrics to the test.
"He challenged me to make a song because I said the song he was listening to was horrible. He said, 'You can't do better,' so I did, and I made a song and I started rapping in class about U.S. history," said Brown.
Griot B has been dropping bars ever since.
"I never wanted to be a rapper before this. This was something that really spawned from, I think, the necessity to make learning engaging for students, especially content that isn't really reflective of them at all," Brown said.
In 2018, Brown quit his job as a teacher and assistant principal to start School Yard Rap, creating a curriculum for schools that was more reflective and engaging for diverse students.
"It hit year three at the job and about half of my time there, I was thinking about me leaving and doing what my passion was, and that was really when I knew it was time to go," said Brown.
Brown's choices and experiences culminated in the creation of OURStory: The Black History Musical Experience.
"The overarching theme is that Black history is more than just slavery and segregation. The topics that we're dealing with or the time frame is from pre-colonization or 1930s," said Brown.
Hallie Williams plays Queen Aminah in the musical. She says the play's characters include more of the Black role models students should know about.
"She (Queen Aminah) took over her father's army. Usually women aren't in those high levels of king and queen," said Williams.
Williams says she's learning through the experience as well, because for her, this simply wasn't taught in school.
"Never heard of Queen Aminah. Usually we'll learn about MLK or Rosa Parks, which is really great, but the Shaka Zulu, learning about black colleges, which I wish was something I could have learned about," said Williams.
That kind of educating is one of Brown's goals for the production.
"This show really educates everybody about Black history in a way that is fun, engaging, and lets people who aren't necessarily African-American know more about their neighbors and people around them and their community, because that's what it's all about," said Brown. "It builds, hopefully, some empathy."
OURStory: The Black History Musical Experience will open at the Fox Theatre in Bakersfield on February 6, 2023. The show starts at 7:00 pm. For more information about the play, the venue, or to reserve your tickets for opening night, please visit the Historic Bakersfield Fox Theater's website.
