Sankofa displayed a message falsely attributed to The Shakerite to a crowd of approximately 400 during its Feb. 27 performance.
The message, written by a Sankofa adviser, was a fictional call-out of the show’s use of the N-word, and was attributed to a made-up name that coincidentally belongs to students who have attended the high school in the past. The text was pasted onto the home page of The Shakerite’s website and projected onto a pull-down screen in the large auditorium. The slide was removed before Saturday’s performance.
Intervention Specialist Brittany Billups, a Sankofa adviser, provided the following statement:
“The image displayed on screen was created by a Sankofa staff member who does not work for the district in any other capacity. The article image was created without direction from advisers Keaf Holliday and Brittany Billups. In fact, Friday night was the first time the advisers saw the image. The projected image was accompanied by lines spoken by three characters who appeared to be reading the article verbatim. These words were not quotes from any actual Shakerite article. Rather, they were a summary of comments that had previously been shared with Sankofa advisers by community members. The fictitious article, including the fictitious byline, was intended solely as a theatrical device to represent previously expressed viewpoints. It is not affiliated in any way with the Shakerite or any of its writers, past or present. This image was not displayed during the Saturday performance and will not be included in the final video of the show. Additionally, adviser Keaf Holliday gave a disclaimer at the start of the Saturday show that both the characters and their affiliation with the Shakerite are fiction and for theatrical purposes only.”
Sankofa is more than justified to make the point they did; some parts of the show may make viewers uncomfortable, but they are parts of Black history that should be acknowledged and discussed. The Shakerite is not here to diminish this topic, but to clarify that we were not involved in this part of the presentation and had no knowledge of its existence.
