Image via Crystal Ike, Zee Gregory

 

By: India Rice, Staff Writer 

 

“Undaunted by the fight,” a saying that holds weight for the students of Spelman College and teaches them to gracefully persevere through hardship. The saying is widely recognized as the 12th stanza of the Spelman Hymn, written by Class of 1934 alumnus Eddye Money Shivery. These words not only depict the strength of those attending the college but can also represent the strife students have to endure to fight for their standing in school.

 

For Crystal Ike, a junior theater and performance major at Spelman College, remaining a staunch advocate for her major and place in the department is necessary. In September, her most recent multimedia project titled “Undaunted: The Papers,” tackled the realities of what it’s like to study her major and why more needs to be done to ensure students are able to perform to their best abilities.

 

The project comes a year after a Maroon Tiger story broke about Spelman and Morehouse art students feeling underrepresented and unsupported. Students said that there was a lack of opportunities, funding, visibility, and facilities, leading to students being overlooked. 

 

“Undaunted” was born from the moment that Ike read a Spelman Messenger story about the Rockefeller Arts building renovations and realized that she too had something to say.

 

As a sophomore, she was dealing with mental health issues daily due to her experience as an theater and performance major. While reading the magazine’s quotes about the newly renovated John D. Rockefeller building’s theater, lobby and dressing rooms being renamed after Spelhouse Alumni’ LaTanya Richardson Jackson and Samuel L. Jackson, she felt like it was merely “propaganda.”

 

“Seeing everything that Spelman was saying about the new building and how they were repping it up to be so exciting, and how me, an actual artist who allegedly the building is for, is not excited about this news because it’s just news,” Ike said . 

 

Although the John D. Rockefeller Fine Arts building is still undergoing renovations, construction was set to conclude Oct. 18 of this year and occupancy is set for January 2024. This leaves the Theater and Performance Department without a hub for productions, classes, or even room for fellowship. As a result, students have to use spaces outside of the program like Spelman’s Giles Hall to complete their course studies. 

 

Spelman is also constructing its Center for Innovation and The Arts, also referred to as “Spelman’s Front Porch.” The building is set to support an array of arts programs including theater and performance, dance and other artistic mediums. Spelman projected that construction would finish Aug. 30, 2024 and occupancy would begin Spring 2025. This still leaves students like Ike without a definite space to study.

 

“There have been people who have come to the school and graduated that have never stepped foot into a performing arts building at all, even though they are a Performance Arts Major,” Ike said.

 

Without support, students have to outsource in order to get things done. Even in efforts to use other facilities, hardship still prevails. 

 

“For RAYPAC (Ray Charles Performing Arts Center) specifically, they say it’s only for Glee students, and for [Clark Atlanta University’s] Davage [Auditorium] they’re like ‘you can use it but you have to rent it,’’ Ike said.  “For Cosby, it’s like it’s always booked, like it’s just a bunch of excuses.” 

 

Nat Fields, a  junior Cinema, Television, and Emerging Media Studies major at Morehouse college, acted as one of the models on the project. As a Morehouse student, he feels that Spelman and CAU have a better experience in the arts. 

 

“Morehouse doesn’t even have an arts building, we have RAYPAC but we don’t get to use it for real unless you’re in the choir or Glee or you’re a music major,” Fields said . Then for the theater spaces you don’t get to use it for that,” he added.

 

Ike said that this is “one small piece of the puzzle” to ensure students are taken care of. 

 

“It’s about the building, because it’s the symbol of a place where we are supposed to be. But it’s also just like y’all not only didn’t give us a place to be, y’all forgot to figure out where we were gonna be while this construction was gonna be done. You forgot to still continue to provide us resources,” she added.

 

“Direct eye contact” to communicate with students is one of many things she thinks Spelman can do to improve. Fields also said that more funding, care and interaction from administration needs to happen for more progress to be made for arts majors. 

 

“I would say that there needs to be a shift in the way administration views creative majors, funding help, and actually taking the time to see what the program looks like, ” Fields said. 

 

“Even if they just asked us how we felt to have first hand accounts,” he added.

 

To convey this, she did what she knows best. Create.

 

Ike uses an array of images to convey the “Undaunted” themes including water that depict a “calming sea that can also be a rage at times,” and students in front of the John D. Rockefeller building holding signs that read “Will pay tuition for proper education” and Spelman’s renowned quote, “Top two, not number two.” 

 

“It’s ironic because I think even ‘Undaunted’ being a slogan for Spelman is just so interesting. The theme is like ‘life gets hard, be okay.’ I didn’t know that I was coming to college for y’all to just tell me that all of this is hard and it might get harder,” Ike said. 

 

This was her creative way to protest and show that “artists are alive.” Using different mediums of protesting is another way to be heard instead of what she calls “everyone just yelling.”  

 

The Houston, Texas native has been a performer since she was about six-years-old. Her art is something that she is passionate about and wants people to respect. Through her multimedia project, she is able to display her passions while standing up for herself and classmates. 

 

This is definitely not the last of the “Undaunted” series. Ike shared that originally, the project would be five episodes. She says that she definitely wants to keep talking, now that she knows people are listening. However, she is trying to figure out what that may look like for her. What is definite is that there is still work to be done, and students like Ike are going to ensure that it happens. 

 

“‘The papers’ is one of the most silent ways that I could be loud,” Ike said. “So if you thought this was cool, just wait til’ you put us in a show,” she added. 

 

For more information on the “Undaunted” series be sure to visit https://crystalike.my.canva.site/undaunted-web.

 

Copy Edited by: Auzzy Byrdsell, Editor in Chief