‘Chik Chik Chik’ its Candy from Australia…

”I am an Australian Artist of South African heritage. My dominant bloodlines are Black African and Chinese Malaya with a some French Indian and German blood going three or four generations back. My father was born in Zimbabwe and my mother came from Kimberly in South Africa. My grandfather, Sonny Leon, was an important figure in the political history of the country. He was one of the first Coloured” (mixed) politicians in South Africa and held office as the Leader of the Labor Party in the early 70’s. Growing up with the cultural politics of South Africa in your background and the cultural politics of Australia in your foreground makes for some steady contemplation around the themes of identity and colour, to say the least. It has not been an easy ride growing up black with an afro and big dreams Down Under.

I was born in a small town called Dandenong (Victoria), my mum and dad migrated from South Africa in 1973 and moved to the upper-working class suburb just before I came along; the last of three girls. My sisters and I were very creative and our mother nurtured our talents, signing us up for dance class and art competitions, public speaking and guitar lessons. (Here’s a nice slice of music from Candys sister,Via Tania from her album ‘Moon Sweet Moon’. Now in the USA she should be touring the UK this new year. Click here for more Via Tania)

Frankly my parents really need to stop complaining that we all became Artists because they set the ball rolling during our childhood. My mother would argue that she was just trying to give us a range of experiences because they were not available to her growing up in South Africa, adding “only the really light skinned girls were allowed in Ballet Class back home…” Our mother constantly complains of sleepless nights worrying about the inconsistencies of the industry, yet she is always front and centre at our shows with lots of advice (from dramaturgy to costume design) so perhaps in the words of William Shakespeare: “the lady doth protest too much.”

It has taken a mammoth amount of resilience and self-belief to continue to work as an Artist in Australia where the industry is small and the racism is great. In 2001 I graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) into an industry that had no interest in me.

I did not receive an Acting Agent and on ringing directly was told, “we already have one black girl and she doesn’t get any work, what’s the point of taking on another?” So that was it! The front door of the industry was not open to me and I quickly learned that the windows and back door were also bolted shut. My entry into the scene can be likened to smashing through the skylight and once you make a mess like that, you really have to keep blowing things up!

Eight years later, I have worked as a writer, performer and director across the commercial and community arts sectors. I have taken original work to Edinburgh Fringe Festival, produced a hip hop comedy show for Australian and New Zealand pay-television (SHE TV Channel V Foxtel) starred in breakthrough productions of black theatre and continue to be a very loud protest voice about the lack of colour on the Australian stage, page and screen.

In 2008 I was one of six young Artists to receive a British Council ‘Realise Your Dream Award’. This particular award is about leadership and creating links between the UK and Oz. My plan was to observe and make connections with other black artists and organisations that would inspire and influence my mission to bring the Aussie industry into the 21st century; to begin building structures whereby people of colour can work, see themselves reflected and feel welcome.

I set off on October 11th and landed home on November 20th 2009….

My trip was a mix of spoken word and physical theatre; drop in drama classes, hip hop Shakespeare, workshops and devised work, poetry and chats. Between London and Manchester some of my highlights were the Dare2Dance: B Supreme all-girl dance contest, Benji Reid’s The Devil has Taken Quentin’s Heart, Inua Phaze Ellams’ The 14th Tale, Make-Believe by Quarantine Theatre and meeting the Poet Laureate of South Africa, Keorapetse Kgositsile along with Lebo Mashile, Don Mattera and Phillippa Yaa De Villiers who performed their poetry for Theatres ‘Beyond Words’ tour…. on this I must elaborate.

I mentioned my cultural heritage earlier- my grandfather- my family history…it is difficult to express the emotions I went through on meeting the South African poets from ‘Beyond Words’. I took Don Mattera’s workshop the day before the show at Contact Theatre in Manchester and from the moment I sat down my spine began to tingle. Don’s approach was simple- before one can write, before one can be a poet one must “find thyself, know thyself and love thyself.” The spirituality of this teaching hit everyone sitting in that workshop deeply and the atmosphere was tangible. As it turned out Don knew my grandfather well, they’d been in politics together and he saw the family resemblance…my Chinese eyes and round cheeks belong to the Leon side of the family. Don asked each of us “what we want more than anything else?” He said every poet has a mission and that it is linked to self-love and self-knowledge. I have always known what I want. I want to live and work as and an Artist, a poet, an actor, director and writer in an industry that embraces me, that acknowledges my culture that sees the beauty of diversity-

I want an industry of colour

Empowering the other brothers

Nurturing the creamy boys

And promoting the brown Mamas

Writers, Rappers, Artists, Actors, Lovers

I yearn for the rhythms no longer undercover

The beats, the breaks, the notes, the tones

Is what l hunger

Is what l hunger

Is what l hunger

The real Australia for the all world to see

I want to believe and breathe diversity

Believe they’ll be a time beyond the bigotry

So deeply entrenched and so difficult to see

So constant and yet so hard to perceive

I’m holding up a mirror l’m down on my knees

Please

The masterclass workshop with Don Mattero is were I learned about Sustained Theatre and the part that it had played in bringing Beyond Words to the UK. I was trying to imagine what life would have been like if my dad had chosen the UK instead of Australia…imagine being in a country that has Black Heritage month and companies and organiations that believe in black work.

I share the mission that Sustained Theatre are active in achieving, that is to ensure “…artists transform the future of our national arts landscape to reflect the diverse, rich and vibrant talent that exists in….” my country Australia. I am part of many discussion groups and initiatives that support black Artists in Oz, but frankly the country is so far behind it is clear to me that we need to strengthen the bonds between our nations in order to make the dreams of black Artists across the world a reality.

It is going to take some evenings on the back stoop with my notebook, dinner party discussions with friends and well planned meetings of minds before I have reached a full understanding of what I learned during my five week stay in the UK. I have indeed been inspired- so big love and thanks to all of the Artists and Facilitators, Producers and Arts Worker’s who performed, educated, wined and dined with me on my trip…. I thank the British Council for identifying me as an Artist and Cultural Leader who will make a change in Australia. I see the light, the path and the necessity for an ongoing connection!

Sunday Night with Candy B

Written by Maxine Clarke on 3-10-2009

I am totally, madly, unbelievably in love with Candy B: a big, bold, beautiful self-declared Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla Blasian (Black-Caucasian-Asian) queen. A couple nights ago I spent an hour and a half in Candy’s company as she rocked stage, audience and screen in shiny pink dance-pants, which clung to her curves almost as cheekily as the way she kept running her mouth off.

Before I get any further with this review though, let me drop the line Candy Bowers insisted any reviewers start with when covering her one woman show Who’s That Chik? , running at the Arts Centre until tonight: Candy Bowers is a black woman. On stage. At the Arts Centre. In her own hip-hop theatre show: Who’s That Chik?

Are there any reviewers in the house?, Miss Bowers hollered, There were some reviewers in the house last night. I mean, why would you come to a preview? It’s called a preview FUCKERS!. Then the fiery hip-hopper instructed us to: Make sure you get that ‘black’ bit right. It would be nice if you could mention that.

Who’s That Chik? is part film, part monologue, part freestyle vox-pop, part dance, part family photo album, part stand-up comedy, part rap and one hundred percent hip-hop Candy. In the space of an hour, accompanied by sound-designer and MC Kim Bowers (aka Busty Beats), and with the assistance of Video Artist Fatima Mawas and Director James Winter, this woman takes you captive on her life journey, complete with beats and breaks, starting in apartheid era South-Africa.

Candy performed the family history lesson section of the show with an academic gown and board over her shimmering emerald green, watermelon pink and bright purple hip-hop dance outfit. The right side of the audience chanted Candy B’s, and the left Family History, in an enthusiastic call-and-answer which formed a chorus to her family-tree rap. (As soon as my grandfather took the ‘G’ off ‘Leong, nobody knew he was Asian. Which is really strange, because to me he kind of looks like an Indonesian man…)

The versatile actress played tag with us through heartbreaking dance-class taunts (Who’s that girl over there? How come she’s so fat? Must be an Abo or something, came the child’s voiceover as Candy danced to Michael Jackson, complete with white gloves, and pasted-on smile). She explored her early life, born to South African migrants in suburban Dandenong (My mother straightened my hair from the time I was five to eighteen. When I was nineteen, I decided to shave my head and see what happened, she raised an eyebrow and pointed at her sizeable afro). Candy held our hands through the heartbreak of her NIDA audition (Ummm, I was just wondering if…maybe…you could put a monologue in the audition book for umm… for us girls that aren’t white. There’s nothing in there for us.), NIDA acceptance (I’m the brown girl! The one chosen brown girl!), and graduation (…and for her graduating performance from NIDA, Candy Bowers will be playing the role of…the maid).

It is difficult to write about growing up the ‘Other’ Black in the suburbs of Australia. I know it. There is a constant denial amongst white picket fenced Australia, and beyond, that racism even exists anymore. To many, to express anger or sadness at the blatant racism encountered by migrants of colour in suburban Australia is somehow seen as tantamount to a lack of gratitude for the ‘privilege’ of living in this country. And that’s just the surface of it. But Bower’s show shoots this notion dead, skewers it through the heart. Who’s That Chik? is profound without being clichéd, angry without being irrational, and confronting without being inaccessible. The spellbinding performer heckles without being a hater (Come on, you, that guy over there, get up here and dance. God, you’d be the guy sitting at the table of white boyfriends at a South African wedding while everyone else is dancing), cries unashamedly (…people are being blocked, people are being blocked. People are being blocked…), ad-libs with honesty and breaks it down until we’re all left standing there, gazing at the smithereens in awe. An experienced performer, and one half of the comedy Hip-Hop duo Sister She, Candy Bowers, has proved with Who’s That Chik that she is an extraordinary writer-performer who can hold her own, and our hearts besides. Oh – and she’s black. And has her own show! Go sister, fucking go.

Book for the remaining night of for Who’s That Chik here. Can you think of anything better to do with your Sunday evening?