NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY Performance-Conscious Activism

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY Performance -conscious Activism and Activist -conscious Performance as Discourse in the Aftermath of the Los Angeles Rebellion of 1992 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS For the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Field of Performance Studies By Kamran Afary EVANSTON, ILLINOIS June 2007 2 © Copyright by Kamran Afary 2007 All Rights Reserved 3 ABSTRACT Performance -conscious Activism and Activist -conscious Performance as Discourse in the Aftermath of the Los Angeles Rebellion of 1992 Kamran Afary This dissertation deploys an interdisciplinary methodology, extending what is conventionally understood as discourse to include performance. It brings together the fields of performance stud ies, discourse analysis and theatre studies to document, contextualize, and analyze the events after the Los Angeles rebellion of 1992. It examines gang youth who turned to community activism to help maintain truce between former warring gangs; small comm unity - based organizations of mothers who worked to defend their incarcerated sons; and a variety of other groups that organized demonstrations, meetings, and gatherings to publicize the community’s opposition to brutal police practices, unjust court proced ures, and degrading media images. The dissertation also addresses the intersections between grassroots activism and the celebrated performance and video Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 by Anna Deavere Smith™. Together, activists and performers developed new counter -public spaces and compelling counter -narratives that confronted the extremely negative media representations of the Los Angeles rebellion. In these spaces and narratives, t he activists/performers nurtured and developed their oppositional identities and interests, often despite dire economic conditions and social dislocations. By examining their discourses in light of Victor Turner’s model of the social drama, including soci al breach, crisis, and their redressive actions, this dissertation provides a theoretical context and an intertextual reading of performance -conscious activism and activist -conscious performance as discourse. 4 Acknowledgments I wish to express my deepest thanks to members of my dissertation committee. Dwight Conquergood, who passed away in 2004, shaped this work and commented extensively on draft chapters. Margaret Drewal provided a thorough critical reading of the revised and final chapters. Sandra Ric hards, Tracy Davis, and Chuck Kleinhans commented on drafts and later revisions. In addition to my committee members, Judith Hamera read all the chapters and made many valuable suggestions. Janet Afary and Kevin Anderson offered constant encouragement an d intellectual support. I want to express love and gratitude to my family (my parents, sisters, and niece) and to my friends and colleagues who made it possible for me to complete this work. I wish to dedicate this work to the many activists, scholars, and artists whose words and work is documented or reflected in this study. They are not named here but they are acknowledged throughout the dissertation. 5 Table of Contents Chapter One Introduction and Roadmap to the Work 6 Chapter Two An Historical P olitical Economy of Los Angeles 51 Chapter Three Performing Peace: Gang Truce in Watts and Beyond 81 Chapter Four The Gang Truce Movement as a Space for Dialogue and Activism 114 Chapter Five Performing Motherhood: Creating Uprising Textualitie s and Reclaiming Their Children 149 Chapter Six Performing Twilight Los Angeles : Walking in the Words of a Sad and Beautiful Poem 209 Chapter Seven Conclusion: Remembrance and Reinterpretation 262 Works Cited 271 6 Chapter One Introduction Fo r four da ys , from April 29 to May 2 1992 , an unprecedented urban rebellion erupted in Los Angeles. The immediate cause of the revolt was the acquittal of four Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers , who had been charged in the beating of Rodney Kin g, a black motorist. On March 3 , 1991, o fficers Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodor Briseno, and Sergeant Stacey Koon, three of them white men and one Latino, were in a high -speed pursuit of Rodney King. King , who was on parole from prison from an ear lier robbery conviction refused to stop, fear ed arrest and a return to prison on parole violation. He ignored the police lights and sirens behind him and eventually stopped at the Lake View Terrace district after going through several red lights. Soon a fter he stopped and left his car , the officers tackled and repeatedly beat him with their clubs and taser guns. Most of t he incident was captured on video by a resident of Lake View Terrace and was subsequently shown o n television. The repeated airing of the footage of the beating, as King laid prostrate on the ground, was then broadcast internationally, creating a media sensation that eventually led to the trial of the officers. Because of this enormous publicity , the trial was moved outside Los Angeles County , to predominantly white Simi Valley in Ventura County. The j ury was composed of ten whites, one Asian, and one Latino. During the trial , a thirteen -second edited version of the tape of the beating was shown to the jury , on the basis of which the d efense argued that King had attempted to get off the ground and charge one of the officers. The defense also claimed that initial police attempts at restraining King had been met with resistance, though these allegations could not be proven and were not 7 captured on tape. In the end, the jury acquitted three of the officers on all counts and could not agree on a verdict for the fourth one (Cannon 260). The not -guilty verdict came as a shock to most people. The verdict appeared at a time when the inner cit y youth were already on the verge of an explosion for a variety of social and economic reasons. Los Angeles was in the midst of a deep economic recession, with double - digit unemployment rates in black and Latino communities. The end of the Cold War and t he cuts in the defense industry , coupled with the transition in California from indus trial manufacturing to low pay and service jobs had dried up many better -pa ying jobs for blue collar workers. In response, inner city crime rates had shot up and the poli ce had reacted with a heavy hand. Four months after the King beating, the Christopher Commission , headed by former Secretary of State Warren Christopher , published a report on the LAPD . It concluded that a significant number of officers in the LAPD “repe titively used excessive force against the public, and persistently ignored the written guidelines of the department regarding the use of force.” The report also indicated that there were a number of “repeat offenders” on the police force, with many having been charged multiple times with use of excessive force and improper tactics ( see “Shielded from Justice”). Another incident in South Central Los Angeles involving a young teenage girl and a Korean store owner intensified t he feeling that the criminal j ustice system was not protecting African -Americans. On March 16 , 1991 , forty -nine -year -old Soon Ja Doo shot fifteen -year -old Latasha Har lins to death . Harlins was stealing a small bottle of orange juice from the grocery store when Doo caught her. Harlin s punched the store owner in the face and proceeded to walk out the door , after which Doo fatally shot her in the back. This incident further enraged the black community , because Doo received a minimal sentence of 400 hours of community service and a 8 $500 fine for the shooting (Cannon 192). Hence, even before the verdict on the four LAPD officers involved in the King beating was announced, the re was a great deal of anger about the dismal economy, the Latasha Harlins murder, and the Christopher Commission Report , which had confirmed longstanding allegations about LAPD brutality and racism. With all these accumulated tensions and grievances, the verdict in the trial of the police officers was “the straw that broke the camel’s back” (Gibbs 59). The initial response to the verdict was, however, peaceful. On the afternoon of April 29, local activists and civil rights groups had called upon the community to gather in front of the Los Angeles Criminal Courts building and Parker Center -- the LAPD’s downtown head quarters -- if the officers were acquitted. Meanwhile, an increasing number of protesters were also gathering at the corner of Florence and Normandie in South Central LA. After a confrontat ion with several residents that further inflamed the tensions, the LAPD officers present decided they were outnumbered and left the scene to regroup and ret urn later with additional force. T hey never returned , however . In the absence of the police, the crowd soon became disorderly. A white truck driver , Reginald Denny , who had stopped at a red light , was pulled out of his truck and beaten by several black men. This incident was covered by television cameras in helicopters hovering above. Soon , four African -American residents who had seen the incident on television rush ed to the aid of Denn y. They took him to the hospital where he underwent brain surgery and was ultimately saved. At the same intersection, Fidel Lopez, a Guatemalan immigrant construction worker was also beaten ; he survived only after surgery and months of rehab (Cannon 311). By the evening of April 29 , angry protestors were breaking the windows at the police headquarters, while looting and arson were spreading in vast areas of Los Angeles , including 9 South Central. A major controversy later developed aro und the fact that , on this same evening, Los Angeles chief of police Daryl Gates chose to attend a political fundraiser instead of tending to the riots. In the evening, Mayor Tom Bradley and Governor Pete Wilson called for a state of emergency and activat ed two thousand members of the National Guard (Cannon 336).

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