THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 5, 1996 TAG: 9607050305
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STORIES BY MICHELLE MIZAL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 152 lines
This weekend more than 2,000 young African-American performers, vocalists, scientists, actors and artists from all over the country will compete in Charlotte, N.C. at the 18th annual national ACT-SO competition.
ACT-SO is the Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics recognizes young black high school students who excel in the humanitities, performing arts, sciences and visual arts.
The program is sponsored by the NAACP (National Association of the Advancement of Colored People). Competitions are held both on a local and national level and any African-American in grades nine to 12 can compete. First place winners at the nationals win a $1,000 scholarship, $750 for second place and $500 for third place.
SHANTE' CUFFEE never took an acting class, but on this particular afternoon she sits in her Chesapeake den ready to perform her version of ``And Still I Rise,'' a poem by Maya Angelou. It was this performance that won her the gold medal last April at the ACT-SO competition at Indian River Middle School. She will go to the national competition this weekend in Charlotte, N.C.
A car door slams outside.
``Oh no,'' says Shante', 17, as she rushes to the window. She pulls back the curtain and peers through the blinds.
``Don't tell me somebody else is here. Then I'm really not going to do it,'' she says.
It's only her dad, who enters through the back door and quickly retires to his room.
``OK, I'm ready,'' Shante' says, taking a quick look around to make sure the room is free of other people. With the couch and coffee table pushed out of the way, Shante' kneels on the floor and bends over, extending both her arms in front of her, hands flat on the floor. There is a minute of silence and then, with a face scrunched up in anger and a voice to go with it, she begins:
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
It's an explosion of energy, bottled up anger and determination, with lots of hand reaching and leg strutting. Then it's over.
Just like it was at the ACT-SO competition and just like it was at the Miss Western Branch Pageant last March.
Although Shante' impressed the judges at the ACT-SO competition, she says her performance did not do so at the pageant. There, she says, some people felt the poem was racist.
To Shante', the poem carries another meaning.
``It sends out a strong message,'' she says. ``It's not talking to just blacks. I feel like it's talking to everyone.'' She says the poem can apply to people who have been raped or abused, not just people who have dealt with racism.
Shante', a rising freshman at Norfolk State University, says she hasn't experienced much to relate to the poem. The closest thing she can think of was the pageant - where some audience members called her poem prejudiced.
Shante', a graduate of Western Branch High School in Chesapeake, is not afraid of many things.
Her biggest fears are performing in front of people and heights, although she likes to go high in a roller-coaster car and ride the drops.
``I love the feeling in your stomach when you go down,'' she says. Her favorite coaster ride is the Shockwave at Paramount's Kings Dominion.
There are other things that shock Shante'.
She's still getting over the shock of winning at the competition. She says she doesn't think she really realizes that she's going to the nationals. She had never won a medal before.
But she is excited.
``I can't wait to meet all the people from different places. I mean, this thing is huge,'' she says, holding her hands far apart.
To get ready, Shante' is working with Dr. Clarence Murray, director of theater at Norfolk State. She doesn't do exercises before performing; she just prays.
Although Shante' has proven her ability to dramatize, her plans are to become an English or physical education teacher. Shante' says that because going to gym was boring for her, if she becomes a P.E. teacher, she's going to make it fun for her students. Sometimes she thinks about being an actress, but believes a teaching job would be more secure.
For now, however, Shante' waits to rise and won't let anything get in her way. She gives similar advice to her peers.
``Never let anyone or anything intimidate you from doing what you want to do,'' she says.
AT AGE 3, Andrea Moore took center stage on the fireplace hearth of her family's Georgetown home in Chesapeake. She sang her heart out - using a spoon as a microphone.
Today, 15-year-old Andrea has moved on to bigger stages, but she is still singing.
Last April, she sang Giacomo Puccini's ``Vissi D'arte'' (Love for beauty) from the opera ``Tosca'' at the ACT-SO competition at Indian River Middle School.
The performance won her the gold medal in classical
voice and a chance to compete in the ACT-SO national competition in Charlotte, N.C., this weekend. If she comes in first, Andrea will get a $1,000 scholarship.
Andrea, a rising junior at Indian River High School, has a track record of coming in first.
In April, she won a $200 vocal scholarship from the Chesapeake Fine Arts Commission, and in March she was crowned Miss Teen Chesapeake. Andrea also won first place awards from the National Association of Negro Musicians for the past two years. The competition took her to places like Chicago and Minneapolis.
Although Andrea's voice rakes in the dough, she says her singing is purely for fun.
``I truly enjoy it,'' she said. ``There aren't many black students that sing it (classical music). . . . I believe that's one of my callings from God.'' It's God whom she thanks first for her voice. Second comes her mom, Glenda. Andrea also gives credit to her first vocal instructor, Emma Gregg Harris.
Harris was Andrea's vocal teacher until last year, when Andrea joined the Governor's School for the Arts in Norfolk. Beginning when she was 9, Andrea would go to Harris's house in Norfolk once a week for voice lessons. It was Harris who taught her how to sing classical music like ``Vissi d'arte,'' a song Andrea likes because it has a high note at the end.
Andrea admits that happy songs are not her favorites. ``I like misery songs and songs about depression, because I think I could act them out better than a happy-go-lucky-song,'' she said.
Acting comes naturally to Andrea.
At age 12, she joined the Virginia Opera House adult choir - the fondest memory so far in her singing career. She was told that her voice was too mature to sing with the children's choir.
The opera put Andrea's acting and singing abilities to work. She even played a seamstress in the opera ``Don Pasquale'' by Gaetano Donizetti and got paid for it.
Although she is not with the opera anymore, Andrea attends the Governor's School, which accepted her two years ago for performing arts, theater and vocal music.
It was there that Andrea met her boyfriend, Jason Booth from Lakeland High School in Suffolk. Jason, who also sings classical score, competed against Andrea at the ACT-SO competition and won the silver medal.
Andrea hopes to become one of the youngest divas at New York's Metropolitan Opera House.
Andrea walks across the room and once again takes center stage on the fireplace hearth. Her mom watches. A series of piano chords come from a small tape recorder sitting on the coffee table. Like thunder, Andrea's voice rings through the two-story house.
It is an old spiritual called ``Witness'' - her favorite song. With hands reaching out and up, and her body swaying to her own melodious voice, Andrea belts out:
Ain't that a witness for my lord, yeah, ain't that a witness for my lord. My soul is a witness for my lord. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
BILL TIERNAN/The Virginian-Pilot
Shante' Cuffee
LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot
Andrea Moore by CNB