February 20, 2022 – Paula Larke

“I See Colored People!”

   …I want to speak about the multi-colors of division – class, lifestyle, culture/sub-culture,  gender, skin tone, hair texture, empathy meter, etc., etc. ……too many et cets…..and the grey areas of inclusion – can you guess what they are?

   Visceral reactions and easy categorizing are giving way to in-depth evaluations of our human intersectionality.

Get on board. Examine yourself and get back into the Upper Classroom.

(Upper Room, get it?)

PAULA LARKE / VOICES IN THE TREETOPS
I used to call myself a truth teller. Now I simply offer scenarios for reflection and possible
reparation.
No more a teacher, always an incorrigible pedagogue, I have preached, cajoled, exhorted peace and justice for over 40 years.
I banged drums, strummed lullabies, plunked bass and joked face-to-face with audiences all over the USA. Forty years of
social evolution and devolution.
I am an American traveler, a troubadour formerly self-named Truth Tellah. Now I am Awed Observer, from time to time
offering food for reflection and reparation.
Now I just observe the madness, occasionally bursting into song, dance, or tirade.
Folk generally prefer the song and dance.

Larke is a veteran of off Broadway theater in NYC, national touring companies of Broadway plays, artist residencies for North Carolina Arts Council, NC Public School Forum Teaching Fellows Program, Riverside Church of NYC, Berea College Promise Neighborhood, ran an arts program five years for refugee youth at Clarkston Community Center here in Georgia.