Orchestra at Her Back, Erykah Badu Inspires Students at BAM

More than 1,000 public school students traveled to the Brooklyn Academy of Music on a rainy June 7 afternoon to hear neo-soul artist Erykah Badu and the Brooklyn Philharmonic conduct an open rehearsal of their show, “You’re Causing Quite a Disturbance.”

Students clapped and whooped when Badu walked onstage in a tall, round, blue top hat, a black trench coat and grey pants bunched above cowboy boots. Her introduction to the song “Soldier” quickly established the nonconformist, empathetic stance the artist would take throughout the hour-long rehearsal.

The orchestra and Badu performed three arrangements of songs from the artist’s 2008 album, “New Amerykah Part One (4th World War),” and Badu and Brooklyn Phil conductor Alan Pierson shared their thoughts about identity and creativity with the audience.

It was these spoken contributions that stole the show.

After describing a documentary film about the land rights of marginalized peoples, Badu urged students to repeat the words “occupation,” “resistance,” and the phrase “to occupation.”  She then recounted a scene in which Mexican farmers refused to budge when soldiers ordered them off their land.

“That made me very proud to be a part of the human race,” she said. “It made me proud to know that we can organize, in love and in peace, and accomplish things.”

After the orchestra unleashed the upbeat swing of its arrangement, Will Simbol, the philharmonic’s Manager of Education, asked Pierson and Badu how they found their identities as artists.

“I always loved just making really cool, exciting musical things happen,” said Pierson, who wore a plaid shirt and faded blue jeans.

For her part, Badu paused.

“I don’t know, it’s too soon to say,” the singer said. “I don’t know who I am. I’m still evolving and discovering new things every day.”

Simbol, who relayed questions students had submitted in advance, said that some beginners wondered how their peers would view their musical pursuits.

Badu took the comment as an opportunity to address the issue of bullying.

“So most of the people who’ve been bullied before, I guarantee you’ve done some bullying too,” she said. “Am I assuming? Am I wrong?”

Badu, who taught theater in Texas before becoming a professional recording artist, then encouraged the audience to focus on living their lives, not pleasing others.

“If you care so much about what other people think, you don’t give yourself room to grow. You stay in the same place forever,” she said.

Students clapped, and she continued: “You should care about how you treat people, but what other people think about you is none of your business.”

A young man near the front row repeated Badu’s phrase “none of your business” and wagged an index finger and shook his head, prompting the artist to request an encore.

She followed his gesture by challenging students to be accountable for their self-worth.

“Those of you who waste time worrying about what people think about you, it’s your fault,” she said, ending in a blunt tone.

With flutes and drums, the orchestra lightened the mood with a intoxicating arrangement of “Me,” Badu’s ode to living her creed. The backing vocalists brought back a series of “shoop’s” that first delighted students earlier in the hour.

As she introduced “Amerykahn Promise,” a reworking of jazz musician Roy Ayers’ conventionally spelled original, Badu both praised and questioned the bounty of the United States, which she said “is probably … the best country on the planet.”

“The country has so many opportunities that we should take advantage of. But a lot of those things are at other people’s expense.”

The philharmonic’s funky, assertive horns took it from there, creating a sound that mixed “Blaxploitation,” as Badu put it, with tinges of earlier styles of jazz.

As they gathered in the lobby after the rehearsal, students spoke about their impressions of the orchestra and Badu.

“Pretty good. I never heard that type of music,” said Marco Martinez, a high school junior.

“[Badu] made it very interactive,” said Juan Morales, Martinez’s classmate.

Sophomore Ieslet Elikems appreciated learning that Badu’s mother and grandmother worked at a school the artist attended in Texas, which made Badu feel that she “didn’t have any room to mess up.”

And P.S. 307 4th grader Alani Taylor expressed her impression of the artist in three words: “She wasn’t afraid.”

Badu would have liked that. When Simbol asked she and Pierson to talk about creativity, she defined it as “the absence of fear,” and said that to be creative, “I just become as honest with myself as I can and not be afraid to be myself.”