Ko-Thi Lives!

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Ko-Thi is not dead. Not by long shot. That was abundantly clear at an open rehearsal at UW-Milwaukee in December when a new generation of dancers and musicians presented thrilling work in preparation for a major concert at the Oconomowoc Art Center on Friday, Feb. 6. It was clear in another way when I visited the offices of the new Black Arts Think Tank (BATT) in the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts to speak with BATT’s impressive Executive Director Barbara Wanzo, Ko-Thi’s unstoppable matriarch Ferne Caulker Bronson, and the inspiring young artists DeMar Walker and Sonya Thompson who now share creative and administrative responsibility for the company Bronson founded in 1969.

“We’ve been organization building,” Bronson said. “Ko-Thi dies when it doesn’t transition to the next generation.”

“We don’t feel dead,” Walker said. “We’ve been working hard.” That work has been centered at UWM where in 2010 the track that Bronson created for majors in the dance department was officially approved. Titled “Performance and Choreography of the African Diaspora” and unique in the country, its students spend six semesters studying the history and techniques of African, African American and Caribbean dance forms and contribute to that history in performances. Meanwhile, Bronson protected the identity of Ko-Thi, making beautiful collaborations with the dance department such as The Sweet Grass Project (2013) and Their Eyes Are Watching God (2014) while developing a new generation of artists and a new business plan.

As Mama Ferne says, you can’t transition to the next generation if you can’t pay them.

For a time in the 1980s, the United Performing Arts Fund embraced Ko-Thi, providing major support. A large budget, spectacular shows at the Pabst Theater, justly celebrated tours to Japan and New York and performances across America (“We did it the poor man’s way,” Bronson notes) brought fame. As arts funding dried up generally in that decade, Ko-Thi was hard hit. There’s precious little wealth in Milwaukee’s black community for arts support. Raising ticket prices hurts that audience. According to Bronson, white city leaders succumbed to common assumptions about minorities, women and artists in general, and were quick to question her leadership skill. Ostensible efforts to “save” Ko-Thi, she suspects, were actually meant to end further obligations to support it. If it can’t support itself, it dies, in other words.

“Ko-Thi has been a life key for young black people,” Bronson says. “It has saved lives.”

As the open rehearsal ended, Trina Gandy, a former Ko-Thi dancer just finishing a doctorate degree at UW-Madison, leapt from her seat to thank the current company. “Ko-Thi has done so much to make me who I am,” she said. “It’s the source of so much power in my life. It was so positive—I came, like many of you, from a very negative situation. It’s spiritual; it’s something deep in your soul. Ko-Thi just has to be in this community.”

BATT was born from conversations between Bronson and Constance Clark, founding director of the African American Children’s Theatre, which faces a similar struggle. Diane Wilkins, artistic director of the struggling Hansberry-Sands Theatre, joined the pair for a videotaped brainstorming session on the problems facing Milwaukee’s minority artists. It’s available on YouTube (search for “Black Arts Think Tank”). “We decided to try it one more time,” Bronson said, “We chose the name BATT because we’re black, we’re artists and what do think tanks do? They throw out a million ideas and come up with a plan.”

BATT now provides management for all three organizations. Board of Director Co-chairs Cory Nettles of Generation Growth Capital and Quarles and Brady, and Jackie Herd-Barber of Milwaukee Succeeds, have assembled a strong board that includes Paul Matthews of the Marcus Center. Matthews arranged for BATT to occupy the fourth floor office suite and conference room with a view to City Hall. Wanzo has more than 25 years’ experience in for-profit management. “I was looking for a non-profit position where I could work closely with the director. I wanted to bring the skills and knowledge I’ve gained regarding innovation, technology, strategic thinking, planning and partnerships to the non-profit community work that I love,” she said.

The show in Oconomowoc is called Imani , meaning faith. It represents the vision of Thompson, Walker and Ko-Thi’s Musical Director Tarence Spencer. Thompson grew up in Jamaica and learned its dances, then studied ballet and jazz at Milwaukee High School of the Arts. She and Milwaukeean Walker have hip-hop backgrounds. He was a stellar soloist in Danceworks’ hip-hop concert last summer. “Mama Ferne’s legacy” has become their life mission. They created Imani with the combined adult and children’s companies while Bronson was on sick leave in the fall. The new work has a classic Ko-Thi foundation but it’s young and fresh. “This is the 21st century,” Thompson says. “It’s time for new stuff!”

Ko-Thi performs Imani at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 6 on the Neudecker Mainstage of the Oconomowoc Arts Center, 641 E. Forest St. in Oconomowoc. Call 262-560-3172 or visit oasd.k12.wi.us.