Hasan Davis to bring black soldier to life at 7:30 p.m. tonight
BY MIRANDA BAILEY
Journal-Courier
Hasan Davis likes to be different. While his fellow scholars in the Heartland Chautauqua all chose fairly well-known historical figures to portray, Mr. Davis chose Angus Augustus Burleigh. Who? Mr. Burleigh was a soldier in the United States Colored Heavy Artillery, one of thousands of black soldiers that served in the Civil War. Mr. Davis found out about him while attending Berea College in Kentucky, where Mr. Burleigh also graduated. "When I decided to do a living history piece," Mr. Davis said, "I wanted to find someone who represents the many transformations that African Americans have gone through in this country." Mr. Burleigh was one such person. He was born a freeman, the son of a sea captain. After his father died, he and his mother were forced into slavery in Kentucky. At age 16, Mr. Burleigh ran away and joined the army. After the war, he went on to graduate from college, marry, have three children, and become a minister, once serving as chaplain of the Illinois State Senate. "He really struck me to be a unique opportunity to show the development of a person through all those stages," Mr. Davis. When deciding to do the character, he said, fie wanted someone that could represent many of the black soldiers that fought during the war. Mr. Burleigh was many soldiers' stories rolled into one person.
"You don't hear many stories where they go through so many changes," he said. "He just kept evolving,"
Another thing that drew him to Mr. Burleigh is that he personified what, ideally, America is all about, he added.
"He is the epitome of the American spirit," Mr. Davis said "And the belief that no matter where you start at, you can go anywhere you want to."
In writing the script for Mr. Burlelgh, though, the hardest thing was finding a transition between the various parts of his life. Mr. Davis covers 10 years in the presentation, getting the audience to advance in time with him without confusion proved to be difficult.
After that was solved, one of the hardest things he has discovered is that he needs to be an expert about Mr. Burleigh and about the Civil War.
"You have to anticipate the questions and know the answers," he said. "I'm always afraid that (the audience) is going to ask a question that l don't know the answer to."
Currently, Mr. Davis is working on a second characterization, one of York, the slave of William Clark during the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804. When he's not performing, he works for the city of Lexington, Ky., as a coordinator for a youth violence prevention program.
