Entertainment

The N*gga Project Experience

Published

11 years ago

January 6, 2015

Oakland Post

Mulemvo Nianda

by Kimetha Hill
Special to the NNPA from the San Diego Voice & Viewpoint

Nigger. A very abrasive word. A very volatile word. A very powerful word. A word that has caused generations of damage to an entire culture of people. The word comes from very dark roots, but has somehow “conformed” to the liking of many, many black folks. Now a “term of endearment” the word, “nigga” is thrown around like “hello” among circles of young people. Mulemvo Nianda, documentary filmmaker and sociology student, grew frustrated with the use of the word especially among the younger generations and developed a short documentary on the word.

“The motivation behind it was all the negativity I saw going on with the N-word,” said Nianda. He describes how the word is littered among popular rap songs of stars including Nicki Minaj and other artists who choose to utilize limited vocabulary in their expressions. “All of these songs are coming out and nobody was really saying anything or giving an alternative to it. So I felt that I should take it upon myself to put out an alternative for the young people to look at,” he added.

Inspired by his Black Studies class, Nianda set out to interview people at random in a “man on the street” type setting to capture reactions to the word “nigga” on camera. Thus, The Nigga Project Experience was birthed.

“I put out The Nigga Project by going around the city and asking different people how they felt about the word. And then it formulated into the first documentary, The Nigga Project Part I. The demand was high for it so I did Part II.”

The Nigga Project is an extension of a research project on which Nianda worked during his studies. Diving into the community and asking questions was something that came naturally to him. In Part I, Nianda felt it best to randomly select people for responses to the word. Some were classmates, some were old, very few were young, but his selection was random.

“I tried to target young men, but a lot of the younger men didn’t want to get on camera. The older generation was more willing to be on camera and talk about it and how they felt. In Part I, I only have one or two young people in it because they didn’t want that face time.” And though they may have still chosen to discuss their feelings with Nianda, they opted not to be interviewed on camera.

The reactions to the word were interesting, and Nianda points to the emotion the word provoked in many who were interviewed.

“The majority of the responses were not necessarily positive. But with the young people, I found that they were more accepting of it,” says Nianda as he cites the uses that can be heard in younger generation circles. “That’s my nigga, that’s my homie, that’s my brother.” But he says, “With the older generation, 35 and up, it’s more so like a negative word, a term that we shouldn’t be using. A lot of them want to eradicate the word, but they don’t really know how to.”

As the project grew, the generation divide was made clear to Nianda. The word provokes emotions, emotions of pain and hurt for older generations, emotions that seem to be lacking among the consciousness of youth. But Nianda felt instead of condemning the youth, education on the word must happen.

“A lot of them [youth] don’t know the history behind the word, and when they do know it’s still kind of like ‘That doesn’t have anything to do with me. That was then.’ They don’t really have an emotional connection to the word. And that was another goal of The Nigga Project – to emotionally connect the youth to the origin behind the word – the real intent behind the word. A lot of them don’t know that it’s negative. And if they do know it’s negative, they don’t really care that it’s negative. So if I could emotionally connect them to the original intent behind it, I felt that would give them a standpoint to go from.”

Nianda’s documentary has been shown at several venues around San Diego, as his aim is to spark as much discussion about the word as possible. He took his film everywhere including restaurants, beauty salons, the Urban League and the Jacobs Center.

“We try to go to different spots and have discussions afterwards. And it’s a mixed crowd, it’s not just blacks that come. I feel like everybody can chime in on the topic regardless of race, whether you agree with the word or not. I feel like everybody should have a voice. And that’s what happens at the discussions. We just give people the opportunity to share how they feel about the word,” says Nianda. “Maybe somebody in the room can be educated on a different perspective.” It is through these discussions that Nianda hopes to bridge the generation gap and enlighten the masses.

“I just want to give a voice to the younger generation. I feel like a lot of them do have a voice, but they don’t feel like the older generation is going to hear them. The older generation is focused in other things that they kind of lag behind in teaching us on how to carry ourselves, or how to be or do certain things.”

In Part III, Nianda says he will specifically target young black men since the word is used so heavily in those circles. He plans to hold a youth summit at the Malcolm X Library in July where his documentary will be shown.

What began as an extension of a research project on YouTube has grown to reach a large audience. “I’m just happy to see the people and educate our community,” he says.

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Arts and Culture

IN MEMORIAM: Oakland Dance Legend Reginald Ray-Savage, 67

Savage lived his life as tribute to the teachers who had shared their wisdom on art and life with him. With a palpably genuine enthusiasm and desire to bring out the best in people, and pass the torch to the next generation, he poured into his students, as his teachers and mentors had into him. His infectious energy, love of life, and generosity of spirit inspired countless souls, both inside and outside the dance studio.

Published

3 days ago

June 24, 2026

Oakland Post

Reginald Ray-Savage brought the old-school teaching techniques he learned in the Katherine Dunham Dance Company to the youth at the Oakland School for the Arts in 2003. Courtesy photo.

Special to The Post

Reginald Ray-Savage – dancer, choreographer, and beloved teacher, mentor, and inspiration to many – passed away on May 17. The Oakland School for the Arts dance instructor was 67.

Born Reginald Ray, Jr. in St. Louis, Missouri, on Sept. 5, 1958, he formally adopted the name ‘Savage,’ to honor the great Archie Savage, his mentor at Katherine Dunham’s Performing Arts Training Center where his dance training journey began in East St. Louis, Illinois.

He soon started dancing professionally with Katherine Dunham Dance Company, making dance a way of life. His grit, tenacity, and notorious work ethic brought him scholarships to train at multiple prestigious dance institutions, including The Ailey School (NYC) and Ruth Page School of Dance (Chicago), under the direction of acclaimed ballet instructor Larry Long and Dolores Lipinski-Long.

He danced with several companies including Joel Hall Dance Company, Ruth Page Ballet Chicago, Lyric Opera, Chicago City Ballet, American Festival Ballet, and touring productions of “Music Man” and “A Chorus Line”.

In 1989, Savage moved to Oakland where he started teaching seven days a week, amassing a devoted following that was attracted to his no-nonsense, impassioned, and effective old-school teaching style.

In 1992, at the insistence of his committed core of students, he founded Savage Jazz Dance Company (SJDC). Over a span of 30 years, Savage produced more than 100 original works, and tour SJDC nationally and internationally, performing at Casa del Jazz in Rome to a packed house and rave reviews—the first dance company to receive such an invitation.

Savage built SJDC into one of the Bay Area’s most respected dance companies, creating a signature style known for its combination of disciplined training, blended with rich artistic musical expression, and raw energy.

In 2003, Savage joined the Oakland School for the Arts as chair of the School of Dance. Over the next two decades, he created, built, and maintained a strong dance program, recognized, and respected by other dance institutions for forging well-trained and resilient dancers and human beings.

The depth of Savage’s tough love and care, and the skill of his teaching and mentoring are reflected in the careers of his students who have gone on to dance with the San Francisco Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Mark Morris Dance Group, Janet Jackson, Ariana Grande, and companies across the globe.

Mark Kitaoka, a photographer hired by Savage in 2016, posted a living eulogy on the dance instructor.

“When I see the self-pride he builds in his students I am constantly impressed that people like Savage still exist in our ‘meme’ society,” Kitaoka wrote. “The kids he mentors are fiercely loyal to one another and I’m certain his methods teach each of those kids to put aside social status, race and gender and is replaced by solid loyalty for other souls.

“What Savage contributes to our world cannot be completely summed up in a few meager paragraphs but can be seen in the countless lives of those he has touched. Because of him, our world, and the world of the future is both a richer and better place.

Reginald Ray-Savage will forever be missed, remembered, and lovingly quoted. He is survived by his beloved wife, Alison Hurley, his sister, Sonia, and his brothers, Pierre, and Andre. May his inextinguishable spirit and impact live on in all the lives he touched.

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Oakland Post: Week of June 17 – 23, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 17 – 23, 2026

Published

6 days ago

June 20, 2026

Oakland Post

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Books

Book Review: Something We Said: Richard Pryor, A Notorious Word, and Me

Though sticks and stones and words are weapons, as in the new memoir, “Something We Said” by Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor, they can also hold people together.

Published

1 week ago

June 17, 2026

bpusa-syndication

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor, Copyright: c.2026, Publisher: Simon & Schuster, SRP: $29.00, Page Count: 304 pages

Sticks and stones may break my bones.

You know the rest of that childhood rhyme, and you know it’s not true: words have meaning, and they can cut like a knife. And yet, though sticks and stones and words are weapons, as in the new memoir, “Something We Said” by Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor, they can also hold people together.

The college lecture was supposed to have been about the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act.

It was supposed to be a lively discussion, but unintentionally it quickly veered off course. When a White student quoted a movie line featuring the “n-word,” the room went quiet, and Professor Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor panicked.

She’d grown up hearing that word, and seeing it, and she’d experienced the painful feelings attached to it. She knew who wrote that movie line. It was her father, Richard Pryor.

In her first few years, Pryor spent most of her time in a White world, hearing her mother’s tales of her larger-than-life father, and trying to grasp meaning in her father’s albums, peppered as they were with a word that was off-limits to her.

When she was six, she met her father for the first time. She began to visit him regularly.

It was fun at her Dad’s house; though he was sometimes moody, he taught her to fish and play dominoes. She became close with her siblings, fearful of her great-grandmother, and confused about a word that her father’s uncles threw around like a beach ball. It was a forbidden word at her mother’s house, but her father used it. Differently. Often.

The word hurt. She knew first-hand that it did.

“The word became a degrading slur that shackled all Black people together into a single, inescapable tribe,” she says.

So why was it okay for certain people to say it?

Knowing that, in the years since Richard Pryor’s accident and his death from multiple sclerosis, he’s become somewhat of a legend. It is a very satisfying thing, isn’t it? So is reading about him, especially from the viewpoint of one of his seven children. But his is not the only story you get inside “Something We Said.”

Wrapped around the life of Richard Pryor is the life of a word that straddles a line between danger and provocation, a word that author Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor refuses to say or even print. As she tells readers about her father and her loving-but-difficult relationship with him, she warily circles that word, as if it might bite. You may cringe, but she weighs it carefully, helping readers see it as a chameleon before always bringing us back to her father, his work, and his life before and after her and that word.

It’s a push-pull balance that holds readers fast, and keeps them there. It’s perfect for fans of this genre, or Richard Pryor, or of language – and it’s going to make you think. If you want a good memoir this week, one that may send you to your old album collection, “Something We Said” is rock-solid.