Fences: Abdul Alkalimat replies to Marvin X's Notes on Fences

Your review is very favorable, but there are other points to make as well.

1.  Recognition of the beat down can lead to no hope for a better future
and Troy seems to fall into that camp, just can't escape the beat down
cause the odds are too great against you

2.  Troy ends up estranged from his best friend who tried to pull his coat

2.  The one escape was represented by the son who joins the marines,
although the other son continues to play hiss music while in prison

3.  The sister who finds her 18 year marriage and her sacrifice has not
satisfied her man who felt he had to father a child outside of his
family because the other woman made him laugh ends up seeking relief
from the sisters in the church - can that be her solution?

I guess these and more points lead me to question the role of art in its
representation of the Black experience.  Making our pain beautiful just
doesn't do it for me.  We need catharsis, we need a glimpse of what we
can be not held back by only what we have been.

We need to judge art by the criteria of a freedom aesthetic, and I know
you agree with me on that!

abdul