Oscar DeGruy (born 1950) is an American actor who has appeared in over a dozen films and TV shows over 30 years, started the Baháʼí Youth Workshop performance model in 1974, and has assisted hip hop artists.

Acting career

DeGruy was a regular on

The New Bill Cosby Show ''The New Bill Cosby Show'' is an American variety television series aired in the United States by CBS as part of its 1972–73 lineup. Overview ''The New Bill Cosby Show'' was an attempt to exploit the widespread popularity of Bill Cosby, who h ...

for the 1972–1973 season and appeared in shows as diverse as '' Room 222'' to '' Hill Street Blues''. His first role was on '' The Young Lawyers'' in 1970, and in 2008 he completed work as a supporting actor in ''Zero Option'', based on a true story. In ''

Good Times ''Good Times'' is an American television sitcom that aired for six seasons on CBS, from February 8, 1974, to August 1, 1979. Created by Eric Monte and Mike Evans and developed by executive producer Norman Lear, it was television's first African ...

'' in 1974 Degruy was featured in a two-part episode "JJ and the Gang". JJ is forced into a gang led by Mad Dog (DeGruy), who wounds JJ. After the trial Mad Dog is confronted by his mother, who confesses "I never thought I could feel this way about my child, but I hate you. Sometimes I wish you were never born," and the two exchange emotional arguments over the missing husband/father. JJ's father, James, ultimately feels sympathy for Mad Dog witnessing the family argument over the absent father.

Baháʼí Youth Workshops

A former member of the

Black Panthers The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxism-Leninism, Marxist-Leninist and Black Power movement, black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. New ...

DeGruy changed his approach to

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

issues and "had to do something" – so he and his wife brought

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perform ...

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...

with

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

s of

step dance Step(s) or STEP may refer to: Common meanings * Steps, making a staircase * Walking * Dance move * Military step, or march ** Marching Arts Films and television * ''Steps'' (TV series), Hong Kong * ''Step'' (film), US, 2017 Literature * '' ...

and

street dancing Street dance is an umbrella term for a large number of social dance styles such as: breakdancing, popping, locking, house dance, waacking etc. Social dance styles have many accompanying steps and foundations, created organically from a cultur ...

together with the Baháʼí principles of equality, racial harmony and unity of religions. In 1982 DeGruy was joined by Juliet Soopikian and together they co-wrote the workshops's manual in 1987. In 1995 there were over 100 Workshops in the United States and another 100 scattered across 50 other countries. Over 1000 such Workshops have formed over the years some of which have toured internationally. There are several standard performances that are part of the Workshop's manual – one is the "Racism Dance." Two young members from oppositely styled groups (by clothing colors or other visual cues) come together in the middle of the "stage" and start to become friendly. They are then theatrically dragged back to their "own" groups by the blindfolded adults, who communicate through gestures their mistrust of and hatred for the other group, and the central players are given blindfolds to wear of their own. In the dramatic climax, however, the young ones shed their blindfolds, return to center stage, and demonstrate the races can unite. At the end, their example leads everyone to remove their blindfolds and come together in a final joyous dance sequence. In 1995 a select group of six young women formed a workshop to perform at the NGO Forum on Women in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, parallel to the UN Fourth World Conference on Women and performed five times. They were selected to perform in the closing ceremony, before some 15,000 people two pieces – "a dance on domestic violence showing women as peacemakers, and a rap on the nobility and dignity of women, showing and the importance of women and men working in partnership."

References

External links

Official Baháʼí Youth Workshop Website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Degruy, Oscar Living people 1950 births African-American Bahá'ís African-American male actors American male actors Street dance 20th-century Bahá'ís 21st-century Bahá'ís 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people

Acting career

Baháʼí Youth Workshops

See also

References

External links