A background performer has become the youngest child to star in the media circus that surrounds the event, aside from his actual performance. Almost five months after it occurred, one of those performers, Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu, a New Orleans resident, was arrested Wednesday for interrupting Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show at Super Bowl LIX.
The February 9 pageant, which took place at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, became dramatically politicized when Nantambu stage-dived onto an apparatus featuring a black Buick GNX, opened a Palestinian flag that included the words “Gaza” and “Sudan,” and raised it mid-performance. He was supposed to fade into the background of Lamar’s performance but instead helped himself to center stage for a cause he believed in.
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Security rushed in as Nantambu did not obey commands. His unplanned demonstration, unauthorized by Kendrick Lamar and the NFL, stopped the show and drew the attention of Troop NOLA Troopers, who had to launch an internal investigation. Nantambu was identified through surveillance video and records inside the store, and a warrant was issued for his arrest by the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court.
On June 26, nearly five months after the performance, Nantambu surrendered through his lawyer and was processed at the Orleans Parish Justice Center. He is now charged with two misdemeanors, resisting an officer and disturbing the peace by interrupting a lawful assembly.
“In what appears to have been a coordinated attempt to entice performance attendees to act upon a political agenda forcefully, three additional members, seemingly working together, purposely leveraging the incorporated live media coverage to act out in non-pre-mediated ways and without any security or security protocols in place after having entered the stadium in regular attire, now changing into rally tee shirts to obstruct and attempting being tackled on a field they do not belong on,” San Francisco police said in a statement. “Security and law enforcement became immediately aware of the stunt and apprehended the performer and his equipment after he continued to refuse to comply, after several loud and repeated requests to do so.”
For others, Nantambu’s stunt was an example of a brave, if deluded, stand for global awareness. For some, it was a regrettable interruption in a meticulously staged and commercially valuable instant. What is undeniable, though, is that his action has reignited chatter about protest and art and about the stage on which we elect to stand or, in Davis’s case, to wave a flag.
Kendrick Lamar, whose socially or politically conscious lyrics and performances have been a hallmark of his rise, has not made public comment about the encounter.
Whether Nantambu’s stunt will be remembered beyond the headlines or forgotten in the rearview of Super Bowl history is anybody’s guess. But for now, this much is certain: In the midst of one of football’s most high-profile performances, one man selected protest over performance, and he’s paying the price.
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