Why do people call Aduke Aremu “an iconic person” ? This extraordinary interview by rising artist and art’s administrator, Raphael Moreno, host of the online “Quarantined Cafe” talk show tells us. Raphael a Harlem USA resident carefully queries poet, playwright, and producer Aduke Aremu in a pathway and historically valuable ‘reflective practice’.
Photo by W. Calvin Anderson Playwright Aduke Aremu production at The Billie Holiday Theatre in Brooklyn, directed by Abdel Salaam with the ” Liberation of Mother Goose” and Alice in Wonderland & Little Red Ridding Hood
Watchers see her animation and hear an awesome view into Aremu’s personal and artistic professional background.
Aduke’s body of work is like a theatre arts-in-action notebook and chronology. She is an incredible New York and Zeta Phi Eta Sorority, Inc. diva with a huge national and international network. Ms. Aremu lives in Metro Atlanta. She is extensively acclaimed in theatre history by Notre Dame University (Professor La Donna Forsgren) and she is a woman who bridges art productions and literary communities in both NYC and Atlanta as an intellectual, writer, educator, and executive producer.
Her plays and films are numerous including American Black Princess (ChoreoPoem/Play),The Liberation of Mother Goose (Musical Play), Goose (Film), JuJu Man (Musical Play) , Babylon (Play) ,Reaching Out With Love (ChoreoPoem), Film We Sistahs! directed by Patdro Harris (Screen Play for Netflix), Land of the Egyptians (Play), Winter of Discontent (Play), The Golden Stool, Hannibal and the Culture Carnival: Kwanzaa(Musical Book), The Water Witch (Play), It is All About the Music (Play In Progress), The Silver Mask Club (Work-in-Progress), and the Bum Sonata (Musical Play). Ms. Aremu’s books are The Princess Chronicles, American Black Princess, Reaching Out With Love (first published in Germany), Hannibal and the Culture Carnival, Kwanzaa the Musical, Flight of the Eagle (Work-in Progress), The Spirit Killers (Work-in Progress)
This interview showcases how her art and organization the Harlem Children’s Theatre Company obtained European, Caribbean, and African renown. if you have ever wondered how, Aduke Aremu stays relevant and on top of her game? Kudo Aduke and Raphael!
This is must watch for women, artists, men, scholars and all interested in dynamic human stories and the arts and humanities.
This is a classic Youtube interview between Dr. Roscoe C. Brown and Woody King Jr. They spoke about Black Theatre aesthetic, issues, trends, mechanics, race and black world depictions.
Today there is a complex world were the art forms and the artists are rarely in a narrative about what’s going on and what we are seeing. I met both of these scholars and men around New Rochelle and in NYC and at the National Black Theatre Festival that I served as development consultant to under the leadership of the late Larry Leon Hamlin for 15+ years.
Broadway’s “Tony Awards” Administration Committee announced it will present Tony’s to Woodie King, Jr., and Irene Gandy this year. I have worked with both of them. Legacy artists in the arts and humanities carry history and the power of the written and spoken word. Art imitates life — only if we think about the polemics of life. Salute to Woody and Irene.
Hasna Muhammad, Guy and Nora Davis in Harlem Celebrating Street Signs dedicated to the late Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee off of 125th Street just outside of the famous Dwyer Cultural Center the Community Meeting and Arts & Education Multiplex
When Will This Madness End?
I’ve been thinking about this new era of The Struggle — this same fight against inhumanity, injustice, and inequity. This same fight for the freedom to be. I’ve been thinking about the seemingly never-ending line of victims, martyrs, activists, and advocates throughout history who have fought, died, or have been killed in this Struggle, as well as those who have yet to do so.
Calls for justice echo through generations of those who believed in freedom and did not rest. But despite the revolts, protests, and video tapes; despite the wins of Black and Africana Studies departments, diversity policies, Negro History Week, Black History Month, and us telling our own stories, black people are still being dehumanized, disregarded, and killed by socio-economic and political diseases born out of racism, white supremacy, and militarized policing.
A 24-hour vigil at Grand Central Terminal in New York City on January 5, 2015. Photo by Hasna Muhammad
Here we are again. A 2020 spike, hotspot, cluster, outbreak of the chronic pandemic of racism, another non-indictment. Another city afire. Another street corner memorial etched into the timeline; another life stolen from another grieving family. Another name added to that list. Once again, racism lurks under the fingernails of the unsuspected and tracks in on the bottom of our shoes. Once again racism hijacks the air between greed and humanity where no one can breathe. We are afraid or too guilty to inhale, and we dare not exhale lest we think the violence against black people is over when we know it is not.
The experience of black people around the world has been predicated on violence that is rooted in centuries of systemic racism, ignorance, greed, and evil. The violence has been continuous, pervasive, oppressive, and terrorizing, and the fight against it has been difficult, painful, relentless, and unending. This Struggle is not over and nowhere near done. So what’s it going to take to end such deeply rooted madness around race?
I’ve been thinking about the courage it took for Harriett Tubman to make her way on the Underground Railroad to free our people from enslavement. She kept running up and down the eastern seaboard while all around her bodies were being lynched and maimed and dismembered. She didn’t slow down. She didn’t stop. Ankles soaked in the blood of her brothers and sisters, she kept putting one foot in front of the other. I’m sure she got tired and hungry. I’m sure her fear was the kind that kept her alive, and I doubt that she ever recovered from the trauma if even she registered it as such.
I’ve been thinking about the conviction it took for Mamie Till Mobley to display the bloated, murdered body of her 14-year-old son, Emmett, and more importantly, why we had to look. I’ve been thinking about the mindset it took for James Baldwin to ask the essential question: What is it that makes white people feel that it is necessary — if not ordained — to subjugate black people?
Like a call and response, every racist act along the circuitous trek of this Struggle requires an outcry. Legislative antidotes to racism have enabled us to stand on a mountain of shoulders and ascend the next few rungs on a few more ladders. Policies, procedures, and the acts of individuals and organizations have shifted the structure of the system and caused a few more blocks to topple. Art and persistent worldwide social justice street work has brought necessary attention to this Struggle. Declarations of support by businesses have helped (almost to the point of being disingenuous), and the arms of so-called “allies” feel good (a misnomer in this Struggle, but that’s another story). And amen to all of that! But new laws, civil disobedience, and strategic political gains alone will only get us so far. Our resistance, tears, and outrage are warranted, but they alone will not steel our children for the hard work that their era of this Struggle will inevitably bring.
A 24-hour vigil at Grand Central Terminal in New York City on January 5, 2015. Photo by Hasna Muhammad
So what will it take to decrease the power of race and increase the power of justice and peace? What will it take for the accountable to become accountable? What will it take to affect the psyches of folks like those who participated in the Berlin Conference AKA the Scramble for Africa AKA the I Don’t Give A Shit About You Black Folk meeting? What will it take to reach the great grandchildren of the children pictured in the photographs and postcards of lynchings? When can we discard all the barrier labels to which we adhere — those invisible distinctions reflected in the borders we build, the languages we speak, and the way we tie our hair or not. When will I be judged by the content of my character rather than the color of my skin and whencan weall get along?
I’ve been thinking about the time it will take to erase the f*ck you n*gger from the eyes of the police officers who murdered George Floyd. I’m thinking about the sensibility it will take to keep the door to Breonna Taylor’s home closed, allow Ahmaud Arbery to finish his run, and enable Jake Blake to stand. I’m thinking about the insight it will take to answer honestly and the foresight it will take to rectify fully the answer to Mr. Baldwin’s question. I’ve been thinking about what it will take to let love rule and change people’s hearts and minds at the core.
Changing people’s hearts and minds is easier said than done. Especially for billions of people. Based on the non-scientific 20–60–20 rule of change, 20% of us are already working toward the change or are on board to make the change we envision. Sixty percent of us may be able to be convinced, and the remaining 20% of us may never change at all.
It will take a few more generations for us as a people to reach a level of enlightenment where most of us acknowledge in our hearts and minds that racism is a societal mental health disease and spiritual deficit that affects victims and perpetrators in every phase of identity expression throughout every facet of society. Getting to that collective revelation will entail the continued pressure from all of the social justice work that is being done and has yet to be done. It will require systemic empathy, which can rise out of self-love and the love for others as self. All of which is predicated on what we know about ourselves and each other. And all of it — ALL of it — has education as a foundation. From good home training, social wit, hard knocks, and mentorship to formal schooling, professional training, and post-doctoral study, education — increasing one’s knowledge about oneself and others and using that knowledge to elevate consciousness, self, family, and community — is the undergirding for justice, education as justice. No education — no cultural responsiveness, no black teachers, no adequate funding, no innovation, no equitable access and opportunity — no justice. And it will take a few more generations for racism to be eradicated — extricated from our consciousness. For that, I am holding my breath and hoping with dry eyes and a cautious heart.
For right now though, every station in this Struggle is a front, and every person is a general. I’m thinking that if we each take one Harriett step at a time from wherever we are, doing whatever we do in this Struggle; if we each hold our hearts together, place ourselves in power, and keep Ella’s Song in our minds and love on our tongues, then our affirmations gradually will become truer than our refutations, compassion ultimately will outweigh evil, and humanism finally will obliterate racism. I’m thinking then. Then this madness will stop.
Hasna Muhammad is the youngest daughter of the late Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee. She is a renowned educator, writer, and visual artist whose work focuses on family, social justice, education, and the human condition.
This new easy-to-read book of interviews and narrative is already considered by some to be the first oral history reference to fully explore the contributions of Black Women Intellectuals involved in the Black Arts Movement of the 20th century.
Sistuhs In The Struggle: An Oral History of Black Arts Movement Theatre and Performance is a book written by La Donna L. Forsgren. Ms. Forsgren is an associate professor teaching in Notre Dame University’s Department of Film, Television, and Theatre. Notre Dame University largely funded the research book released recently by Northwestern University Press. Professor La Donna Forsgren is also the author of a related book called, In Search of Our Warrior Mother: Women of the Black Arts Movement, published by Northwestern University Press in 2018.
According to Professor La Donna L. Forsgren, ” Sistuhs is about Black women intellectuals who contributed to the creation and dissemination of the Black Arts Movement from 1865 to the late 1970s. It embraces the spirit of our radical foremothers who used the method of oral history to reclaim black women’s art, activist, and intellectual traditions.”
Sistahs in the Struggle is a meticulously organized and well cited reference of specialized interviews and compiled narratives by diverse individuals. La Donna says, “It was developed over many years to provide a national perspective of the work of black women intellectuals – playwrights, dancers, directors, designers, stage managers, theatre founders, actors, producers, poets, painters, photographers, journalists, and teachers.”
The book includes a line up of chapters that speak in her writing “loudly and clearly” about the:
Spiritual Sister: The Black Aesthetic, Feminism and Black Power,
Black Theatres Matter: The Art of Institution Building,
“Traveling with Ears to the Ground”: Black Arts Movement Drama, Ritual, Teleplays, and Musicals,
Performative Embodiment on Black Arts and
Alternative Stages
The book concludes with ideas about the cumulative legacy of Sistuhs in the Struggle.
The following people listed alphabetically here are called “narrators” by the author: Dawn Alli, Aduke Aremu, Adrienne Charles, Nora Cole, Dr. Doris Derby, Cheryl Fabio, Nabii Faison, Shirley Faison, L.e. Franklin, P.J. Gibson, Micki Grant, Femi Sarah Heggie, Lee Humkins, Judy Juanita, Woodie King Jr., Barbara “Sade” Lythcott, Haki Madhubuti, George lee Miles, Dr. Barabara Molette, Dr. Carlton Molette, Halifu Osumare, Kathy A Perkins, Shirley Pendergast, Ismael Reed, Sonia Sanchez, Ntozake Shange, and Jackie Taylor.
It is impossible to review the full value of this masterful oral history collection in one sitting. It deserves much more of our attention, study, and appreciation as a guide and reference book to the 20th-century movement.
I feel very privileged that it is in my hands. As a Black man and a former child-poet published and promoted during this period by the late icons Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, and Dr. Pearl Primus, I have some lens from the political and cultural art era book. I took a Black Theatre class from Professor P.J. Gibson (who is also featured) at Boston College, and also met many of the book’s Sistuhs through my mentors, and again while serving as a development consultant and festival floor manager for the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston Salem, NC.
Sistuhs In the Struggle is a beautiful treasury of the ethnography and personal accounts of most of the pivotal African American and diasporic heritage of women who made history shaping the letters and spirit contributing to the ethos of art movements, power movements, and the aesthetic pillars and principles articulated to the establishment in the ’60s and late ’70s.
The task of “woke” artists then… in the ’60s and ’70s in a confrontation with the remaining “pure” Jim Crow Era-institutional racism was one that included everything that we witness today… except for the fact that Black people were also racially integrating high schools, entertainment districts, and colleges across the nation for the first time. This group also often represented the Black Power movement intellectually as a generation after the “socially and politically woke” Pan Africanist and intellectuals, Dr. Alain Locke, the dean of the Harlem Renaissance, called the “The New Negro” (See Ossie & Ruby Timeline below). These national and cultural identity-seekers and phenomenal people, both men and women, created voice for an enslaved Africans’ national discourse, and an ideological aesthetic for a widely migrated emancipated Black people.
I admire Professor La Donna because it is impossible to cover all of the contributions of Black women who were indeed intellectual warriors producing “art-imitating-the-life’s-breathe” of the arts movement in that critical period of American Theatre Arts entwined with politics while facing a difficult nation, and at times, difficult Black brothers in the movement’s leadership positions.
The easy to read and enormously impactful Sistuhs book tells their stories physically, spiritually, artistically, racially, and emotionally. The book is a seminal academic work that is in some ways ( I think) academically kindred and companion to Dr. Henry Louis Gates’ global accounts in Signifying Monkey reaching to create a system of personally understanding black people, linguistics, and values in the humanities leading towards defining “literary criticism”. The oral traditions included here in this book should supplement his, Oxford and Norton anthologies of the lexicon of great literary figures and their works as it adds to the references of many of the women.
When you travel with Prof. La Donna you visit with Sistuhs that take you home inside their thoughts. You sometimes go home with them. You go to school with them. You are inside of their minds as they construct-unique-personal-lenses-and protective-physical-and-emotional-gear for seeing the world, including the make-up of their arts forms. You see and hear the men, and the movement around them. And then you struggle with them with the obstacle course of making something relevant while living day to day to evolve in the status of a whole people’s voice with their art, writing, and various performances.
Poets, theatre producers, playwrights, dancers, writers, photographers, program developers, and academia with legitimate signatures relevant to the history of American theatre and the performing arts tell us themselves about historical racism, evolving cultural identity struggles, and gender clashes in and out of the Black Power and the Black Arts Movements as they were touched by it.
It’s a compilation of personal stories and movement-oriented oral histories of women who were not peddling sex appeal in front of their stalwart literary, intellectual, and performance leadership in a societal confrontation about “Black power.” This book feeds us a perspective of American Black women and people “romancing feminine gemstone lives” in the turbulent political, economic, educational, arts and humanities rich ’60s and ’70s.
The book clarifies that Black women have a significant oral, intellectual, and activist traditions (from a man’s perspective) that are legacies of the political, economic, and societal-building platforms appreciated today by Sistuhs today in the better paid Hip Hop & Digital Film, Television & Media Industry Struggles & Unionized Movements. The book is a must-read Arts & Humanities staple that should be studied by “all people, of all genders, and all ages” both nationally and internationally. Does that cover it? 🙂
American Theatre research specialist Professor —Lundeana M. Thomas, contributor to Black Theatre: Ritual Performance in the African Diaspora says, “In 1959, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle award and was named Best Play. This play, along with the civil rights movement, ignited an explosion of Black Arts throughout the country. African Americans were able to obtain funding, theater spaces, publishing, and training. What has been missing is more accountability for the history of the women from this period . . . Sistuhs in the Struggle has answered this call and this need . . . I taught African American Women in Theatre every year from 1988 to 2014, and this book would/could have been my textbook.”
For more information please click on the link below:
Eartha Kitt the Entertainment and High Societal Icon
EARTHA KITT LOVE…. CONTINUES JANUARY 17 TO 20 TH 2020 @ THE DWYER CULTURALCENTER
DON’T MISS THE BIRTHDAY RECEPTION ON JAN. 17TH
Starring Dierdra McDowell as Eartha Kitt Directed by Marishka S. Phillips Sponsored by Dwyer Cultural Center in association with MPTP Productions International
In 1968 while at the height of her career as a world-renowned entertainer, Eartha Kitt was also working as one of the main lobbyists for a group of young activists called the Rebels With A Cause.
During this time, Miss Kitt was then invited to the White House by Lady Bird Johnson to partake in a women’s luncheon to discuss the issue of the rising crime rates in America. At the luncheon however, when Eartha stood up and expressed her views, stating that the increase in crime was mostly due to America’s involvement in the Vietnam War, Lady Bird Johnson was personally insulted by the comment and shortly after, by order of President Lyndon Johnson, Eartha Kitt was blacklisted from work in the United States for the following 10 years!
DOWN TO EARTHA is a one-woman show written and performed by Dierdra McDowell, and directed by Marishka S. Phillips. In one act filled with drama and music, this play explores Eartha Kitts personal re-encounter of that fateful day in detail. It also delves into her personal journey back to her power and freedom.
Stemming from a life ridden with years of child abuse, Eartha’s personal journey proves to be at times a nightmare of a hurdle! It is one that could only be conquered by the power of love.
LOCATION: The Dwyer Cultural Center located at 258 St.Nicholas Ave, Harlem, NY 10027 ENTRANCE: 123rd Street (bet) St. Nicholas Ave & Frederick Douglas Blvd TRAINS: A, B, C, D (close) or 2,3 (few blocks) Harlem-125th St Station CONTACT: thedwyercc@gmail.com or www.dwyercc.org
BRIEF STATEMENT ABOUT THE HISTORIC CONTENT, SIGNIFICANCE AND INSPIRATION OF THE CHOREOPOEM/MUSICAL PLAY
“AMERICAN BLACK PRINCESS”
A Full REVIEW IS COMING SOON!
I highly recommend this “Autobiographical” Success Story about the Life of NYC Poet and American Women, Aduke Aremu of African Decent!
A photo of the audience abuzz and beginning to filling up to 90%… of the Rialto Center. The mega event was produced by minister and song stylist, Dr. Janice Barnett, theatre consultant, audience development, and digital media specialist, Joe Phillips and Aduke Aremu Productions, Inc.
The play is about a creative-thinking and articulate women who has taken: on poverty, race, racism, culture, talent, heterosexual relationships, politics, Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and South America in search of self, truth, scholarship, and cosmopolitan identity.
“American Black Princess” has been already endorsed in Atlanta by a gamut of diverse American and international men.
The play is destined for Broadway.
To give you an idea of the creative concept used here, I offer this idea and or comparison. As an example…
Imagine… a play that was done not about Aduke’s life, but about just one of the women of the 116th Congress; the life journey filled with challenges, sacrifices and successes.
Think about how inspiring this would be, since we now live in the unfortunate era of #MeToo testimonies, and unearthened sexual abuse scandals…
We all need more good news and encouragements for our whole society “moving forward”. We need better ideas for better relationships too.
In this reality. Nearly 1,000 people from literally all over Atlanta, the country and some living in Germany, Africa and Japan came out to celebrate Aduke’s journey as an American woman and a critically thinking poet!
Aduke was royally received as an “American Black Princess” on Saturday between the 4 pm Royal Gala reception and the 7 pm Show. So! this show and inspire other women to celebrate their life-journeys and help them to realize their true value, and innate royalty.
Imagine that! What a creative autobiographical work. What a business multifaceted and spectacular event and business model!
“American Black Princess” should soon .. tour North Carolina, Westchester, CT and Boston. I am excited “to help” Aduke and her awesome… producers and phenomenal theatre-staff to talk with my friends about that. I am so exciting to predict… the enormous national reception of “American Black Princess”.
W. Calvin Anderson, Publisher Itz Black Theatre Magazine & Groovetrak. Net
Poem: American Revival
(A Poem About the Art and Humanity of the “American Black Princess” Movement)
By W. Calvin Anderson
In the not too distant
future
when it’s time
to reconstruct
the stories
from
2016
to
2019
History will speak of women
joining congress
and
impacting
it
in droves.
Architects will reflect on
Trumpian
imagination
presidential history
taxes and
towers
here and ‘round the world.
Me-too
will refer to
women’s perspectives
men’s pejoratives
persecutions
prosecutions
and
suicide
in the courts of public opinion
and our
criminal
justice system.
But
the
customs
and the
way of life of
the
arts
and humanities
will save us.
Literature
will
reappear
with its delights
on
our imaginations.
We
will continue to be
on the stage
of our domestic theatre
but suddenly
considered remarkable
in real time
on
our
digital canvas.
Words
and
world-movements
will
refresh themselves
in
the mouths
of
American men and women
bringing
an
Overture
for Peace,
Balance,
Maturity
And Moral Rhythm.
A
“renaissance”
will
construct
a new and
healthy vision
of
with our understanding.
New meanings
Will be applauded
about our
bonds
for
committed
relationships,
and
reconciliations
will
have stage
lights
for our
socially
awkwardly
and
common
bloodlines.
Americans
will
have
royal lenses
this side of the pond
for
the imagination
to love
and
to respect
every man, woman, chic, and child.
Race
will become
the
gift-offering
of
a
Creative God
again
showing us
His-likeness-in-artforms
in the
colors of His
nature.
The sculptors
of
American monuments
will live again
and
speak to us again.
Lincoln
for example
will
win
again
the
war
of ideas
once and for all.
No one
will hide
behind
a
gun.
America
The
Beautiful
will have its
Meaning for its
Creed again
and
its gemstone
American Black Princess.
A
phenomenal
woman
mirroring
all triumphs
will have
safe harbor
as free
and
as
proud as
the Lady
from
France
in
our
Liberty Harbor.
An
genders
will have respect
for
rites of passage
and pride in
individuals
with
struggles
and journey maps
and separate
truths again.
And this
art and science
vested in the
quality of our humanity
will make way
for
all/us/we
as a people
to be
comfortable
in our skins
again.
We give thanks to the idea in 2019 of Celebrating “American Black Princess”
ATLANTA TO CROWN “AMERICAN BLACK PRINCESS” @ RIALTO CENTER September 14, 2019
(Atlanta) September 3, 2019 — The world premiere of the play, “American Black Princess” by poet, playwright and author, Aduke Aremu has inspired a huge theatrical event. There will be an unparalleled “royal celebration” to honor Aremu, and other women in the arts and media, and a featured play at the Rialto Center in Atlanta.
The play is about the “life-journey” of Ms. Aremu. It is a full production with music, song, poetry and dance. It is a dramatic staged choreopoem covering her travels from NYC to, Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and parts of South America. The featured event is the scope of her drive, humor and intelligence, It covers the poet’s heart-for living, loving, and working globally. You can experience her unique passion and determination as she reaches-out for 21st century African and American identity, love, norms, relationships, standards, cultural lens, a world-view, and personal success. The play is reminiscent of Langston Hughes’ “suitcase theatre” idea, and cosmopolitan travelogue ‘unpacked’ in his book, “I Wonder As I Wander”. Here, “American Black Princess,” typifies a crowning African-royal experience — told ‘straight-up’ by a very real American woman.
What has been discovered offstage in anticipation of this mega event is, that scores of influential local, regional, national and international men and women are not only involved in the project, but they are daily creating a new and evolved ‘community’ in the historic and internationally renowned city to converge on the Rialto Center on September 14, 2019.
“American Black Princess” will be directed by the award-winning Broadway choreographer, Patdro Harris with original music composed by the renowned artist, Chika Kaba Ma’Atunde. The “coronation of the playwright” and a full Atlanta stylized motion-picture regal court of other women in the arts and media will take to the purple carpet from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., and the evening’s feature event the world premiere of the choreopoem is from 8 to 10. The two-events-in-one is produced by led by: Aduke Aremu Productions, Inc., Janice Barnett, and Joe Phillips.
Chairing this part of the event are the following women and men influencers: #ChoreoPoemDivas include: GA State Senator Dr. Donzella James, Lisa Nicole Cloud, Yewande Austin, Dr. Mildred Summerville, Deidra Tate, Evangelist Sandi Collins, and Lillian Samuel. #MenWhoSupportTodaysWomeninclude: Paul Jenkins, Attorney Kendall Minter, Ricky Poppell, Bishop Kenneth Curry, Jerome Preston Bates, Garland Thompson, Jr., Michael Bryant
The Royal Gala Celebration features Darryl Peek, and Daryl Harris with celebrity musicians and artists: Darryl Peek leader of the “African American Philharmonic Orchestra” Atlanta, Daryl Harris an original “Harlem Children’s Theatre Company” member with many credits over the years, Jonathan Dumas an A-List Producer of “Lady Ga Ga,” “AVANT,” and “SoulJa Boy” fame, Jett Edwards Recording artist who worked with “Michael Jackson,” and the ” Japanese Mass Choir”.
Other Celebrities/Honorees Include: Rickey Poppel, who worked in management with the iconic “James Brown,” and the “The Temptations,” Kendall Minter, international entertainment lawyer, Dedra Tate an original member of Aduke’s “Harlem Children’s Theatre Company,” as well as professional relationships with “MoTown Records,”and “Queen Latifah”, Paul Jenkins the CEO and Founder of META STUDIOS in Atlanta; Entertainment Features at the Royal Gala includes: “Ebony Blue Experience” a group of retired Air Force veterans with Daryl Harris, Tommy Mason, Aaron Miles, Laron E. Washington, Charles Desausurer; Recording artist “Sir” Lane McCray, of “La Bouche” with over 12 million records sold worldwide, Song stylist Alfreda Gerald of the “Gap Band” and “Yanni” fame; ” The Executive Order Music Group” with: Dean Webb (bass), Laron E. Washington (keyboards), Gary Smith (drums), George McCullum (Saxophone), Kevin McNulty (Guitar), Jonathan Dumas (keyboardist), Calvin Kelly (percussion); Kenny Nightingale Gospel (saxophone); Kezia Alford (gospel singer); Janice Barnett (gospel singer); Naybu Fullman (vocal artist); Michael Meredith (vocal artist); Gospel Artists Eric and Dena Brice from Tyler Perry’s stage play stardom, and “Peabo Byson” fame; Jett Edwards Japanese Mass Choir director.
The late literary genius and theatre icon, Ntozake Shange created the “choreopoem genre” with her 1975 Broadway hit, “For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide/When A Rainbow Was Enuf” that premiered in 1995 and it brings today’s evolved men and women together for positive recognition of women. Ntozake’s choreopoem included 20 poems that created monologues that “stopped the male-dominated world in its tracks”. It deeply inspired women of all kind and charged them increase-the-flow of public conversations about their reflective journey’s because of Ntozake’s creative accusations, improvisations and thought-provoking scandals. Ntozake’s work told: her truth about interpersonal relationships; her ideas about inside, outside and world politics; her pain regarding domestic violence; gender-driven realities about suicide, inter and intra racism, love, and much, much more.
Today poet-playwright Aduke Aremu, respectfully brings to us her, Shange-inspired production called, “American Black Princess”. “American Black Princess” is based on Aduke’s book of poetry called, “Reaching Out With Love” (c) 1982. “Reaching Out With Love” was first published when Aduke lived as a writer in Heidelberg, Germany. It was later staged as a play at the Billie Holiday Theatre in Brooklyn, NY by Alvin Ailey dancer and choreographer John Parks, with music by the late, Grenoldo Frazier in 1988.
“Reaching Out With Love” and “American Black Princess” is a different type of female journey than, “For Colored Girls…” and it must be witnessed! In this choreopoem the audience will get to see and to hear up close, that Aduke has a zest for love and for confronting life’s struggles. Poems that are woven into dialogue with a musical chorus have titles like “Babylon”, “I Am A Jeweled Princess”, “Poem For A Supreme Brother”, “Epitaph Of A Slave”, “Seclusion”. A few of the ideas and metaphors that are explored include: “A rose emerges from concrete…”, “ One cannot stand alone…”, “I long forgot how-to create a people-sense…”, “Being me is less easy than not…”, “My tears are solid, pragmatic and cold…”, “Ain’t I a Princess too”, “ Walking down yellow African road…”,”Life touched my mind…”, “Reaching out with love”, and “ I am a Jeweled Princess…”.
Ntozake’s work greatly influenced women to speak-out about their personal and collective journeys. The production, academic and societal discussions inspired 20th and 21st century women in grass roots/community projects, colleges, and art & humanities forums.
Atlanta Georgia has been considered the “Capitol of the South” for over 100 years. Today’s men and today’s women there are still making history with politics, movies, celebrities, lavish homes and now a new and trending “highly evolved” community of men and women coming together to celebrate women and a playwright with an artistic take on a contemporary global journey.
So! You need to get dressed. You need to come out. You need to experience what a “crowning event” looks and feels like in 2019. Because inescapably, men (#MenWhoSupportTodaysWomen), and women (ChorePoemDivas) will be there for the networking. They will also be there having a totally different kind of “regal fun in the movie-making-city of hot-lanta” on September 14, 2019. They have come from around the world, near and far ready for “G a l a and t h e a t r e”! Get your ticket while you still can, women will rave over it and men will love it!
This interview is with Weusi Baraka, coordinator of the Midnight Poetry Jam (now called Words & Verses) the backbone of the introduction of poetry to the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston Salem, North Carolina. Weusi has been coordinator since 1991. Midnight Poetry Jam since its inception has had featured poets, celebrity co-host, and many special guests.
The motto of the showcase is to, “bring your brightest words, and let them shine for the world, at the National Black Theatre Festival, Black Theatre’s Holy Ground.” This year (2019) Midnight Poetry Jam will be coordinated by Weusi and hosted by Larry “LB the Poet” Barron under the new name Words & Verses.
It will begin at a new time, 10:30 p.m. to extend additional “regional and local poet access” to enhance the national base of festival spoken word participants. The interview is by W. Calvin Anderson, publisher of Itz Black Theatre magazine and all rights are reserved 2019.
W. Calvin Anderson Publisher, Itz Black Theatre magazine 
Itz Black Theatre Magazine 