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| Cops killing of unarmed Black males, hath revived a culture of 1930's plays in NYC | |
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| Topic Started: Apr 17 2015, 11:19 AM (318 Views) | |
| U Thant | Apr 17 2015, 11:19 AM Post #1 |
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Do you think it can help? For raising consciences? Among people who dictate the society's cultures? if so...how do you see it able to unfurl? Deaths Of Unarmed Black Men Revive 'Anti-Lynching Plays' APRIL 17, 2015 3:40 AM ET An obscure but riveting genre of theater is being revived in New York City. They're called "anti-lynching plays." Most were written during the early 1900s by black playwrights to show how lynchings devastated African-American families. Inspired by the recent deaths of unarmed black men by police, a theater company in Brooklyn, N.Y., is staging a series of new readings of these plays, including Georgia Douglas Johnson's Blue-Eyed Black Boy. "I think the revival of these plays that happen a long time ago give us enough distance to say, 'Oh, wait a minute! That looks a lot like what's happening right now.' " - Edmund Alyn Jones, actor in 'Blue-Eyed Black Boy' "It's not a play where we reenact a lynching. The focus is not the gory details," says Wi-Moto Nyoka, an actress featured in the readings. "This is a human take on our shared history." Lynchings were a common part of Southern life when these one-act plays were written. Magazines for the black community often published them so they could be performed in churches and schools or read aloud in homes, according to Koritha Mitchell, an English literature professor at Ohio State University who wrote about the plays in Living with Lynching. "These plays were interested in saying, 'Well, we're being told every day that we are hunted because we're a race of criminals, but in fact, the real reason that our neighbor was lynched was because he had land that whites wanted to take,' " Mitchell explains. She adds that white mobs also targeted African-Americans with successful businesses or families. "Being able to tell the truth about why communities are under siege was a really important counterpoint to a society that's always telling you that you deserve whatever you get," Mitchell says. In Blue-Eyed Black Boy, Lattimore, Nyoka and Jones play characters who try to stop the lynching of a young black man, after he's put in jail for brushing up against a white woman on the street. Edmund Alyn Jones, an actor in Blue-Eyed Black Boy, says he hopes modern-day audiences who come to the readings will get a better sense of both history and current events. "I think the revival of these plays that happen a long time ago give us enough distance to say, 'Oh! That's awful! Oh, wait a minute! That looks a lot like what's happening right now. Oh! I see,' " he says. In Blue-Eyed Black Boy, a young black man is thrown in jail for brushing up against a white woman on the street — a theme Jones says he sees playing out today. "A young man now, if he's dressed a certain way or he's in a neighborhood that he doesn't belong in — that is the modern-day equivalent of bumping into that white lady," he says. Walter Scott, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and other unarmed black men killed by police have been on the mind of Courtney Harge as she has prepared to direct this series of monthly play readings, which began in February. She says she sees parallels between the recent killings and the lynching of thousands of African-Americans after the Civil War. "Someday you encounter the wrong person, and your life is over. And that kind of idea feels very relevant to the world we, particularly as black people, are living in," says Harge, who also serves as the artistic director of Colloquy Collective, a theater company. After Sunday's reading of Blue-Eyed Black Boy at JACK, a Brooklyn community arts center, rehearsals will begin for the next play in the series, Johnson's Safe, which is scheduled for May. It's about an African-American woman who makes a tragic choice after giving birth to a baby boy. Just before he's born, she sees a young black man being lynched outside her home. "[She] asks herself, 'How do I bring a child into this world and try to keep them safe when they're looked at as threats just by existing?' " Harge explains. "'Is it cruel in some way to bring a child into this world that way?' And it's an answer I don't have." But they're questions in a play written around 1929 that, Harge says, are just as pressing almost 90 years later http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2015/04/17/399604918/deaths-of-unarmed-black-men-revive-anti-lynching-plays |
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| reddgirl64 | Apr 17 2015, 11:55 AM Post #2 |
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Akachi says, use these tips.. offers solutions think long term Men are biologically wired to create/build and solve problems and I say, stop whining like a bitch! See how you're unable to use those men skills, and stop this type of thing... |
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| cisslybee2012 | Apr 17 2015, 11:59 AM Post #3 |
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The REBEL
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I agree Ms. Reddi. Akache says that men are wired to come up with solutions and solve problems. And thus, men, do so. What is your solution to this problem? Edited by cisslybee2012, Apr 17 2015, 12:01 PM.
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| reddgirl64 | Apr 17 2015, 12:05 PM Post #4 |
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Me this Akachi is a liar... |
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| reddgirl64 | Apr 17 2015, 12:16 PM Post #5 |
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What's so comical, Akachi post about how men are so logical and problem solvers, then this one makes a post about, who they're treated and viewed... Everybody picking on them.. I'm going to plan my weekend!! |
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| negroplease | Apr 17 2015, 12:30 PM Post #6 |
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Don't forget the women who have been killed. Oh wait, you dont give a fuck about darkie chicks. so...silence as usual |
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| cisslybee2012 | Apr 17 2015, 03:10 PM Post #7 |
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The REBEL
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Exactly. But a woman comes in and say that women are the primary caretakers of children and a male riot breaks out. Remember what I mentioned before about all that going out the window?
Edited by cisslybee2012, Apr 17 2015, 03:11 PM.
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| Akachi | Apr 17 2015, 03:46 PM Post #8 |
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With regards to promoting awareness,sure. In a revolution, each has their respective role to play. However, long term economic solutions, such as the implementation of Spider Web economics and correlative tech models are our future. In a society where Black America is soon to be written out of the American racial hierarchy due to their own inactivity and willful ignorance, I think productions that remind our people of suffering does little to help our people modernize and garner the much needed acumen to compete globally. Example, when I ran my bookstores in the Black community,I had my team find the best of the best in every specialty our people needed, for right across the street from my main bookstore, cats were getting killed,gangs kept slugging it out and there was an overall commitment to ignorance and degradation on the part of our people. Our bookstores showed movies, health insurance, had tech classes we taught and once a week hosted "DIY DAY", where we encouraged students to commit to a self sufficiency task, and to remain focused on the completion of that task. Whereas other cats wanted to sit around and talk about Kemet all day(the Moors), etc.Pan-Afrocentric dogma, my stores were moving,making it happen in our community. I wouldn't remind our people of their suffering, they are cognizant of that. Brothers and Sisters should be building to ensure a sustainability in communities. Some churches you will be in collusion with the plight, some will not, Some mosques will collaborate some won't. "Anti-lynching productions" are good in a sense because they do potentially provide a spotlight for Black playrights/producers. The next step after said productions should be the building of Black owned independent film companies/studio houses, financed wholly by Black actors/directors. Keep it independent. There's too many non-gatekeeper methods of making it in the world that our people should stop beholding themselves to gatekeepers. |
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| reddgirl64 | Apr 17 2015, 04:04 PM Post #9 |
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You're rambling on a like a girl.. |
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| Zechariah | Apr 17 2015, 10:34 PM Post #10 |
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Zechariah
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In the words of one poster, "and the comedy continues." The article was interesting though.
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