By Jessica Gould

ALICIA GRAF WAS eight or nine when she first encountered Alvin Ailey's "Revelations," the choreographer's soul-stirring tribute to his Texas-born "blood memories." Graf's friend had a videotape of the masterpiece, and together, they watched it over and over again, mimicking the dancers' graceful moves.

For Graf, who is biracial, the Ailey classic immediately struck a chord.

"I think it's really interesting the way you can identify with something even though you don't know anything about it," says the Columbia, Md., native. "I had rarely seen professional black dancers. ... Something about it was really close and special to me."

One day, her father took her to the Kennedy Center to see the company perform, and she was moved — by the performance and the theater itself.

"I think the Kennedy Center is one of the most beautiful opera houses in the world," she says. "I walk in and I feel like it's definitely a place that houses great dance, music and art."

From Feb. 19-24, Graf, 29, will perform on that theater's storied stage with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. On Thursday and Saturday she'll arc her arms heavenward in "Revelations'" prayerful duet "Fix Me, Jesus."

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By Celia McGee

NEW YORK: In 'Oroonoko,' Biyi Bandele recasts story of African slavery

Biyi Bandele comes bearing human cargo. Bandele, a playwright and novelist born in Nigeria, now a resident of England, for a long while wrote mainly about the lives he knew in both.

But when the Royal Shakespeare Company had the idea of involving him in a production of "Oroonoko," the play by the Restoration dramatist Thomas Southerne based on Aphra Behn's famous novel of the period, Bandele plunged deep into matters of history, responsibility, power, choices of the heart and the fickleness of freedom. He emerged in 1999 with a new work about Africa and slavery; about slave takers, who are African, and slave traders, who are white.

His "Oroonoko," which ran for a year and a half, sold out its performances at the Other Place, the Royal Shakespeare Company's alternative theater space at the time.

Now Theater for a New Audience is introducing the play in the United States. Starring Albert Jones as the not un-Shakespearean soldier prince, Oroonoko, and directed by Kate Whoriskey, it opened last Sunday at the Duke theater in New York.

Bandele, 40, often visits New York, where he has many friends in theater and among writers. But he said he was not entirely sure how "Oroonoko," which deliberately avoids taking sides along racial lines, would be received by an American audience.

"There were nights at the RSC when the audience was predominantly American because of tourist season," he said, "a mixture of black and white, and the response was always very emotional. At the end people would come out like this." Bandele touched a hand to his face in a gesture of crying. (Reviewers have not been as moved. Charles Isherwood, writing in The New York Times, called it "a strangely bland if superficially exotic work of theater.")

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Christopher Boatwright over came deafness to transform dance. Boatwright died of complications from AIDS in 1997

Dance Magazine, May, 1996 
by Valerie Gladstone

Christopher Boatwright may have lost most of his hearing, but his matchless musicality remains. In fact, having been forced to find tempos and rhythms within himself, he has made his dancing increasingly profound. He has developed new sensibilities in the process of learning sign language and lipreading. These new accomplishments, combined with the technique, line, and ballon that made him a classical ballet star in Europe, have made his performances in the contemporary repertoire of Alonzo King's Lines Contemporary Ballet Company an amazing thing to behold. Audiences saw Boatwright's achievement when Lines performed in San Francisco's Center for the Arts (April 19-28), and New York City audiences will see him at the Joyce Theater (June 4-9).

"Chris is a master musician," says King, who brought him to Lines three years ago, "and as his love for dancing continues to grow, so does his ability to transform himself so thoroughly that he seems to disappear into his roles. Most dancers exhibit themselves first, but he makes the works visible. He is one of the great artists of his generation."

For a young African American from Brooklyn who excelled in football, tennis, and swimming, becoming a dancer seemed quite unlikely. Boatwright changed direction while a scholarship student at Fieldston, a New York City private school. He would be doing warm-up exercises in the gym while the girl students were taking modern dance class. Gradually he was drawn into another world. He had considered becoming a lawyer to please his family, but once he started studying with Merce Cunningham after school, there wasn't much chance of his doing anything else but dance.

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By Robert Johnson

Evidence/A Dance Company. Where: Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Ave. at 19th Street, New York. When: 8 tonight through Saturday; 7:30 p.m. Sunday; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. How much: $38; $25 Sunday evening. Call (212) 242-0800 or visit joyce.org.

NEW YORK -- Choreographer Ronald K. Brown takes his army of the faithful on a stroll through Pittsburgh in "One Shot," the evening-length premiere that his Evidence/A Dance Company unveiled yesterday at the Joyce Theater.

Rather sedately, like a group of day-trippers who have just emerged from the bus where they were dozing, the dancers tour the historic, African-American neighborhood studied by Pittsburgh's late photo-journalist Charles "Teenie" Harris. A selection of Harris' portraits of ordinary people and celebrities, opening a window onto African-American life roughly from the 1930s to the 1960s, is projected on the backdrop.

Brown was commissioned to choreograph "One Shot" (so named, because Harris famously snapped only one, perfect shot of his subjects) to accompany an exhibition at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture in Pittsburgh. Despite the glory of dancers like Arcell Cabuag, Shani Collins and the others, the photos remain the major attraction on stage, however. Dance lovers would do better to attend an alternating program of mixed works featuring the condensed and more intensely flavored dances "Come Ye," "Truth Don Die" and "Upside Down."

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Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture @ The National Portait Gallery

With brightly-colored graffiti murals lining the gallery hallways, and riffs on 17th century Dutch painting, the National Portrait Gallery has brought a breath of fresh air to the often traditional Smithsonian Institution. Last Friday, just weeks after hanging the Stephen Colbert portrait, the NPG opened RECOGNIZE! Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture, a show that’s bound to appeal to a wide-ranging audience. But RECOGNIZE! isn't only about trying to bring a younger audience to a museum — the works on display are powerful evocations of American culture that have a broad appeal both in terms of message and artistic merit. From subtle black and white hip hop performance shots by David Sheinbaum to an ode by poet Nikki Giovanni illustrated with an installation by Shinique Smith, the exhibit captures and gives insight into a cultural movement that is essential to understanding American culture.

RECOGNIZE! is part of the Portraiture Now series, which focuses on contemporary artists and new ways of making portraits. This exhibit helps illustrate these parameters — Tim Conlon and Dave Hupp are graffiti artists, who write under a pseudonym, or a “tag.” As the wall text explains, a tag is like a self-portrait, and artists perform “without a public audience.” Their portraits may not be traditional, but they're a vibrant statement about contemporary life.

The portraits by Kehinde Wiley all but steal the show — Wiley depicts Ice T as Napoleon in the famous Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres painting of the emperor. Ice T wields a scepter and sits on a robe, but wears a baseball cap in lieu of a crown. There’s also a portrait of LL Cool J in which he’s sitting in a chair against a patterned backdrop that is characteristic of Wiley’s paintings. The portrait is based on the John Singer Sargent portrait of John D. Rockefeller, because LL thinks of himself as a modern-day Rockefeller.

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HOUSTON, (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- The Ensemble Theatre recently held its "8th Annual Heart of the Theatre" celebration at the Wortham Center for their loyal subscribers. The Board of Directors and staff of The Ensemble hosted subscribers, along with students from Kashmere, Smiley and Forest Brook High Schools, to a wonderful evening with veteran actor, director and Emmy award winner Charles Dutton's performance of "From Jail to Yale". Dutton performed his energetic one-man show, a personal narrative combined with excerpts from prolific playwright August Wilson who impacted his life.

Dutton, The Ensemble's "2007 Director of the Year Honoree", performed two shows (5:30 & 8:15 p.m.) to over 1,700 subscribers who thoroughly enjoyed his unique commentary and performance. Subscribers were acknowledged and thanked, by Ensemble Board Chairperson Argentina James and President Hasting Stewart, for continued support in helping to maintain The Ensemble's 31 year legacy in the performing arts and commitment to training young performers.

An added treat for the evening was the sneak preview of Lifetime Original Movie premiere of "Racing for Time", directed by and starring Charles Dutton, and featuring The Ensemble's Young Performers Program alumnae and Broadway actress DeQuina Moore. "Racing for Time" will air on Lifetime Television on Feb. 16th.

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By Kenneth Jones

History gets made Feb. 12 when, for the first time on Broadway, an African-American cast bites into Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams' Southern-fried feast of family greed, lies and sexual tension.

The 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning Mississippi-set tale — no longer set in the 1950s, but hinting at the past 15 years or so — is directed by Debbie Allen, whose cast includes James Earl Jones as Big Daddy, the dying patriarch of the Pollitt family, whose cotton-crop fortune is up for grabs; film actor Terrence Howard, making his Broadway debut as Brick, the favored ex-jock son who is now a heap of booze and regret (and repressed homosexuality), unable to give his voracious wife, Maggie (Tony Award winner Anika Noni Rose) a child; Phylicia Rashad as Big Mama, facing the loss of her man; Giancarlo Esposito as Gooper, the son whose greatest asset may be the children — also known as "no-neck monsters" — he and his wife, Mae (Lisa Arrindell-Anderson), have been able to produce.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is aiming for a March 6 opening at the Broadhurst Theatre. Tickets for the "strictly limited engagement" are on sale through April 13, but it's not hard to guess that an extension will be announced for this high-profile staging.

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By Felicia R. Lee

For Ronald K. Brown, the choreographer and dancer who formed Evidence Dance Company in 1985 at 19, evidence is a twin concept. Part of it is spiritual faith, evidence of things unseen, and part is physical movement used in telling stories from the African diaspora, evidence of endurance, suffering and triumph.

Outside the dance world Mr. Brown is hardly a household name. Yet his company has survived almost 23 years, and figures from Judith Jamison, artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, to Mark Russell, producer of Under the Radar festival at the Public Theater, say they see Mr. Brown’s distinctive style, which uses African, Caribbean and American dance club moves, as influential.

“He’s one of the more important choreographic voices we’ve got in the U.S.,” Mr. Russell said.

On Tuesday night Evidence opens its annual New York season at the Joyce Theater. One of this year’s two programs is the New York premiere of “One Shot,” an evening-length work that blends traditional African and modern dance and spoken word to tell the story of Charles Harris, a photographer who documented black life in Pittsburgh from 1936 to 1975. The other program features some of the company’s signature repertory work: “Come Ye,” inspired by the music and life of Nina Simone; “Upside Down,” an excerpt from “Destiny,” about burial and memorial; and “Truth Don Die,” about a Nigerian man’s life. The accompaniment includes live music by Omotayo Olaiya, a k a Wunmi, and recordings by Me’Shell Ndegeocello and Femi Kuti.

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Outstanding Paintings, Sculpture and Prints by Major Artists Featured in Swann Galleries'

New York, NY (BlackNews.com) - On Tuesday, February 19 Swann

Elizabeth Catlett, Head, painted terra cotta sculpture, 1947. This is the artist's first terra cotta work to come to auction. Estimate: $180,000 to $200,000.

Galleries will conduct the third auction organized by their new African-American Fine Art department. The sale offers 250 paintings, drawings, collages, prints and sculpture from notable collections and estates, and illustrates the full panorama of achievement by African-American artists--from Henry Ossawa Tanner to Faith Ringgold. Many of the works are recognizable because they have been included in important museum exhibitions and illustrated in catalogues and monographs.

There is a wonderful assembly of early and important artwork by Harlem Renaissance artist Aaron Douglas, including Emperor Jones, gouache on illustration board,1926, one of few known studies for the well-known woodcut series (estimate: $30,000 to $50,000); Young Man in Repose, oil on canvas, circa 1934-5, a poignant work from the artist's New York period ($30,000 to $50,000); a beautiful Haitian Landscape, oil on canvas, one of a few paintings from the artist's 1938 travels on a Rosenwald Foundation fellowship ($50,000 to $75,000); and Building More Stately Mansions, oil on canvas board, 1944, a smaller variant of one of his most famous paintings at Fisk University ($100,000 to $150,000). The first-ever retrospective of Douglas's work is currently on tour throughout the United States.

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Fire Island Black Out (FIBO), an annual party that takes place in the Cherry Grove section of Fire Island and is enjoyed by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community of color, has announced that this year's event, their sixth, will begin on Friday, August 8, 2008 and continue through Sunday, August 10, 2008. FIBO has also announced its partnership with The Ali Forney Center, a New York-based 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, which houses homeless LGBT adolescents and provides these young persons with the skills necessary to help them transition to adulthood.

"FIBO is proud of its track record of providing our guests with an exceptional beach experience over these past five years, and we are excited to introduce our guests to the Ali Forney Center, and encourage the type of altruism that will directly benefit LGBT youth in need," said James Wellons, FIBO Vice-President. "We were inspired by the mission and achievements of the Ali Forney Center and are proud to donate a portion of our proceeds to this great organization."

"We greatly appreciate FIBO for choosing the Ali Forney Center to be the beneficiary of this exceptional event," said Carl Siciliano, Executive Director of the Ali Forney Center. "We are thrilled to begin a partnership with the wonderful members of FIBO, and hope this event is only the beginning of a continuing, rewarding relationship."

Fire Island Black Out begins with a Friday evening after-work social in New York City. The next two days' events - Saturday's day at the beach and "Bump & Dip" dance party, and Sunday's midday brunch - take place in Cherry Grove. The full schedule of events will be published to FIBO's website - www.fireislandblackout.com - in March.

The Riant Theatre is premiering a new musical LOVING YOU based on the novel by the same name by artistic director Van Dirk Fisher and choreographed by Joi Lynn.

LOVING YOU is about a love triangle between the beautiful Mariah Cosi, an advertising executive, who is set to marry the sexy and powerful Michael Cavaughn, a record producer and fashion designer. Mariah's love is put to the test at her bachelorette party at Chances Dance Club, when she runs into her ex Justin Holmes, a fast rising super model. Both men know how to tap her soul, but only one man can possess the key to her heart.

The musical features the music by various R&B, Hip Hop, Pop and Jazz artists including: Richard D. Applewhite, Christina, Darnerian, Lina Day, Decypher, Cielo Deville, B. East, Hassan Farrow, Van Dirk Fisher, Jay Notes, J-Smash and SnuggS.

The musical is choreographed by JoiLynn, who began her professional dance training at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C., and continued with the Boston Conservatory and The Alvin Ailey Dance School. She has appeared as a model and dancer in shows with Tyrese, 112, and Parliament and has performed with Impulse Dance Company, Phoenix Rising Dance Company, Nommo Contemporary Dance Theatre, Balance Dance Theatre, Ase Dance Theatre Collective and with choreographer Trevor Pridee. She has also performed at Carnivale: The Choreographers Ball in NYC in 2007 and has danced in music videos for reggae artist CK and hip hop artist Loot.

LOVING YOU is at the American Theatre of Actors, 314 West 54th Street, NYC, between 8th & 9th Avenue, on Sunday, February 17th at 2pm & 5pm, and on Saturday, February 23rd at 6pm & 9pm. For tickets call 646-623-3488 or go to www.therianttheatre.com. Opening Night Tickets are $35 and includes a reception. Tickets on the 23rd are $35, $30 & $25.

 The African American Playwrights Exchange

Nashville

On Wednesday, March 19, AAPEX has the honor of presenting a reading of Hershell Norwood's play BILLIES BLUES TONIGHT AT MAMA'S JAM at the famed Player's Club in New York City. For those of you who are not familiar with this historical organization , see below.

For more information on this event, contact Jaz Dorsey, Dramaturg, AAPEX at jazmn47@aol.com

The Players, which is its proper name, is a social club founded in New York City by the famed 19th century Shakespearean actor Edwin Booth who purchased a magnificent 1847 mansion located at 16 Gramercy Park. During his lifetime, he reserved an upper floor for his home, turning the rest of the building over to the Clubhouse. Its interior and part of its exterior was designed by famed architect Stanford White. Known also as The Players Club, it was named a National Historic Landmark in 1962.

In 1989, women were invited to become fully participating members. The Players still maintains its entryway gaslights, among the few remaining examples in New York City.

By Fran Heller

“This is not the story you know, but somewhere in between,” says the soothsayer in the opening moments of “Julius X,” a curious coupling of the tragedy of Julius Caesar and the assassination of Malcolm X, created by poet and hip-hop playwright Al Letson Jr. It’s at Karamu Performing Arts Theatre through Feb. 24.

The mix works well, a tribute to the universal appeal of Shakespeare’s timeless themes of power, overarching ambition and jealousy. The play’s blend of drama, poetry, music and movement creates a total theatrical experience that keeps the viewer engaged and interested throughout.

The large cast is uneven in quality. But all is forgiven under the assured direction of Justin Emeka, a writer, actor, teacher and director, and currently a visiting professor of theater and African-American studies at Oberlin College. Director/choreographer Emeka keeps the ensemble moving like clockwork.

To better understand “Julius X,” a little background about Malcolm X is in order. Born Malcolm Little, Malcolm X started life as a thief, pimp and hustler, before he saw the light and converted to Islam while serving time in prison. (The X symbolizes the rejection of “slave names” given to the blacks by their white masters and the absence of an inherited African name to take its place.)

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RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) — Brazil's traditional carnival parades, those extravagant displays of flesh and fantasy set to a samba rhythm, were to hit their peak late Sunday with a glitzy show in Rio de Janeiro in front of a sold-out crowd.

Half of the city's 12 top samba schools were to unveil their colorful entries to stands packed with 50,000 people, and with a worldwide television audience looking on.

 

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By Robert Hurwitt

The patient, a college student, has debilitating panic attacks. Her new doctor, an expert in using hypnosis - or "trancing" - to recover repressed memories, learns things that lead him to break his oath of confidentiality. When her memories reveal the hushed-up massacre of a remote village in her African homeland, the doctor, an investigative reporter and a State Department official become entangled in a case of impending genocide related to a Central African nation's planned major hydroelectric project.

"Tranced," by clinical psychologist turned playwright Robert Clyman, is a psychological mystery centered on issues of international development, African politics, genocide in both its physical and cultural forms and the level of horror that has to be reached before Americans will pay attention to injustices in an African state. Those issues are compellingly presented in the local premiere that opened Friday in a brilliantly staged and performed San Jose Repertory Theatre production. The play, however, is less successful as either the thriller Clyman intends or even as a coherent drama.

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On Friday February 22, Perishable Theatre, will present Scratch & Burn, a hip-hop dance theatre performance about primal urges and the battle for supremacy and domination.

“Scratch & Burn is a combination of dance elements from ancient Zulu, Maori, and butoh rituals with movements from hip-hop and urban street combat to create a powerful, gripping and immensely entertaining dance theater work about our primal urge to battle for supremacy and domination. 

With live African drumming, a megaton soundtrack and dramatic effects with lighting, props, costumes and video projection, five male dancers assume various roles and rarely leave the stage, concluding the show with a display of break dancing that leaves the audience gasping. Scratch & Burn is fast and furious, forceful and athletic, delivering a searing critique of war, violence, racial stereotypes, the Bush administration and U.S. imperialism.", explain press notes.

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By Elizabeth Pandolfi

Some African-American women have such gorgeous dignity that it's quite difficult not to notice your own posture leaves something to be desired, and that your outfit, which you didn't so much care about at home, could be a lot more put together.

The Footlight Players' Crowns is a celebration of African-American identity using hats — church hats, that is, the feathery, flowery, wide-brimmed kind — as its major vehicle. But I have to say what struck me most of all at this performance was the incredible grace and, yes, dignity of its six actresses and single actor.

Whether they were dressed in traditional African garb or contemporary, colorful church-going wear, singing gospel songs or listening as others sang, I have rarely seen quiet pride conveyed so subtly yet powerfully as it is within the walls — and hats — of Footlight's tiny Queen Street theater.

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A rich exhibition explores blacks' influence on Mexican culture.

By Agustin Gurza

CONSIDERING all the recent speculation about hostility between blacks and Latinos, you have to cringe when you hear what happened to historian Christopher West on a working trip south of the border four years ago. The African American academic was helping research the influence of tourism on children in Isla Mujeres, an idyllic island near Cancun, when a local boy on the street threw a piece of pan dulce at him.

The insult (not the first he had encountered) might be seen as more evidence of that racial animosity, currently fueling the notion that some Latinos are cool to Sen. Barack Obama because he's black. But West considered the gesture an anomaly and went on to shoot some hoops with his Mexican friends and colleagues.

In fact, the historian says he's been accepted as family in some parts of Mexico, thanks to his wife, Ilda Jimenez, a Mexican American anthropologist he met when they were students at USC. The union of the two communities is reflected in their surname, which they changed to Jimenez y West. Today, as history curator at the California African American Museum, Christopher Jimenez y West continues to explore the often overlooked cultural connections between the country's two largest minorities. This week, he was busy preparing for the opening of a groundbreaking exhibition, "The African Presence in México: From Yanga to the Present," which celebrates what is called the Third Root of Mexican culture, adding African to the mix of European and native Indian.

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By Verashni Pillay

Johannesburg - An HIV-positive dancer for the celebrated African Footprint show was sent back home from America for having a "communicable disease," the show's producer told News24.

The dancer was on his way back to SA, after the American/Canadian promoters of the show consulted a top New York lawyer, who advised he be sent back immediately.

The young man, whom African Footprint producer Richard Loring declined to name, was prevented from performing in South Africa's longest running show because of a US law that prevents people with a communicable disease from obtaining entry into the country.

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By Ronald Blum

Jessye Norman is on a Spiritual mission.

The soprano will curate a 20-day festival celebrating black cultural legacy next season at Carnegie Hall, which also will honor the 100th birthday year of composer Elliott Carter and present a complete cycle of Mahler symphonies in a 12-day period conducted by Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez.

"Honor!," created by Norman and the Carnegie Hall artistic staff, will include events at the Apollo Theater in Harlem and The Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

"I want them to come away from the festival understanding that the Spiritual can only be called a Spiritual — with a capital `S' — if it was created by slaves," Norman said at a news conference Tuesday. "I want them to stop using 'gospel' and 'Spiritual' interchangeably because they're not the same thing."

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