Amiri Baraka News

In August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece The Piano Lesson, the past threatens to pull apart brother and sister. Bernice treasures a one-of-a-kind piano, an heirloom with carved figures of their enslaved ancestors. Boy Willie suddenly arrives from the South determined to sell the piano and buy the land his family worked on. When the ghost of the piano's original owner appears, family conflicts escalate to a dramatic confrontation. With lyrical language rolling from the rowdy to the tender, this is one of Wilson's finest.

Camden People's Theatre's Calm Down, Dear, The Festival of Feminism returns for a second year of theatre, performance, comedy, cabaret, dance and discussion at Camden People's Theatre, today 24th September to 12th October.

Camden People's Theatre's Calm Down, Dear, The Festival of Feminism returns for a second year of theatre, performance, comedy, cabaret, dance and discussion at Camden People's Theatre, 24th September to 12th October.

Multi Ethnic Theater, in association with Custom Made Theatre, presents August Wilson's Jitney, beginning today, August 7, and continues through August 31, at Gough Street Playhouse, 1620 Gough Street in San Francisco. Jitney is directed by Lewis Campbell, founder and artistic director of Multi Ethnic Theater. The play concerns a group of working class men who offer gypsy cab rides to and from African American communities where city cabs refuse to go.

Multi Ethnic Theater, in association with Custom Made Theatre, will present August Wilson's Jitney, August 7-31, at Gough Street Playhouse, 1620 Gough Street in San Francisco. Jitney is directed by Lewis Campbell, founder and artistic director of Multi Ethnic Theater. The play concerns a group of working class men who offer gypsy cab rides to and from African American communities where city cabs refuse to go.

Lee Chamberlin, an actress and playwright whose career spanned four decades on the stage, television and films, died of cancer at 76 on May 25, 2014. Her death was confirmed by her family.

John Schreiber, NJPAC's President and CEO, and David Rodriguez, Executive Producer of the Arts Center, announced today a 2014-15 season packed with new, NJPAC- created, season-long series', collaborations with renowned artists and companies, an expansion of diverse programming, further integration of NJPAC's arts education programs within mainstage performances, and a continuation of the Arts Center's 17-year tradition of presenting world-class artists. With over 100 performances and special events announced for the acoustically superb 2,800- seat Prudential Hall, intimate 514-seat Victoria Theater, 250-seat Chase Room, and outdoors in Theater Square, by artists ranging from Patti LaBelle to The Metropolitan Opera Rising Stars; from Chris Botti to Potted Potter: The Unauthorized Harry Experience; from Golda's Balcony with Tovah Feldshuh to the Brick City Jazz Orchestra; from Bela Fleck to Lula Washington Dance Theatre; from Beres Hammond to Audra McDonald; and from The Second City to Dinosaur Train Live!, NJPAC's new season has something for everyone.

The schedule for this summer's Lincoln Center Out of Doors festival, which runs from July 20 to August 10, was announced today by Bill Bragin, Lincoln Center's Director of Public Programming. Nearly 100 free performances will take place across the plazas of Lincoln Center during three weeks. A special Memorial Concert for Pete and Toshi Seeger on July 20 will be followed by the official opening concert on July 23 with Larry Harlow's Hommy: A Latin Opera, the landmark work's first performance in 40 years. Complete festival details and a chronological listing of events follow.

Actor Sharif Atkins ('White Collar,' 'Hawaii,' 'ER') will star as Clay in the co-production of 'Dutchman' by LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) by Dr. Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theatre (NBT) and The Classical Theatre of Harlem (CTH). The two theater companies are mounting the production 50 years after the March 1964 world premiere of the play at the Cherry Lane Theatre and in tribute to the late theater great Baraka, who died on January 9. Ambien Mitchell stars opposite Atkins as Lula and Lorenzo Scott joins the cast as the Conductor. Previews of the Carl Cofield-directed show begin tonight, April 30 and run through May 2, and performances run from May 3 through May 23 at National Black Theatre in Harlem.

Martin Farawell, The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation's Poetry Director and Director of the Dodge Poetry Festival, has announced the roster of poets and other performers who will be participating in the 15th biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, October 23-26, 2014. For the third time the Festival will be held at its new home, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) as well as other venues in Newark's Downtown Arts District, all within easy walking distance of NJPAC.

August Strindberg's 'To Damascus, Part 1' will be adapted to Harlem, 1962 in the next production of August Strindberg Repertory Theatre (www.strindberg.org). The play will be presented with a multi-racial cast today, April 18 to May 11 at the Gene Frankel Theatre, 24 Bond Street (East Village).

Actor Sharif Atkins ('White Collar,' 'Hawaii,' 'ER') will star as Clay in the co-production of 'Dutchman' by LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) by Dr. Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theatre (NBT) and The Classical Theatre of Harlem (CTH). The two theater companies are mounting the production 50 years after the March 1964 world premiere of the play at the Cherry Lane Theatre and in tribute to the late theater great Baraka, who died on January 9. Ambien Mitchell stars opposite Atkins as Lula and Lorenzo Scott joins the cast as the Conductor. Previews of the Carl Cofield-directed show begin on April 30 and run through May 2, and performances run from May 3 through May 23 at National Black Theatre in Harlem.

Following the successful, award-winning 2013 co-production of Detroit '67 written by Dominique Morisseau, Dr. Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theatre (NBT) and The Classical Theatre of Harlem (CTH) officially announce their second co-production. The famed Harlem arts institutions will produce the 50th Anniversary revival of 'Dutchman' by LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) from April 30 to May 23, 2014. Carl Cofield will direct the revival.

August Strindberg's 'To Damascus, Part 1' will be adapted to Harlem, 1962 in the next production of August Strindberg Repertory Theatre (www.strindberg.org). The play will be presented with a multi-racial cast April 18 to May 11 at the Gene Frankel Theatre, 24 Bond Street (East Village). It is the first part of a trilogy (called 'The Road to Damascus' in earlier translations) that has been described as 'Strindberg's most complex plays' and as 'his greatest plays,' due to their synthesis of a wide variety of myths, symbols and ideas with a profound spiritual analysis in a new dramatic form. August Strindberg Rep will present Part 2 in March, 2015 and Part 3 in 2016. It will be the first time the trilogy will have been presented complete in any language in 99 years.

The Playwrights Realm Artistic Director Katherine Kovner has announced that Alexander Orbovich has been named the company's new Managing Director.

Legacy Month, a celebration of Crossroads Theatre Company's history and contributions to the American cultural landscape, will continue with Richard Wesley's Playbook, a celebration of the prolific playwright and screenwriter's work with performances, video and testimonials on Sunday, March 2.

The National Black Touring Circuit's 2014 Black History Month Play Festival will hold poetry, music and drama performances in Harlem that celebrate acclaimed poet Amiri Baraka, legendary singer Billie Holiday, the Great Divas of Gospel and Ossie Davis' renowned play 'The People of Clarendon County' from February 7 - March 2.

The Breath Courses Through Us (2013) is a new documentary film about the early 1960s avant-garde jazz group, the New York Art Quartet.

The Breath Courses Through Us (2013) is a new documentary film about the early 1960s avant-garde jazz group, the New York Art Quartet.

Celebrated and criticized writer-activist Amiri Baraka died at age 79 on January 9. When I first read his poetry his name was LeRoi Jones (his birth name). I came to him through reading early literary heroes, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, birthers of a literary and cultural movement that welcomed Mr. Baraka into their wide fold. He in turn published some of their work, later penning controversial plays and helping lead the Black Nationalist movement.