African American Short Films and Gospel Music too are playing on a TV near you

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4th Annual "48 Hours in Harlem" opens August 17th (Harlem)

6 Playwrights

6 Directors

18 Actors

giving raw impressions of 6 black plays.

Sunday, August 17th at 7pm

National Black Theatre

2031 5th Avenue (@125th Street)

Please click image to enlarge.

Please click image to enlarge.

Please click image to enlarge.

Pre-Sale Tickets: $25.00

$30.00 at door (limited number)

Buy tickets here.

To learn more, please click here.

Stephanie Lynn Wilson's SILK STOCKINGS AND A BIBLE 8/27 (NYC)

Stephanie Lynn Wilson

AFTER A SUCCESSFUL SOLD OUT PERFORMANCE OF PLAY #1 TITLED "THE GRINDER" WE'RE BACK WITH PLAY #2! 

SILK STOCKINGS AND A BIBLE, THE SECOND PLAY IN THE TRILOGY "WOMEN YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW," ABOUT WOMEN PERCEIVED AS SOCIETY'S "BAD GIRLS", IS SET IN HARLEM AND ATLANTIC CITY DURING THE SWING ERA. IT TELLS THE TALE OF FANNIE MAE BROWN, A CHORUS GIRL WHO BECOMES A CHURCH LADY WITH A PAST...

ARE HER REGRETS OF HER SPICY PAST OR OF HER AUSTERE PRESENT?

WRITTEN, DIRECTED, PRODUCED BY STEPHANIE LYNN WILSON 

STARRING KRYSTAL HILL AS GIRL FANNIE MAE BROWN 

STACEY GRIFFIN AS THE SAILOR JOSEPH CHARLES 

MICHELLE ROBINSON AS DORIS 

LASALLE CHUK OBASI AS BUDDY 

EREN T. GIBSON AS SASSY AND 

 SANTI RODRIGUEZ AS SAMMY G. 

$25 in advance/$30 at door 

For more information and to buy tickets, please click here.

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A scene from this play was chosen to be performed at the 2014 Harlem Arts Festival

Look for the full production of all three plays 

in the same run of the entire trilogy in early 2015! 

The staged reading of the third play in the trilogy "Wild Child" TBA 

Follow @trilogyofwomen on Twitter 

WILSON EXCLUSIVE TALENT PRODUCTIONS IS FISCALLY SPONSORED BY MEGA NATIONAL ARTS ORGANIZATION FRACTURED ATLAS

Khalil Kain to star in Nathan James' "Contrary to Popular Belief" reading TONIGHT (NYC)

Tonight!  July 14, 2014    7:30pm  

The Cell Theater

(338 W. 23rd Street b/t 8th and 9th Avenues)

The cast list is in for Nathan James' full length play, Contrary to Popular Belief, at The Black Board Reading series: Khalil Kain (well known for GIRLFRIENDS and JUICE), Toccarra Cash, James Edward Becton III, Carter Woodson, Norman Small, Mckenzie Frye, Evander Duck, and Ryan Guess. 

Synopsis:

On the South side of Pittsburgh, there is a business district that’s stretches along East Carson Street, which is home to shop owner, Kevin Evans, who struggles to keep his life together amidst his estranged brother missing in New Orleans and a failing marriage.  Contrary to Popular Belief is a play about love, betrayal, regret, and forgiveness surrounding the controversial events of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.  The play is set in Kevin’s shop, Debonair’s, in the fall of 2005 in the critical hours of the warning to evacuate New Orleans.  In the midst of this national disaster the characters in this play must find a way to cope as they also deal with going through the storms in their personal lives.  With the revealing of dark family secrets, infidelity, and the threat a Debonair’s license to operate being revoked, Kevin and the shop employees take us on a journey through their personal storms as they struggle to keep their head above water to survive. Contrary to Popular belief explores the causes of the unaddressed stress levels causing hyper tension for many African Americans, questions the government, and addresses the domino effect racism has played on the state of many black communities today.

Written by Nathan James

Directed by Cezar Williams

Stage directions are being read by Stori Ayers .

Come out to the Cell Theater on July 14th at 7:30 pm. More information at: www.blackboardplays.com

8-More African-Born Writers You Should Be Reading

A. Igoni Barrett

By Jason Diamond on Jul 3, 2014 12:45pm for Flavorwire

Fiction can be a revealing window into cultures that are unfamiliar to us — and reading the work of an author who lives in another country or was born across the world from us can elucidate a different point of view. Whether it be a country’s political situation, the lexicon, the history, or the people, immersing oneself in the fiction of a specific nation, region, or even an entire content can provide an opportunity to better understand other places and experiences. And, as a recent New York Times article noted, this is an especially great time for literature from Africa and by authors who were born there:

The flowering of new African writers is “an amazing phenomenon,” said Manthia Diawara, a professor of comparative literature and film at New York University. “It is a literature more about being a citizen of the world — going to Europe, going back to Lagos,” he said. “Now we are talking about how the West relates to Africa and it frees writers to create their own worlds. They have several identities and they speak several languages.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Helen Oyeyemi, Ishmael Beah, NoViolet Bulawayo, and other African-born writers who have experienced success in America are all cited, including Lagos-born Teju Cole, who took to Twitter to point out something the article touches on a bit, but that deserves extra emphasis: “too many literary publishers would rather put out work by writers from Africa than work by African-Americans because in the current climate the Africans are considered more appealing for what is seen as a ‘black slot.’”

As that very necessary conversation — about a sad reality that the publishing world needs to address immediately — continues, the fact remains that an abundance of fantastic literature is coming out of Africa right now. That’s something to celebrate, so to help you do that, we offer a few other suggestions of African-born writers whose work you should seek out.

To continue reading, please click here.

Heather Bagnall's singlemarriedgirl gets its NYC debut at The Spiral Theatre Studio 7/18-21

As The Spiral Theatre Studio comes to the end of its first year, it is excited to present a New York City debut, when Heather Bagnall and her company, Tasty Monster Productions, bring Heather's one woman show singlemarriedgirl to the Big Apple. Check out the performance details on the website here.