Art

Alvin Ailey Brings Nostalgia and Hope for Today

THE AFRO — In a time of division and racial tension in the United States, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater brought unity and healing through art.

Published

6 years ago

February 12, 2019

Oakland Post

By Micha Green

In a time of division and racial tension in the United States, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater brought unity and healing through art in their performances at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Northwest, Washington, D.C.

From Feb. 5- 10 audiences packed into the Kennedy Center to see the renowned dance company, founded by its namesake in 1958, under the current artistic direction of Robert Battle, with famous former company member Judith Jamison serving as artistic director emerita.

The same week of the highly controversial State of the Union (SOTU) address, the history-making delivery of Stacey Abrams’ Democratic response to the SOTU as the first African American woman to do so, and the debates surrounding the trio of trouble facing Virginia’s Democratic leadership, artists of different creeds graced the stage with dances that showed struggle and pain and celebrated ingenuity, freedom and Black culture. Through movement that perfectly flowed from rigid to fluid, restricted to free, low crawls to high jumps and beautifully combined technique and emotions, audiences could forget the personal, national and international concerns and simply enjoy the cathartic nature of art and the beauty it imbues.

Bright, bold colors from the costumes to the lights enhanced the strong storytelling through movement by the Ailey dancers. The Thursday Feb. 7 performance included pieces considered “Timeless Ailey” classics such as “Good Morning Blues,” “Our Father,” and “Gee Baby” and after intermission audiences were treated to the Ailey’s famous “Revelations,” which received a bunch of “amens,” random applauses throughout the performance and two standing ovations at the end.

Members representing the D.M.V. area were also featured in the company such as the District’s own, Samantha Figgins, a graduate of Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Northwest, Daniel Harder of Bowie, MD, who went to Suitland High School’s Center for the Visual and Performing Arts and Jacqueline Green and Courtney Celeste Spears, both of whom attended Baltimore School of the Arts.

After the show, audience members marveled at the poignancy of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater- over 60 years after it was founded- in today’s American culture.

“I was so happy to see this diverse audience, and I was thinking about all the things that are going on today- politics and all that. Everything’s that’s wrong and here we are looking at something good and diverse,” Jean Lewis told the AFRO.

Lewis attended the show with her longtime friend, Mary Robinson, both of whom are from Atlanta and graduates of Clark College (before it was Clark-Atlanta University), but have lived in the Washington Metropolitan Area for quite some time.

“We followed them since the 60s… I remember sitting in the auditorium watching them rehearse,” Robinson said recalling when Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater came to Clark College in the early 60s. Lewis said she still had her program from Ailey coming to Clark in 1963. The two remarked they had no idea how big of a deal it was to witness Alvin Ailey back then, but totally appreciate the legacy now.

“I just love the fact that everybody loves it. We’re all here together, Black, White, Asian and banning [together] both on the stage and in the audience.” Lewis told the AFRO. “This was amazing.”

This article originally appeared in The Afro.

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Activism

Griot Theater Company Presents August Wilson’s Work at Annual Oratorical Featuring Black Authors

The performance explores the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson whose 10-play Century Cycle chronicles the African American experience across the 20th century, with each play set in a different decade. “Half a Century” journeys through the final five plays of this monumental cycle, bringing Wilson’s richly woven stories to life in a way that celebrates history, resilience, and the human spirit.

Published

3 months ago

February 17, 2025

Oakland Post

Late playwright August Wilson. Wikipedia photo.

By Godfrey Lee

Griot Theater Company will present their Fifth Annual Oratorical with August Wilson’s “Half a Century,” at the Belrose on 1415 Fifth Ave., in San Rafael near the San Rafael Public Library.

The performance explores the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson whose 10-play Century Cycle chronicles the African American experience across the 20^th century, with each play set in a different decade. “Half a Century” journeys through the final five plays of this monumental cycle, bringing Wilson’s richly woven stories to life in a way that celebrates history, resilience, and the human spirit.

Previous performance highlighting essential Black American authors included Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Lorraine Hansberry with Langston Hughes.

The play will be performed at 3:00. p.m. on Feb. 20, 21, 22, 27, and 28 at 7:00 p.m., and on Feb. 23 at 3:00 p.m.

For more information, go to griottheatercompany.squarespace.com/productions-v2

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Activism

MLK Day of Service Volunteers Make Blankets and Art for Locals in Need

“Everyone has an opportunity to participate,” said Glenda Roberts, kinship support care program manager at CCYSB. “Our nonprofit organization and participants recognize how important it is to give back to the community and this is serving. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated, ‘Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve.’”

Published

4 months ago

January 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Photo courtesy of the nonprofit.

By Kathy Chouteau
The Richmond Standard

The Contra Costa Youth Service Bureau (CCYSB) and Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church (BMBC) are collaborating with a team of volunteers for a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, Monday, Jan. 20 that will wrap the community’s most vulnerable people in warm blankets and provide them with an uplifting gift of art.

Volunteers will kick off their activities at BMBC at 11 a.m., making blankets for the unhoused people served by the Greater Richmond Interfaith Program (GRIP) and art for those in convalescence in Richmond.

Others will get to work preparing a lunch of chili, salad, a veggie tray, and water for participants, offered courtesy of CCYSB, while supplies last.

“People of all ages are welcome to participate in the MLK Day of Service,” said Roberts. Volunteers can RSVP via phone to Glenda Roberts at 510-215-4670, ext. 125.

CCYSB Boardmember Jackie Marston and her friends donated the materials and supplies to make the blankets and art projects. The nonprofit is also providing the day’s complimentary lunch, as well as employees to volunteer, under the direction of CCYSB Executive Director Marena Brown.

BMBC, led by Rev. Dr. Carole McKindley-Alvarez, is providing the facility for the event and volunteers from the church, which is located at 684 Juliga Woods St. in Richmond.

Located in Richmond, CCYSB is a nonprofit youth advocacy organization that serves eligible children, youth, and low-income families with a variety of wraparound services so they can thrive. Programs include academic achievement, youth mentorship, truancy prevention and direct response.

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Art

Vandalism at Richmond Ferry Terminal Saddens Residents

Residents have been lamenting the destruction online. Ellen Seskin posted photos of the vandalism to the Facebook group, Everybody’s Richmond, on Jan. 12, saying she encountered it while out on a walk. “It was on the sidewalk, the street, the doors to the ferry, even in the art installation and the ‘stone’ benches,” she said. “I reported it but knowing how slow they are about getting things done — I just know that the longer you leave graffiti, the more likely they are to spray it again.”

Published

4 months ago

January 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Graffiti mars the walkway at the Richmond Ferry Terminal. Photo by Kathy Chouteau, The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

“This is why we can’t have nice things,” stated the post on NextDoor.

The post referenced images of graffiti at the Richmond Ferry Terminal. Not just on the terminal, but also on public artwork, on trail signs, on public benches and the boardwalk.

On Wednesday, the Standard stopped by to see it for ourselves. The good news was that it appears the graffiti on the terminal and on the artwork, called Changing Tide, have been cleaned for the most part. But graffiti remained abundant in the area around the relatively new ferry terminal, which opened to the public just six years ago.

Graffiti artists tagged benches and the boardwalk. Cars that had done doughnuts in the street marked the cul-de-sac just outside the historic Craneway Pavilion.

A ferry worker told us the graffiti had been there since before he started working for the ferry service about a week ago.

A member of the Army Corps of Engineers who did not want to be named in this report called the scene “sad,” as “they’d done such a nice job fixing it up.”

“It’s sad that all this money has been spent and hoodlums just don’t care and are destroying stuff,” he said.

It wasn’t immediately clear how soon the graffiti would be removed. The Standard reported the graffiti to the city’s graffiti abatement hotline. We were prompted to leave a message reporting the address and location of the graffiti.

“It was on the sidewalk, the street, the doors to the ferry, even in the art installation and the ‘stone’ benches,” she said. “I reported it but knowing how slow they are about getting things done — I just know that the longer you leave graffiti, the more likely they are to spray it again.”

In the comment section responding to Seskin’s post, local attorney Daniel Butt questioned why there aren’t cameras in the area.

On Nextdoor, one resident suggested searching to see if the tags match any accounts on Instagram, hoping to identify the perpetrator.

On its website, the City of Richmond says residents should graffiti immediately call Public Works graffiti removal and/or Code Enforcement at 510-965-4905.

Kathy Chouteau contributed to this report.