Art

The Haves And The Have Nots’ Actress Angela Robinson Talks Becoming Veronica

THE AFRO — Although Robinson has been playing Veronica for a number of years now, the character’s out of this world shenanigans still regularly shock her.

Published

6 years ago

February 19, 2019

Oakland Post

By Nadine Matthews

Angela Robinson auditioned for her role of Veronica Harrington on OWN Network’s “The Haves and The Have Nots” under devastating circumstances. “My best friend was visiting and her father in-law passed away,” she recalls. “So I had her and her husband and their children over and I got a call that they wanted me to send in a tape for Veronica. You know, to audition on tape and then send it in. I really didn’t think I could do it because there were so many people there and they were going through a rough time but my husband felt like I should do it.”

That advice from Robinson’s husband of over twenty years, Scott Whitehurst, was a word in due season. “I pretty much waited until everybody went to bed,” Robinson recalls. “And stayed up all night filming it and sent it in. I got the call that they wanted to fly me in and meet Tyler Perry and audition for him in person. I did that and the next day I got the offer.”

Because Robinson, who has an extensive career in theater, had already worked on The Color Purple on Broadway, she was already acquainted with Oprah Winfrey, owner of OWN Network on which The Haves and The Have Nots airs. “She is just like Tyler Perry,” Robinson explains. “Her persona in real life is just as she is in her public life.” Robinson shares that Winfrey is not only as warm as she seems on screen but she also walks her talk in terms of supporting women. “She is extremely supportive. When I won the Gracie Award a few years ago, for my work on the show, she took the time to congratulate me and take some pictures with me. It is just an honor always to be in the presence of people who are doing such great things.”

Although the Florida born and raised Robinson has been playing Veronica for a number of years now, the character’s out of this world shenanigans still regularly shock her. “Every time I get new script and read it, I think ‘Oh my goodness! Probably the one thing I was really disturbed by was when she had Wyatt raped.” Still, Robinson can see some humanity in Veronica’s cold and calculating character. “Everything great about Veronica- her smarts, the fact that she is a Black women who is a self made millionaire–all of that came because she was a perfectionist, they came because she was controlling, it’s how she fought her way out of the ghetto and made something of herself.”

Robinson has relished the opportunity to play the powerful, though dastardly, diva. “I trained as an actress so I envisioned myself playing all sorts of characters.” Being so different from the type of person Robinson herself is, she admits it is a process to construct Veronica. “You sort of have to break the character down to what their temperament is,” she begins. “Then you play that temperament as opposed to thinking about the whole character.”

In real life, Robinson admits she personally feels most powerful when she is able to say no. “When I choose me or my family or my values, whatever it is, when I choose those things over being seen or the job or the money, when I choose myself or my well-being or family I feel very much empowered when I do that.”

This clarity when it comes to priorities perhaps owes much to the lessons she learned from her father with whom she was very close, and who passed away a few years ago. She says wistfully, “I carry him with me every day. There are so many stories he told me like fifty times,” she laughs “That I didn’t want to hear anymore but now I would give anything to hear.” One of the most poignant of those lessons took place on a drive through Florida when Robinson was an impatient ten year-old. “We were at a toll booth. Back then, you threw the quarter in and then you wait for the light to change and you keep going. There were no people manning the toll booth. I remember my dad was looking around for a quarter and I was like, ‘Dad, nobody’s looking. Let’s just go!’ My dad said to me and I never forgot it, “You wanna have integrity, no matter who’s looking. I’ve tried to always live by that.”

This article originally appeared in The Afro.

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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

1 month 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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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

2 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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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

2 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.