What to the American Slave is the 4th of July? Frederick Douglas asked. We are still waiting for a response or are we? Tune into Wanda’s Picks Radio Show on Wednesdays and Fridays 8-10 AM PT
Summer schedule might vary, so check the listings.
July 1, we will play an interview with Dawn Porter, director of John Lewis: Good Trouble. June 19, the director took the film to Tulsa, Oklahoma for a screening. I am sure it was a powerful event given recent events and the centennial of the massacre and destruction of Black Wall Street.
“John Lewis: Good Trouble,” A film by Dawn Porter opens July 3, 2020
96 minutes, 1.85, USA
Congressman John Robert Lewis is such a presence on the American landscape. He has lived long enough to have a perspective in his lived life few can match. From an early age he has been a person who is fearless when it comes to justice. However, unlike many heroes, Rep. Lewis would intentionally get in the way, his body sacrificed for rights many nations see as fundamental for all its citizens.
Lewis is the youngest child in a family that owned its own land in Troy, Alabama, at a time when Black people in the south sharecropped. Not skilled in cotton picking, Lewis’s siblings speak in a new film, “John Lewis: Good Trouble,” (2020) dir. Dawn Porter, of pulling their brother along on their sacks as they walked the rows of cotton. Lewis says that he didn’t want to spend his life picking cotton and excelled in school. He’s says in the film that he had excellent teachers who taught him the value of reading every day.
“Good Trouble” is the story of a key strategist, John Lewis, in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s army. Rep. Lewis spoke at the first March on Washington, at that time in his early twenties. He also led the march across Pettis Bridge in Selma where he suffered a severe concussion. Bloody Sunday, as the day was afterward called, exposed to the country and world, the plight of African Americans. Lewis says, when he lost his fear that day, he was truly free.
Harvard scholar, Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. shares with Rep. Lewis the story when his great-grandfather registered to vote in 1857 before such rights were taken away, it wasn’t until Rep. Lewis’s generation that his family had its civil rights restored. Rep. Lewis replies, “I guess it’s in my DNA.” This work which began officially at 15 years old continues now that the Congressman is 80. Lewis says proudly, “I got arrested 40 times, 5 times in Congress. I’ll probably get arrested again. When you see something that isn’t right—do something.”
If the catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement was the murder of Emmett Till, this young Black boy on Mrs. Rosa Parks’s mind when she refused to give up her seat a year later in Montgomery, then George Floyd’s horrific killing has set off the still simmering keg beneath unaddressed inequities and structural injustices, legal terrorism and historic violence against Black people. One cannot legislate love; however, if the laws are not enforced such injustices continue and continue and continue.
Figurative and literal fires are burning; however, it is a rage that produces lasting change that we need to focus on now. “Good Trouble” highlights Rep. Lewis as an intelligent strategist who despite disagreement with legislative opponents always maintains a level of decency and conscience (some people might say, they don’t deserve). Lewis was there when the Voting Rights Act was signed into law; he was also present when Supreme Court put the VRA on life support seven years ago.
There are many amazing moments in this remarkable well-crafted film, such as his campaign support for Georgia Representative Stacey Abrams in her run for the governor seat and interviews with Elijah Cummings (D-MD) (to whom the film is dedicated) and Civil Rights Movement giant, Congressmen James Clyburn (D-SC).
Newly inaugurated Congresspersons in 2019 who speak about Rep. Lewis’s influence on them— in Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s (D-MI) case, as a child are also a high point in the wonderful film. Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), are featured along with several former presidents, among them Jimmy Carter for whom Lewis cut his political organizing teeth. Later we see the more seasoned Lewis with his organizing buddy Julian Bond both during Freedom Summer and then much later in debates for the contested Georgia Congressional seat.
In an interview with Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian, and founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Godfather of the Smithsonian’s NMAAHC sits with (if we are to continue this analogy) his son, at the reflection pool, water cascading down in front of them. Lewis signed the legislation responsible for its completion (2003-2016).
The skilled director weaves a story those persons’ peripheral to Rep. Lewis’s inner circle do not know. His 60 years of service are amazing to viewers – Lewis often appears amazed himself as the director’s team surrounds Lewis (seated in a studio) with larger than life-size photos of key moments in his life, people, events, some tragic others poignant and sweet. These studio sessions are freestyle moments where we see the Congressman dancing theoretically and philosophically as he reflects on his life.
The film opens for viewing July 3, perfect timing—Around the country and the world, youth and adults are as Lewis would put it, making “Good Trouble.” Visit https://www.johnlewisgoodtrouble.com/
On the Fly:
Watch the film in advance. Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker, 1981 (48 mins) United States.
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The 2020 Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BAPF) Online & Worldwide
Week II Panel Discussions 7/22, 7/25 & 7/26
The Festival offers public readings live streamed and hosted on Vimeo in addition to panel discussions on Facebook Live, Youtube, and directly on Playwrights Foundation’s website. Tickets are available now on a sliding scale of $5-45 for wider accessibility. Theatre Professionals Weekend will take place July 24-26. Panels are free.
https://playwrightsfoundation.org/2020-bay-area-playwrights-festival/
A conversation with Festival playwrights Tyler English-Beckwith, Stefani Kuo, Jordan Ramirez Puckett, Deneen Reynolds-Knott, and Noelle Viñas moderated by Executive Artistic Director Jessica Bird Beza.
Decolonizing New Play Development @ 10:00 AM-11:30 AM (PST)
Guests: Claudia Alick, Annalisa Dias, Mina Morita, Tara Moses, Maddy Sayet, and Nan Barnett
A roundtable conversation between theatre artists centering Indigenous and Black voices around decolonization in the new play development process discussing the definition of decolonization and its hyperlocal impact, how we can decolonize the development process, and examples of people and organizations who are doing the work.
A discussion with Black female identifying panelists about their desires for love, career, home, identity and/or family. This panel will be in conversation with the plays Mingus and Babes in Ho-lland.
Guest Column: Wake-Up America! Part II Healing Racism by Dr. Kim McMillon, Professor & Author > N
http://us4.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=e6189a823089ae11cbac775af&id=7f5979823b
The San Francisco Mime Troupe’s FREEDOMLAND available online Monday, July 6 – Sunday, July 19!
In 2015 the Tony award-winning San Francisco Mime Troupe presented an original tragic farce – FREEDOMLAND – to critical praise in parks around the Bay Area, and in theaters across California. FREEDOMLAND is the story of the lengths a Black man will go to in order to keep his grandson safe and alive in a country that seems to prefer Black men in jail or dead. Pulling no punches while still managing to be comedic, FREEDOMLAND was a brutal, tragic, yet in the Mime Troupe tradition sardonic look at the results of the War on Drugs, how fear is used as a weapon of racial oppression, and how police violence destroys Black lives in our police state. And now, for the first time, the San Francisco Mime Troupe will be making one of its most hard-hitting shows available for a limited time online!
Visit www.sfmt.org for more details, and see the show anytime between July 6 to July 19 on Vimeo. See FREEDOMLAND for FREE but a suggested donation of $20 is greatly appreciated!
Here is a link to the interview I had with Michael Gene Sullivan, playwright, actor, Malcolm Haywood,, on Wanda’s Picks Radio Show about the play: https://www.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks/2015/07/01/wandas-picks-radio-show-freedomland
Show description:
This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay!
1. Dr. Mark “Ogunwale” Lomax speaks about the recent attack on the Black Church Community. The founding pastor of the First African Presbyterian Church of Lithonia, Georgia, has served there since 1993. The Rev. Dr. Lomax is also Assistant Professor of Homiletics at the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) since 1998. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Heidelberg University in Tiffin, Ohio; a Master of Divinity degree from Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio; and a Doctor of Ministry degree from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. Dr. Lomax has served on various Presbytery and General Assembly committees and task forces, and as Interim President-Dean of the Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary. He is a published author who preaches and lectures and has ecumenical and interfaith appeal and experience.
2. Joanne Griffith, Awardwinning Journalist, author, Redefining Black Power:Reflections on the State of Black America http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100003110&fa=description
3. Michael Gene Sullivan,playwright, talks about the Tony Award-Winning San Francisco Mime Troupe’s 56th Annual Production, “Freedomland” June 24-Sept. 7. http://www.sfmt.org
6-8pm Pacific time / 9-11pm Eastern time (Zoom link removed.) Look for recording in YouTube. Contact UpSurge for the details.
For information: https://youtu.be/hahcmffCMqI
AMAZON STUDIOS AND MICHAEL B. JORDAN’S OUTLIER SOCIETY PRESENT “A NIGHT AT THE DRIVE-IN”
A CELEBRATION OF MULTI-CULTURAL VOICES IN FILM
Summer Screening Series Curated by Michael B. Jordan will Launch at Select Drive-Ins Nationwide and Play Throughout the Summer at No Cost to the Community
For details on locations, show times and ticket information, please visit: ANightAtTheDriveIn.com
(http://amazonscreenings.com/anightatthedrivein)
Starting Wednesday, July 1, Amazon Studios will host double-features curated by Michael B. Jordan with help from his newly formed marketing arm 8788 and Outlier Society, every other week through the end of August.
“When Michael and our friends at Outlier proposed this idea, we instantly agreed there was no better time to celebrate these inspired films featuring diverse stories while bringing communities together to share in the experience” said Jennifer Salke, Head of Amazon Studios. “Drive-in theaters offer a unique experience in that they provide an inspiring and joyful communal experience while still maintaining safe social distance. A special thanks to our friends and colleagues at Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., Disney, Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures.”
“With this drive-in summer series, I hope that friends and families are able to not only enjoy, but to learn and grow,” said Michael B. Jordan, Principal of Outlier Society. “Now more than ever, amplifying Black and Brown stories means engaging culture to speak to hearts and minds about the world we live in. As we use this opportunity to reimagine community and proximity, I am excited that these films will be shared and celebrated all across the country.”
As part of the concessions for the screenings, all attendees will receive refreshments provided by Black and Brown owned businesses, which are Path Water, Pipcorn Popcorn and Partake Cookies.
Jordan and Outlier Society, who have a TV first-look deal with Amazon Studios, selected films from Prime Video’s vast portfolio of content. Each week the featured titles will focus on a specific theme:
- Movies to make you fall in love – Wednesday, July 1st:
o Love & Basketball (Warner Bros. / New Line)
o Crazy Rich Asians (Warner Bros.)
- Movies that make you proud – Wednesday, July 15th:
o Black Panther (Disney)
o Creed (Warner Bros.)
- Movies to inspire your inner child – Wednesday, July 29th:
o Hook (Sony Pictures)
o Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Sony Pictures)
- Movies to make you open your eyes – Wednesday, August 12th:
o Do The Right Thing (Universal)
o Get Out (Universal)
- Movies to make you laugh – Wednesday, August 26th:
o Coming to America (Paramount Pictures)
o Girls Trip (Universal)
The program will kick off Wednesday, July 1 and run through the end of August. Below is the list of theaters.
Vineland Drive-In – Los Angeles, CA
Overlook Drive-In – New York, NY
Solano Twin Drive-In– San Francisco, CA (Concord, CA.)
Sacramento Drive-In 6 – Sacramento, CA
Las Vegas 6 Drive-In – Las Vegas, NV
Shankweiler’s Drive-In – Philadelphia, PA
Galaxy Drive-In – Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX
Showboat Drive-In – Houston, TX
Ford Wyoming Drive-In – Detroit, MI
Springmill Drive-In – Cleveland, OH
South Drive-In Twin – Columbus, OH
Jesup Drive-In Twin – Savannah, GA
Bengies Drive-In – Baltimore, MD
Ocala Drive-In – Orlando, FL
Parkway Drive-In – Knoxville, TN
Midway Twin Drive-In – Cleveland, OH
Glendale Drive-in – Phoenix, AZ
Transit Drive-In – Buffalo, NY
Badin Drive-In – Charlotte, NC
Monetta Drive-In – Augusta-Aiken, SC
Thank you to Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., Disney and Paramount Pictures for providing the films.
For additional details on locations, show times and ticket information, please visit: ANightAtTheDrive-In.com (http://amazonscreenings.com/anightatthedrivein)
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