Colorful scenes of the island of Martinique flashed across the screen in the semi- darkness of the Schomburg Center last Wednesday evening at the kick-off of the first annual International Caribbean Diaspora (ICD) Film, Theatre & Literary Festival. On the screen, the Caribbean scenery transformed into the riveting images of the popular, Emmy Award-winning, Tony-nominated actor Keith David in some of the films in which he has appeared, such as "There's Something About Mary," "Pitch Black" and "Requiem for a Dream." At the Wednesday evening screening, of "A Dry White Season," David introduced [Euzhan Palcy], as the audience enthusiastically welcomed the esteemed, brilliant, beautiful and regal filmmaker, who had flown in from Paris after literally completing post-production on "Les Mariées de lisies Bourbon" ("The Brides of Bourbon Island") a French, three-hour period piece set in the 17th century. Palcy introduced "A Dry White Season," a political drama set in South Africa during the apartheid era. The film, which stars Marlon Brando, Donald Sutherland, Zakes Mokae and Susan Sarandon, is a story that focuses on the social movements of South Africa and the Soweto riots. The film was "heralded for putting the politics of apartheid into meaningful, human terms." The film, which was heartily received by the audience, is a classic. It is still as timely today as when it was first release in 1989.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
The Little Theatre Movement (LTM) has the distinction of being Jamaica's longest surviving theatre company of contemporary times. It was founded in 1941 by Henry Fowler and Greta Bourke (later Fowler). Louise Bennett-Coverley and the late Ranny Williams who were among the pioneers of the LTM and who did much to mould the annual show into a unique creation, which features aspects of Jamaican culture, folklore and historical references. The Pantomime prides itself on its universal appeal to children and adults alike. In so doing the Pantomime has utilised some of Jamaica's leading talent in every area of production, from script writing to music composition, set and costume design, choreography as well as on-stage performance.
330 p., This dissertation examines the major works of Trinidad-born playwright Mustapha Matura, dealing with plays written from 1970 to the present. By considering the relation of Matura's work to Britain and Trinidad, it explores the complexity of identity performance in postcolonial theatre and the ongoing need for agency among diasporic communities. Postcolonial scholarship fully recognizes the significance of writing in the development of postcolonial identities, yet dominant postcolonial theory largely excludes theatre from discussions of that development. Given its aural and visual presentation and its immediate interaction with an audience, theatre provides a unique postcolonial moment through which audience members can survey issues of race and place in their lives.
223 p., This dissertation engages with radical Caribbean theater as a crucial literary archive that is nonetheless underexplored as an expression of political culture and thought. The theoretical grounding of the chapters emerges from the analytically generative thrust of a comment by C. L. R. James in The Black Jacobins: "to neglect the racial factor as merely incidental is an error only less grave than to make it fundamental." While the phrase asserts that race cannot be neglected, it also cautions against ensconcing race as fundamental analytical priority, suggesting a powerfully fluid conceptualization of radical political culture. Argues that radical theater projects in Jamaica and the Dominican Republic share this fluid conceptualization of radical politics with the Trinidadian James's own stage versions of the Haitian Revolution.
"The problem involved in the description of Caribbean aesthetics is not only due to the heterogeneity of Caribbean culture - given its antecedents - but also the complex cognitive and social orientation of the individual Caribbean artist." (author)
It has been four years since Detroit has been visited by Mutabaruka who comes our way on Friday and Saturday, November 7 & 8 at the SereNgeti Ballroom located at 2957 Woodward Avenue in Detroit. Providing the music for Mutabaruka will be the renowned Jamaican reggae music group "[Skool]" who creates their own wave with first class music both home and abroad. Opening the show will be Detroit's own, Universal Xpression.
Analyses Sistren Theatre Collective's theatrical and organizational collective model by contextualizing the company's commitment to collectivity in terms of political and social shifts in Jamaica during the 1980s. Argues that race- and class-based divisions within Jamaican society were masked by collectivity masked.
