Camille Brown, director and choreographer of the powerful new Broadway revival of “for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf,” is the first Black woman to direct and choreograph a play on Broadway in more than 60 years. Drawing inspiration from her own lived experience as a Black woman, Brown uses movement and dance to tell unique stories of humanity and sisterhood. In this interview, she shares lessons she’s learned in her career.
Tag: Theatre and Performance Art
Hip Hop’s ‘Hidden Figures’: The Feminist Herstory and Future of Hip Hop
Black women have historically played a crucial role in the origins of hip hop, but are often unacknowledged. Learning the rich herstory of hip hop feminism shows what an important role women have played in the past and the future of the genre.
With a Powerhouse All-Women Cast, ‘Suffs’ Explores Activists Who Made Women’s Voting Rights Happen
Unlike the limited lessons of women’s suffrage many learn—Seneca Falls and Susan B. Anthony—Suffs digs deep into the gamesmanship wielded by the movement’s early 20th century leaders. Suffs opens April 6 at the venerable Public Theater in New York City. Lin-Manuel Miranda himself tweeted this week that >Suffs is “gobsmackingly incredible” and its writer and star, Shaina Taub as Alice Paul, is “the FUTURE.” I couldn’t agree more.
A Conversation with Music Composer Nkeiru Okoye of “Harriet Tubman” Opera Fame
Dr. Nkeiru Okoye, whose first name means “the future is great,” has already dazzled the world as an internationally recognized music composer of opera, symphonic, choral, chamber, solo piano and vocal works. A 2021 Guggenheim fellow, Okoye is best known for her opera Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed that Line to Freedom, which premiered with The American Opera Project in 2014.
“We’re Reclaiming Valentine’s Day!”: The Global Movement Rising for the Bodies of All Women, Girls and the Earth
One Billion Rising, a mass action to end violence against women, launched on Valentine’s Day 2012. It’s based on the staggering statistic that one in three women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime.
Every Valentine’s Day is a reminder of how much more is needed to free women to fulfill their potential and live without fear of violence. I’m writing a valentine to V, to the V-Day team and the One Billion Rising global coordinators, who are committed to creating a new kind of consciousness—one where violence will be resisted until it is unthinkable.
Sundance 2022: “Calendar Girls,” a Joyful Documentary About Women for Whom Age Is Just a Number
Currently premiering at Sundance, Calendar Girls is a documentary about a Florida dance troop made up of women aged 50-plus. Embracing whimsy in unicorn-themed headbands one minute and then discussing heavy subjects like death and assisted suicide the next, the Calendar Girls offer their perspectives on what it means to grow older while exploring the power of friendships, leisure, work and learning new things even later in life.
Jex Blackmore Swallows Abortion Pill on Fox News: “It’s Literally This Easy”
Activist Jex Blackmore took an abortion pill live on Fox News. Ms. spoke with Blackmore about activism, art and direct action.
“People really believe it should be hard to find out about abortion. It should be difficult to make the decision. And for those reasons, I think it was absolutely the right way to go because that kind of narrative does nobody any good.”
Together in Song: Women’s and LGBT Choruses Safely Thrive Amidst the Pandemic
Women’s and LGBT choruses have used communal singing to network in support of social causes. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose major challenges for arts and culture involving the prohibition of large, in-person gatherings. However, these choruses are not just surviving, but thriving—thanks to their savvy use of digital networks and webs of long-standing relationships.
What the One-Woman Show ‘Marrying Jake Gyllenhaal’ Taught Me About Self-Worth
Actor Melissa Center wrote and stars in “Marrying Jake Gyllenhaal,” a one-woman show in which she sings, dances, embodies a complex constellation of characters, and reveals the extent to which girls and women are socialized and pressured into being in and maintaining relationships at all cost to themselves.
Felicia Young’s Earth Celebrations: Using Art to Address Climate Change
Felicia Young, founder of Earth Celebrations, is passionate about using the arts—dance, music, theater and an array of visual mediums—to help New York City residents address escalating climate change and demand government action in support of sustainable development.