Crytsal Monee Hall

Asking the question “Can you hear us?,” Crystal Monee Hall releases a video of her soul-stirring gospel arrangement of “A Beautiful Noise,” originally written by Alicia Keys and Brandi Carlile.

“I wrote this arrangement in celebration and support of the women, Stacey Abrams included,” says Hall, “…who are on the front lines of the fight for democracy and justice in Georgia.” The activated artist Hall continued, “…And if enough of us gather our voices and sing in unison, we will make change. This is about using your voice, and being heard. Standing up and being counted.”

Here are the heavy-hitting supporting vocalists you may recognize and love on this project:  Allyson Kaye Daniel, Adee David, Rosharra Francis, Angela Grovey, Celisse Henderson, Amber Iman, Anastacia McCleskey, Kristina Nicole Miller, Rashidra Scott, Tasha Michelle Smith, Anastasia Talley, and Rebecca Covington-Webber. With music by the incomparable Michael O. Mitchell and Joe Bagale.

Watch the video below & be activated!

The post Crystal Monee Hall Releases “A Beautiful Noise” Reimagined For Change appeared first on Broadway Black.

The commissions will be given to two Black womxn: one who has not had an Off-Broadway/NYC production, and one who made a significant impact early in their career but has not been supported lately. Over the next few months, nominators will recommend artists from every discipline and submit proposals. The panel will review and the final decisions will be up to Harris and NYTW.

Harris received a lot of conflicting feedback from the Broadway community this year over his show, Slave Play, which opened on Broadway prior to the pandemic. He has been praised, and deservedly so, by the white institutions for his work, receiving 12 Tony nominations, the most nominations for any play ever. However, many black artists, specifically black womxn, have spoken up about their feelings towards a traumatic scene in the final act involving a black woman and her white partner. 

Although those wounds are still fresh, we are extremely happy to see black womxn given an opportunity to get their bag, and we hope that Jeremy O. Harris continues to find ways to use his success to uplift and support Black and Brown artists. As of late, the playwright has been launching several initiatives with the black body in mind and we can’t wait to see what’s next. 

Reforming their practices will get us nothing but we can create new models we as individuals/collectives (free from those systems of power) can manage. That’s why I got the extra funds from HBO, that’s why I made those pet project grants.

These systems can’t change but we can.

— MOST TONY NOMINATED ONEHIT WONDER Jeremy O. Harris (@jeremyoharris) June 16, 2020

The post Jeremy O. Harris to grant $50k to two Black Womxn Playwrights appeared first on Broadway Black.

The Broadway Advocacy Coalition’s mission statement:  Building the capacity of advocates, students, artists, organizations and communities to use the arts as an integral part of their social change work. We believe that placing Artistry at the center of solving today’s most pressing issues will create a new type of dialogue and impact. 

DAY 1: A Day of Healing

Wednesday, June 10th 5pm – 6:30pm ET

BLACK OUT – This day is intended as a safe space for Black industry members to share their experiences with racism, gain resources for self care, and identify the tools of unlearning the effects of systematic oppression. DAY 1 is intended for Black industry members only.

DAY 2: A Day of Listening

Thursday, June 11th 5pm – 6:30pm ET

This day is a space to center the experiences of Black industry professionals, while challenging white allies to bear witness and reflect on what it means to dismantle implicit bias as it relates to institutional, structural, interpersonal and internalized racism.

DAY 3: A Day of Accountability

Friday, June 12th 5pm – 6:30pm ET

This day is a space to begin examining accountability within the Broadway industry – rooted in its history of individual and systemic racism. This is a time to collectively manifest an anti-racist theatrical landscape, while exploring the steps towards realizing that dream.

Click here to register.

The post The Broadway Advocacy Coalition holds space for Black Artists in an Online Seminar appeared first on Broadway Black.

In one of her most recent Instagram posts, Brittany recounts some of the aggressions she has encountered while working in some of Broadway’s favorite shows.

“I almost didn’t write this because, like so many of the Black artistic voices you AREN’T hearing from right now, I was and still am afraid of being put on some kind of blacklist. (Interesting turn of phrase isn’t it?) because I’m speaking out about my experience. But the only way for change to happen is if we first highlight the problems and accept that they are indeed problems.”

Labeling these instances from 1-10, Brittney begins diving into her experiences through her career. #1, she brings up a time where she was repeatedly called the name of the other Black woman in the space so frequently that it became a joke amongst the creative team and company. #2, she describes a scenario that feels almost as old as the profession itself – being asked to “add sass”, to be “more urban”, or add “some attitude” when her white colleagues would be given playable directions in their auditions.

#3 is being told she was too old to audition for a role then hearing from another older white colleague that they had been given an appointment for the same role. #4, casting asked if she was going do anything to her hair? There was nothing wrong with it, it just wasn’t straight. #5, getting to the final round of auditions for a show and not being cast because they had met their “diversity quota” and already had their token Black actor.

#6 recounts being on her second contract with a show and having to do 3 rounds of put ins before she was approved to play a role she’d already been hired to cover. The traditional schedule is 3 – 4 weeks of rehearsal and ONE put in before an actor is approved to perform in front of a live audience.

“Seven. listening to white colleagues complain about casting only looking for ethnic people to play certain roles because ethnic is in right now.”

She goes on to describe instances where she was the only Black woman in an audition room and the director did not even look at her during the audition. A tale all of us actors can probably tell a version of.

#9 and #10 especially capture the disregard and disrespect she faces as a Black women in this industry.

“9. Being asked not to talk about my achievements in an interview, because it would highlight racist practices.

 10. Making Broadway history and it not even being acknowledged by my company or community, even though they knew it was happening. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, the first time I made Broadway history was in 2015. I am the first and only black woman to have played Eponine and Fantine in Les Miserables on Broadway, and the only woman to ever play both roles on the same day. I don’t say this to brag or to say that I deserve more notoriety or front page spread on Playbill. But I am saying that I’ve seen much less exciting things celebrated for much less melanated people. often.”

Brittney ends with a call to action for the Broadway community. To look within and see if they see themselves in her experiences and if so, make an active effort not to be racist.

The post Wicked’s Brittney Johnson Speaks Out About Racism on Broadway appeared first on Broadway Black.

“Twilight: Los Angeles” was filmed as one of PBS Great Performances in 2000, after its Tony nomination and Drama Desk Award win. Smith wrote Twilight: Los Angeles after a series of 300 interviews revolving around the topic of the Rodney King trial. In the filmed adaptation we watch Anna seamlessly transition from playing LAPD chief Daryl Gates to Congresswoman Maxine Waters (Yes, Auntie Maxine!) and so many more beautifully played people. Anna’s works are not only seen amongst the best when it comes to one person shows, but revolutionized what we know today to be “verbatim theatre”.

Twilight: Los Angeles is the successor of the recently revived play, Fires in the Mirror. Fires in the Mirror, which starred Michael Benjamin Washington, is based around the Crown Heights Riot of 1991. Twilight first opened on Broadway in the spring of 1994 and ran for 72 performances.

“Twilight: Los Angeles” is currently available online for streaming at https://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/twilight-los-angeles-about-the-production/1329/

Anna Deavere Smith’s work has always been inspiring but during this period where our history seems to continue repeating itself, it makes you wonder about the art that will emerge from these times.

The post Anna Deavere Smith’s “Twilight: Los Angeles” to be Broadcast in Response to Black Lives Matter Protests appeared first on Broadway Black.

She begins recounting a night of drinks with a friend where they discussed their experiences with tokenism in theatre.

“I breezily made a joke about being the token Black performer time and time again. When my younger Black friend told me that she’d never had that experience — she had performed in productions with plenty of brown faces — I quickly fired back, taking a drag from my imaginary cigarette, “Well, I’ve made a career out of being a token. I paved the way for you, so you didn’t have to be one!” While made in jest, it is a statement that has stayed with me in the almost five years since.”

Asmeret goes on to talk about her upbringing in Pittsburgh and how she had found ways to make being the token work in her favor. How during competitions everyone knew who the Ghebremichael sisters were because of their talent and because they were the only Black people there. When it came to pageants, Asmeret’s Blackness, matched with her charm, became a way to put judges at ease and turn their relief into wins.

“I could effortlessly manipulate the judges to ask me what it was like to be the only Black contestant. I would reply with charm, ease and humor that I considered being the token an advantage; that I naturally pulled focus and grabbed your attention. I was turning something uncomfortable for those I was speaking to into something palatable, darling and even funny.”

In the coming years, that skill of finesse had become second nature. So much so that she hit a point of investigating whether she really believed what she was saying. Being the firstborn child of African immigrants from Eritrea, there was an underlying need to succeed, excel, and be accepted in the most nonthreatening way you can.

She then talks about the show she put on before patrons entered the theatre and the overture began. Becoming accustomed to being the sole Black person in a cast and codeswitching as easily as she breathed. Being in rooms where creatives would use the N-word in a casual manner whilst her peers would assure her these aggressions had no ill intent attached to them. Asmeret recounts the constant aggressions people of color encounter with their white counterparts attempting to prove to you they are “down”. “To measure your Blackness in relation to their own affinity for our culture. To measure your Blackness in your musical tastes, their own skin compared to yours or even the size of your butt then laughing these things off with words along the lines of, ‘you’re a white black person’ or ‘you’re the whitest black person I know’ ”.

Asmeret makes the point that during these months of isolation while live performing theatre is on pause, there’s no longer a reason to be complacent in the mistreatment of Black artists and the aggressions we face in rooms every day.

“A creative team member saying ‘I believe in diversity. I made this supporting role Black, and look at my ensemble!’ is akin to saying ‘I’m not racist! I have Black friends!’ On Broadway and elsewhere, the issue goes so much deeper than populating the stage with color. It comes down to a need for the creative teams, the producing teams and the general managers to represent the diversity that is now being so overly celebrated on stage, even as it remains lacking. Because if the same people tell the stories, the same stories will be told, and these experiences will continue.”

She then dives into the community (or lack thereof) behind the table when it comes to Black and Brown artists on a creative team. “The feeling of walking into a room and simply seeing someone that looks like you. Having someone in the room that somehow mirrors you and can understand your point of view a little is an immediate release for artists. Because now there is someone who has had to work just as tirelessly as you must be in that room, to get to that photoshoot, to get to that opening night. ” She speaks on the real conversations Black actors will have – discussing if they will go to an audition or not because the director of that project “does not cast black people”. And the decisions some actors make to not go, and the rest that walk into that room ready to bare their souls but knowing that battle is already lost.

Ghebremichael then implores directors, choreographers, producers, composers, playwrights, designers to take this “break” time we have been given to pivot. To investigate their circles and find ways incorporate Black voices in the conversations we have with audiences. Encouraging these creative teams to take their same creative spirits and find ways to combat the institutionalized racism happening on the great white way.

Black artists are hurting and taking this time to heal. This fight is on those in power for once like Ntozake Shange says in ‘For Colored Girls...’ “One thing I don’t need is any more apologies. I got sorry greetin’ me at my front door, you can keep yours.”

Ghebremichael leaves us with “Another one of my go-to one-liners happens when someone, usually White, asks a Black colleague and me how we know each other. I always respond, “Oh, just from being Black on Broadway.” It’s a joke, but it’s not funny anymore.”

The post Asmeret Ghebremichael Speaks on Tokenism, Microaggressions, and Charges Broadway to make a Change appeared first on Broadway Black.

“Everybody knows; almost doesn’t count.” After reading the apology from Diane Paulus to Griffin Matthews, there’s a funny hesitation. Centering herself in a narrative about racial prejudice faced by Matthews in his Broadway experience, Paulus takes pen to paper and airs her disappointment in herself for her part in Matthew’s negative and racist experiences with his play Witness Uganda.  

We do say that if you wrong me publicly, you apologize publicly. However, Paulus’ apology further contributes to a system that Black artists are calling out. She states, “I could and should have done better.” It is not just about the roles we play in a racist system. It is also about the ways we build new racist systems and flesh them out in our small communities. Paulus goes on to tell us what did not happen and sounds like more of a bystander than active participant in the atmosphere of racism. 

She does say she’s sorry, and she acknowledges how her letter is the first step in long over due process. But we’ve heard those words before this. The rhetoric of the oppressor never truly strays from the “woe is me as well” narrative. At this point, we need action. Black artists are interested to see the real steps Paulus is taking to create the change. 

Paulus is right to say “As artists, we have the power to shine the light on the historical inequities and injustices that have always defined life in America, and we can help model and illuminate the path forward.” We just hope to see how she plans to do that with her institution. Or will she just continue to be a product of a system to which she so shamefully “falls victim.”

Renee Ombaba is the founder of Black Women in Opera (B.W.I.O.), LLC. She earned her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Jackson State University and her MA in Southern Studies from the University of Mississippi.

The post Diane Paulus Responds to Griffin Matthews’ ‘Dear Amy Cooper’ video appeared first on Broadway Black.