Inspired by Dr. Kings famous 1967 speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence” which was performed at Harlem’s Riverside Church, MLK Now featured historic speeches by many civil rights leaders performed by some of today’s hottest actors and Broadway Black stars — including Actor and Civil Rights Icon Harry Belafonte, Actor and Comedian Chris Rock, Oscar-Winner Octavia Spencer, Tony Award Winner Lin-Manuel Miranda, Actors Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson, Tony Award Winner Anika Noni Rose, Andre Holland, Condola Rashad and Adepero Oduye.

It was said by the host, Ryan Coogler that the original artist of “Be Free,” J. Cole was unable to perform his own song because it was too painful. So, when Ryan Coogler introduced the performance and said that Anika Noni Rose would be singing the song, we fell out. Watch the entire performance below.

We will include more performances from this event as they become available.

Anika Noni Rose – Be Free

Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Beyond Vietnam” read by Lin-Manuel Miranda

Shirley Chisholm’s Presenditial Campaign Announcement of 1972 read by Condola Rashad

India.Arie – I Am Light

We’ve uploaded a few of our favorite performances & speeches but there is so much more to see & witness. Watch the entire event or skim thru it below! Don’t forget the great speech by Harry Belafonte at the 2:55:00 mark.

The post Anika Noni Rose Sings Be Free By J. Cole + #MLKNow Performances appeared first on Broadway Black.

Inspired by Dr. Kings famous 1967 speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence” which was performed at Harlem’s Riverside Church, MLK Now will feature historic speeches by many civil rights leaders performed by some of todays hottest actors and Broadway Black stars — including Actor and Civil Rights Icon Harry Belafonte, Actor and Comedian Chris Rock, Oscar-Winner Octavia Spencer, Tony Award Winner Lin Manuel Miranda, Actors Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson, Tony Award Winner Anika Noni Rose, Andre Holland, Condola Rashad and Adepero Oduye.

And thats not all according to the press release;

“MLK Now” will also feature musical performances by Anika Noni Rose, Grammy-Nominated Artist Bilal, Acclaimed Poet/Performer Saul Williams, and Grammy-Winning Artist India Arie, and closes off with an interactive panel discussion addressing the most pressing human rights issues of today – including police violence, racial and social injustice, economic inequality, the prison industrial complex and grassroots and political mobilization. Panelists include Filmmaker and Blackout Member Ryan Coogler, Grammy-Nominated Hip Hop Artist J. Cole, Urban Cusp Founder and Publisher Rahiel Tesfamariam, Arab American Association of New York Executive Director Linda Sarsour, Million Hoodies Movement for Justice Executive Director Dante Barry, Filmmaker/Activist and Sakofa.org Co-Director Gina Belafonte; and Activist Leon Ford, Jr. The panel will be moderated by MSNBC National Reporter Trymaine Lee.

With a line-up like this, this an event that no matter where you are you don’t want to miss it. I can’t think of a better way to honor Dr. King’s legacy, especially during our current social climate.

MLK Now is this Monday, January 18th from 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. (doors open at 1:30 p.m.), at Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive, New York, NY.

Luckily for those not in New York City you can watch the livestream. You can watch below!

The post Harry Belafonte, Condola Rashad, & More Join United Blackout ‪MLK Now: Special Event appeared first on Broadway Black.

As a young girl, Wilhelmina Louise picketed her neighborhood supermarket when it refused to hire Black workers and participated in voter registration drives. Her parents – Mamie Wimbush Allen, a teacher, and William Allen, an actuary – surely integral in her fervor. During her 70s, she is quoted: ”The saying goes, if you want to date any of Ms. Allen’s daughters, first you have to picket something.”

The saying also could go: If you want brownie points with Ms. Allen, don’t even think about a retirement plan.

Allen had a non-stop career. One that started in 1943, when the 18-year-old star in the making arrived in New York ready to become immersed in the world of theatre. One that undoubtedly was propelled upon witnessing opera singer Marian Anderson perform in 1939 at the Lincoln Memorial. Allen recalled the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow Anderson to sing at Constitution Hall. Her protest came in the form of name calling, as the venue would forever be known to her as “Constipation Hall.” Allen had the opportunity to present a rose bouquet to Anderson when she received the NAACP Spingarn Medal in 1940, as well as watch her idol – or “secret queen” as she described her – become the first African-American performer at the Metropolitan Opera in 1955.

In an interview, Allen said of that moment: “We were so elated but most of all proud. Proud because I knew her. Proud because she knew me.” As a trailblazer in her own right, those who have been inspired by Allen voice the same sentiment. They, too, are proud to know her.

For his column piece in The New Yorker, theatre critic Hilton Als wrote:

“Billie was talented and beautiful during an era when the world wasn’t really looking out much for Black female performers… And as she persevered, her world opened up; she worked in Black theatres in Harlem when the place had yet to become a thing, all the while earning her bread and butter with artists ranging from Phil Silvers to James Baldwin and everyone in between.”

After graduating high school, Allen attended Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) and was mentored by namesake Billie Davis and inspired by Romare Bearden. Bound for New York, she was part of 1944’s On The Town a year after landing in the big city. She was offered a scholarship to study ballet and acting at Lee Strasberg Actors Studio and was soon dancing professionally and auditioning for roles. Her Broadway premiere came in 1947’s Caribbean Carnival. By 1949 she was featured in the film Souls of Sin with Jimmy Wright and William Greaves. During the early 1950s and 1960s, she performed in the Broadway plays Four Saints in Three Acts and My Darlin’ Aida (1952); Take A Giant Step (1953) with Lou Gossett Jr., Godfrey Cambridge and Lincoln Kilpatrick; and Ira Levin’s Critic’s Choice (1960) opposite Henry Fonda.

As one of the first African Americans on television and in commercials, Allen appeared on “The Phil Silvers Show” (from 1955 to 1959) and the soap opera “The Edge of Night” (during 1956). In 1964, Allen returned to the screen in Black Like Me portraying “Vertel.” That same year, she was cast in Adrienne Kennedy’s Funnyhouse of a Negro and directed its revival in 1990. She also appeared in Baldwin’s Blues for Mister Charlie. Allen’s final Broadway role was in 1969 with A Teaspoon Every Four Hours. Her Off-Broadway performance in 1976’s Every Night When the Sun Goes Down at American Place Theatre garnered her a Lucille Lortel nomination.

Also by the mid-70s, Allen’s directorial gifts have graced: Off-Broadway’s Home, with Samuel L. Jackson; Kathleen Collins’ The Brothers; Anna Deavere Smith’s Aye, Aye, Aye; Miss Ethel Waters; and Langston Hughes’ Little Ham, developed with her second husband the late composer Luther Henderson, and which featured Obba Babatundé.

In 2001, she directed Saint Lucy’s Eyes; the play starred longtime friend Ruby Dee, who she shared the stage with in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. Her other credits include: television shows “Route 66,” “Car 54, Where Are You?” and “Law and Order”; the TV movie “The Vernon Johns Story”; and films The Wiz, Winter Kills and Eddie Murphy Raw. Allen’s most recent film appearance was in Lynn Nottage‘s By the Way, Meet Vera Stark.

In an effort to nurture emerging playwrights, Allen founded Harlem’s Frank Silvera Writers’ Workshop in 1973 along with Morgan Freeman, Garland Lee Thompson and Clayton Riley. Allen also was a founding member and co-president of the League of Professional Theatre Women as well as a founding member of Women’s Project and Productions. She served on the boards of American Place Theatre, New Federal Theatre and AMAS Repertory. At the time of her death, she served on the advisory board of Cherry Lane Theatre – the oldest continuously running Off-Broadway theatre (it opened in 1924) and one of the first theatres Allen visited.

In September 2014, Cherry Lane’s founding artistic director Angelina Fiordellisi supported LPTW’s Oral History series interview of Allen. Tony-winning Phylicia Rashad (the first Black actress awarded for best leading actress in a play) fielded the questions for Lincoln Center event. The project’s interviews are with the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Allen herself interviewed the late Rosetta LeNoire and Dee for the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive.

Allen – active with the Tony Awards on its administrator committee, American Theatre Wing advisory committee and nominating board – received the 2002 Audelco Pioneer Award along with her musician husband (who died in 2003). She established a scholarship in honor of Henderson in 2006 at the Juilliard School of Music.

Als also wrote in his commemoration of Allen: “The map of America was on her beautiful face, and the grain of America in her beautiful hair. She was interested in stillness, in listening, but one didn’t get too far in the conversation without Billie’s hands going up in a little arabesque to illustrate a point, or her hips slightly swivelling to emphasize that something exciting had happened, or was about to happen.”

Allen died Dec. 29, at her home in Manhattan. She is survived by a daughter and son from her first marriage, Carolyn Grant and Duane Grant, Jr.; stepchildren; a brother; and a granddaughter.

Watch Billie Allen talk about her idol Marian Anderson…

The post Rest Well: Billie Allen Defied Barriers On Stage, Screen appeared first on Broadway Black.

The annual celebration has become the star-studded event of the season attracting A-listers from Broadway to D.C. to Hollywood.  Tyson was one of six honorees celebrated for their lifetime contributions to the arts and American culture.  Other honorees included Rita Moreno, Carole King, George Lucas and Seiji Ozawa.

Broadway Black beauties Viola Davis and Kerry Washington were on hand for Tyson’s tribute to share all the ways the timeless 90 year old had inspired them and their work.

“Cicely Tyson does not merely act,” said Washington. “She soars. She sings. She vibrates. She is music.”

Davis, who recently worked opposite Tyson as her daughter on the hit-series “How to Get Away With Murder,” had this to say about the icon: “my friend, my inspiration, my TV mother…[she] motivates others to follow her lead and her dreams.”

Since her breakthrough performance in the critically acclaimed “Sounder,” Tyson has earned a bevy of Academy, Emmy and Golden Globe nominations over the span of her 60-year career.  In 2013, she won her first Tony Award for her captivating portrayal of “Carrie Watts” in A Trip to Bountiful.  She can currently be seen on Broadway in The Gin Game with long-time friend, James Earl Jones.

In all, Tyson has nearly 100 acting credits in film, TV and stage, but as Producer Tyler Perry explained, she has always been selective in the works with which she chooses to associate herself.

“She turned down more roles than you could imagine because they didn’t lift or serve us as a people,” Perry said. “For six decades, she has been diligent in her pursuit to better us all.”

When asked how she felt about receiving the presidential honor, she simply responded, “I am still in shock,” the humility ironic against her regal sophistication. “I consider this tantamount to being honored by the queen.”

The 38th Annual Kennedy Center Honors will air on CBS on Dec. 29 at 9 P.M.

UPDATE:

Kerry Washington gives an amazing introduction for Cece Winans, Terrence Blanchard, & The Cicely Tyson Community School of Performing & Fine Arts Choir singing Blessed Assurance.

Aretha Franklin performs (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman like you’ve never seen before for another honoree, Carole King.

The post Kennedy Center Honors Featuring Cicely Tyson Airs on CBS appeared first on Broadway Black.

The concert pays tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington and ultimately commemorates the centennial year of the birth of Billie Holiday – who played Carnegie Hall for the first time in 1948, at age 33, to a sold-out crowd. She returned eight years later to perform two more concerts before packed audiences. Holiday’s career has illustrated her musical sophistication as noted by jazz legend Wynton Marsalis for Time/Life’s “100 Years of Lady Day.”

In its 33rd season, the New York Pops – the largest independent pop orchestra in the United States and the only professional symphonic orchestra specializing in popular music –  continues to offer a unique experience with each concert, with influences ranging from Broadway melodies to film scores, jazz, rock, pop and everything in between. This time it is all that jazz, and Reineke has called it “an absolute knockout.”

It means the world to be a part of Sophisticated Ladies and paying tribute to Ella, Sarah, Billie and Dinah. These are icons in music and jazz, and in our culture. The legacy is so grand and huge and continues to give. We reap the benefits of them, Montego Glover said. Each woman has a long and strong legacy in music as icons. In African-American culture particularly, they stand as such examples as icons. The inventiveness and the talent that they use in the rendering in their music is so infectious and relatable but unique. It makes them each unique and one of a kind. They live in their own space.

Capathia Jenkins, who has worked with Glover in Broadway Inspirational Voices, agreed. “I’m really excited about the notion of three Black women today celebrating these Black jazz artists that have come before us. They’re the reason we get to do what we do today. I’m excited about the notion of that. We stood on their shoulders to get here. They each brought a certain thing to the table.”

Each of the guest artists, specifically selected by Reineke, bring a certain thing to the table in their own right.

Glover, a Tony nominee and award-winning artist who made her Broadway debut in The Color Purple, is currently starring as “Fantine” in Les Miserables at Imperial Theatre.

“Performing at Carnegie Hall was a bucket list item,” she said, “and now I’m doing it for the second or third time. New York Pops is one of the best pop orchestras in the country. I’m grateful that Les Miserables is allowing me to take time to do it.”

Prior to her current role, Glover co-starred in the original Broadway musical It Shoulda Been You. She originated the starring role of “Felicia Farrell” in the Tony winning Memphis and received a Tony nomination for Lead Actress in a Musical as well as a Drama League nomination; she won Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards.

Jenkins has appeared as a soloist with symphony orchestras nationally and internationally including The Cleveland Orchestra; the Cincinnati and Philly pops orchestras; the National Symphony Orchestra; and the Hong Kong and Calgary philharmonic orchestras. She also is featured on the soundtracks for “Smash” (Seasons 1 and 2), Nine, Chicago, Mission to Mars and Legally Blonde 2. Her Broadway credits include: Newsies; Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me; Caroline, or Change; The Look of Love; and The Civil War. She received a Drama Desk nomination for (mis)Understanding Mammy: The Hattie McDaniel Story.

Sy Smith – who has been a backing vocalist for Whitney Houston, Chaka Khan and Meshelle Ndegeocello, a supporting vocalist on “American Idol,” and part of Rickey Minor’s band on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” as well as the Grammy-nominated Foreign Exchange – is an indie-soul recording artist with four critically acclaimed albums. In September, she garnered an Emmy nod for Best Original Music/Lyrics with “Welcome Back (All My Soulmates)” for the HBO film Dancing. She also received two nominations for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical/Comedy from the NAACP Theatre Awards for her roles in If You Don’t Believe and Body Language.

Broadway Black had the exclusive opportunity to speak with both Glover and Jenkins, who discussed the artists to whom they will pay tribute. Glover said she likens her musical style to Fitzgerald. “I am such an admirer of her. The instrumentality of her voice. She likes to scat across space the way a horn would. The terrific phrasing of music. She took whole lines and beats and made them new every time.” While Jenkins said she is not a scatter herself, she revealed Fitzgerald blows her mind with the way she could scat.

In describing Washington, Glover noted her “sparkly quality, like a wonderful bubble across the music.” Jenkins is inspired by her “raw tone” and that she “was so sure of herself, in her body and who she was.” Yet Jenkins’ feels her most parallel artist is Vaughan, who Glover said “had such a fullness and whimsical nature to her singing.”

“I think of Sarah as hot, molten chocolate,” Jenkins explained. “The tone of her voice is like ‘oh my God.’ She taught me a lot of jazz standards. She is a very kindred spirit to me. I like to learn the ink off the page.  I know she was inevitably singing the melody and then makes it her own.”

Just as Holiday recognized “no two people on earth are alike, and it’s got to be that way in music or it isn’t music,” the New York Pops will indeed bring the most sophisticated ladies in jazz to the stage – with Holiday serving as the foundation.

“Billie is the crooner to me. There was a weeping, whining quality in her voice that is enchanting,” Glover admired. “I didn’t understand her at 12 years old the way I do now. What was really behind her singing and her voice and the way the sounds come out of her.”

Influenced by Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith, Holiday pioneered a vocal style that manipulated phrasing and tempo.

“I’ve never thought of Billie as having great tone or range,” Jenkins admitted, “but the way she can phrase, she can do it conversationally. You can hear everything she had gone through in her life, whatever emotions there were.  She sang from her gut. You can’t learn that. It just is. I listen to her for phrasing and truth telling.”

Holiday’s truth consists of much good, bad and ugly. Nevertheless, her legacy is one that proves “nobody sings the word ‘hunger’ like I do or the word ‘love.’”

“It’s going to be a great night,” Jenkins said, “and I’m so excited that the New York Pops has decided to celebrate these great Black women. So let’s sit back and relax and celebrate!”

The two-hour event will begin at 8pm, with one 20-minute intermission. Click HERE for more information about the concert.

The post New York Pops Celebrates Black Women In Jazz With Montego Glover, Capathia Jenkins, Sy Smith appeared first on Broadway Black.

Mitchell and Jones will join Broadway performers including Len Cariou, Mario Cantone, Erin Davie, Matt McGrath, Alan Menken, Brad Oscar, Mary Louise Wilson, Karen Ziemba, as well as singer Thom Rhoads, and the Yale Wiffenpoofs.

Lansbury will receive the 2015 Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre at Guastavino’s. The reception begins at 6:00 p.m., followed by dinner at 7:00, with concert and award ceremony at 8:00 p.m. Kurt Stamm will direct the event’s entertainment with music direction by Andrew Gerle.

For more information on pricing and reservations, visit here or call Julie Griffith at 212-935-5824, ext. 213.

Performances of The Gin Game with Jones and Tyson are currently going on. Tickets are available HERE.

As we’ve previously reported, Shuffle Along begins previews on March 12, 2016 and opens on April 21, 2016.

The post Brian Stokes Mitchell & James Earl Jones Honor Angela Lansbury appeared first on Broadway Black.

According to her official Facebook page, her decision was due to “some vision problems and solo concerts are becoming more difficult to do when you are on the stage for more than an hour alone.” She noted that “retirement is from concert work and has nothing to do with stage productions, which are always group efforts.”

Recent White concerts include: Feinstein’s/54 Below; The Crest Theatre (Delray Beach, Fla.); Lyrics & Lyricist Johnny Burke at 92nd St. Y; Joe’s Pub with Guy Davis; Jamie DeRoy and Friends at Birdland; Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall; Broadway Concert Series at John W. Engeman Theatre; Life is Good at Feinstein’s; and Terri in Paradise at Waterfront Theatre in Key West, and San Carlos Theatre in Key West.

Having performed with Liza Minnellii, White earned a BroadwayWorld.com Cabaret Award for “Best One-Show Special Event” for a July 2013 performance. Just five years earlier, White was evicted from her apartment. She couldn’t work, couldn’t make rent and couldn’t patch up a breakup with a longtime girlfriend. Rather than ask for help, she slept in Washington Square Park when she didn’t spend nights on a friend’s couch. With a help of a police officer, she was able to live rent-free in a basement apartment. A year later she landed a role in Broadway’s Finian’s Rainbow, which garnered her nominations for Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards. A New York Times article poignantly details how she found home, love and her soul.

Enjoying a decades-long career, White appeared as the original “Joice Heth” in Barnum, was Nell Carter’s understudy in 1978’s Ain’t Misbehavin, later replacing Carter in the 1988 revival. Other shows included: Welcome to the Club, The Club (Obie Award); Nunsense I & II and Nuncrackers. She took on “Mama Morton” in the long-running Broadway revival of Chicago in April 2010 and appeared in the Kennedy Center production of the Stephen Sondheim-James Goldman musical Follies as “Stella Deems” from May to June 2011. Her credits also include: Showboat; Bubbling Brown Sugar; The Jungle Book; Two Gentlemen of Verona; and Little Shop of Horrors.

Here is a look at some of her performances:

“Thank God I’m Old” from Barnum with the Fred Barton Orchestra in “American Showstoppers: Cy Coleman” at NYC’s Michael Schimmel Center – October 18, 2014

“You’ll Never Walk Alone” at AIDS Walk Opening Ceremony in Los Angeles – October 13, 2013

“Here’s to Life” at Sterling’s Upstairs at The Federal in North Hollywood, CA – September 15, 2013

“Just A Couple of Sisters” with Rue McClanahan in Nunsense

At Theater Marl in Germany – November 9, 2012

“Necessity” from Finian’s Rainbow at St. James Theater – 2009

We look forward to seeing Terri White onstage  again soon in collaborative productions and appreciate all that she’s accomplished so far.

The post Terri White Says Farewell To The Live Concert Stage appeared first on Broadway Black.

Among the veteran artists are: playwright/screenwriter Richard Wesley, 70; founding director of New Federal Theatre Woodie King Jr., 78; and actor/director Arthur French, 84. They will share memories and reflections chronicling their rich, artistic lives.

Wesley, associate professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and chair of the Rita and Burton Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing.  His 1971 play The Black Terror, produced at the New York Shakespeare Festival’s Public Theatre, was a Drama Desk winner, produced at the New York Shakespeare Festival’s Public Theatre. He wrote the screenplays for Uptown Saturday Night (1974) and it’s follow-up Let’s Do It Again (1975), both which starred Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier.  His The Mighty Gents, an Audelco Award winner, premiered on Broadway in 1978, while The Talented Tenth (1989)  was inspired by W.E.B. Du Bois’ 1903 article of the same name.

French, an original member of Negro Ensemble Company led by Douglas Turner Ward, made his Broadway debut in Melvin Van Peebles’ Ain’t Supposed To Die a Natural Death. Having films credits with “Car Wash” (1976), Julie Delpy’s “2 Days In New York” (2012) and Spike Lee’s “Red Hook Summer” (2012), French has thrived on smaller stages. He received a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in Peter Norton Space’s 2006 production of Two Trains Running.

King, who founded New Federal Theater in 1970, received Atlanta Black Theatre Fesitival’s 2014 Theatre Legend Award and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2011. His production work has included several installments of Ron Milner’s Checkmates; August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone; Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun; Samm-Art Williams’ Home; and Howard Simon’s James Baldwin: A Soul on Fire.

Other artists to be celebrated include: photographer Dwight Carter and founding member of The Last Poets Abiodun Oyewole, 67. Interestingly, Oct. 17 is recognized as National Black Poetry Day. All the featured artists are poets in their own right.

Scott, an actress, director, playwright and cultural historian, has Off-Broadway and regional theater credits that include The Old Globe in San Diego, Yale Rep and Roundabout Theater in New York. She won a Drama Desk Award for her Broadway debut in My Sister, My Sister.

The event starts at 7pm. The National Black Theatre is located at 2031 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10035.

For more information visit the VENUE or EVENT PAGE.

The post Veteran Black Artists Reflect On Artistic Lives In INSIGHT/SECOND SIGHT appeared first on Broadway Black.

Theater greats including Phylicia Rashad, Melba Moore, Marva Hicks, George Faison, and Chita Rivera all participated in the exclusive event purposed to honor the life and works of Johnson as well as raise money for the full-length feature documenting his career, also entitled Up In The Air.

Most renowned for his choreography in the timeless film, The Wiz, Johnson was one of the first African Americans to appear in a Broadway ensemble.  Having been featured and learning from some of the dance greats, including Bob Fosse and Jerome Robbins, Johnson began creating his own art in the 1950’s.  In addition to commissioning some of his most notable works for the Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, he also received a Tony Award nomination for his choreography in the 1970 musical Purlie. 

The evening was hosted by the regal Ms. Rashad and proved to be a glorious exhibition of Johnson’s contributions.  The Philadelphia Dance Company and Howard University’s department of dance restaged some of Johnson’s well known choreographed pieces.  Moore, an original cast member of Purlie, and Hicks, a former Howard University student of the tribute, both provided vocal selections in his honor.

The man behind the documentary- choreographer/writer/teacher and Up In The Air producer, David Robertson, provided one of the most thrilling pieces of the evening – a revival of the infamous Emerald city scene from “The Wiz” complete with special appearances of original dancers from the film.

Having been inspired by Johnson, Robertson has spent the last few years interviewing the sensation and building this tribute in hopes of creating a “lasting testament to his creative genius that will inspire future generations of artists.”

For more information and to contribute to Up In The Air, visit UpInTheAirDoc.com.

The post Theater Royalty Gather To Celebrate Louis Johnson appeared first on Broadway Black.

@violadavis Thank you so much for your kind words about Barbara. She was one of a kind and will be deeply missed.

— Trinity Rep (@trinityrep) October 5, 2015

Barbara Meek left behind a prolific body of work. Her career began in college when the Detroit native was asked as an undergraduate to join Wayne State University’s graduate theater program. Later, Meek went on to work both in television and on stage. A few of her television performances included roles in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Life Among the Lowly,“  “Melba,” starring Melba Moore and “Big Brother Jake.” Meek was also featured in the Emmy Award-winning television movie, “See How She Runs.”

Importantly, Barbara Meek was among the cadre of Black actresses who transformed their roles into more than just “the help.”  These characters were brought to life in what were supposed to be subservient positions, yet instead highlighted the quick wit and intelligence that is the true reality of Black women. As ‘Ellen Canby,’ Meek was able to mostly tame the overtly racist character Archie Bunker and earn his gratitude for her help in raising his abandoned 10 year old family member, Stephanie. Meek went on to play many other strong characters both male and female, Black and white.

Even until her death, Meek was an active actress with the Trinity Repertory Company in Rhode Island, which she joined with husband Martin Molson (who preceded her in death) in 1968. She appeared in over 100 Trinity productions. Highlights of Meek’s stage career at Trinity included leading roles in auspicious plays such as August Wilson’s Fences and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Lorraine Hansberry’s Raisin in the Sun. Meek also appeared in the Broadway production of Wilson in the Promised Land. In addition to her work with Trinity, Meek  worked at other theaters including Vienna’s English Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Hilberry Repertory Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, Cleveland Play House and the O’Neill Theater Center.

To be sure, her work did not go without accolade. Barbara Meek received an Honorary Doctor of Arts Degree from the University of Rhode Island, and was awarded the Elliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence, the 2004 Rhode Island Pell Award, the Wayne State University Arts Achievement Award in Theatre, the Foundation for Repertory Theatre Award, and the 2006 Edward Bannister and Christiana Bannister History Makers Award from the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society.

We are grateful for the legacy of hard work, culture and class left behind by Barbara Meek and we mourn her passing.

The post Beloved Actress Barbara Meek Passes at 81 appeared first on Broadway Black.