Towards a historical materialist theatre: Aimé Césaire’s Dramatic Works and the Representation of History

Theater in the English speaking world is not doing well. Our dramas are suffused with hock-Freudian placidity and overwhelmingly proud of their lack of any desire to look beyond the scope of a single family or relationship between individuals. Our comedies are not funny and rarely comical in their lack of humour, while our fantasies (musical or otherwise) are limited to a slightly more functional update of the world as it stands, unsurprising given how many of them function as adaptations of Disney films that functioned, even when originally released, as soporifics. If you are looking for visions of a future world better than this one, stay as far as you can from the theaters of Broadway or the West End.

A Star Is Born: A Showcase of True Stardom

I have been counting down the days to the opening of A Star is Born, teased by the alluring trailer which so well paints the image of an enticing music-meets-love story. With the trailer flashing scenes of the talented dreamboat Bradley Cooper, fashioned like the dingy, drunken country star I always found secretly charming, and the iconic Lady Gaga flawlessly belting the earworm ‘Shallow’, I knew that this was going to be the movie to look out for. I hyped myself up for a love story full of song and fun; when I hit the theater the weekend A Star Is Born opened, I had no idea that I was headed for a nearly perfect storytelling of love, passion, sacrifice, and disease.

The Omega Principle, Seafood and the Quest for a Long Life and a Healthier Planet - Review

Paul Greenberg, a New York City writer and journalist, who has written books about fish before, takes the reader on a journey around much of the world to explore the health benefits of Omega-3 Fatty Acids in The Omega Principle. Greenberg focuses on the subject of Omega-3 Fatty Acids and sees where it takes him. Onto many subjects and places in this trip to validate the enthusiasm the compound brings. Omega-3 Fatty Acids, found in fish but also in some nuts, is trumpeted as a medical remedy and cure helping our hearts and our minds. The enthusiasm over the find rivals that of other miracle drugs, but there are those who doubt whether it is a valid medicine. There are many though who swear by it, and Greenberg follows its use even into ancient times. He is a convert here, and fish consumer and promoter, but also an inquiring mind with great prose and refreshing use of phrases and language. Eating Omega-3 Fatty Acids maybe can be a bit of a cure all for some of our present environmental and public health catastrophe, but fish are also on the decline. A Mediterranean Diet with more fish is recommended by Greenberg who sees it also as a remedy for some of the ails of middle age.

Ntozake Shange, Who Wrote ‘For Colored Girls,’ Is Dead at 70 (The New York Times)

Ntozake Shange, a spoken-word artist who morphed into a playwright with her canonical play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf,” died on Saturday in Bowie, Md. She was 70.

As An African Child

As an African child

I crawled on mama arm

Searching for an imaginary house

Which bear me with a fancy view

Of the coming clouds upon my head

Poetry & ProseTribesOctober 29, 2018as an african child, Amirah Al Wassif, poetry, Steve Cannon

Lotus Root

She was made of water

And in and out of water

Wanting, wishing, withering

Down to Bone

What would it be like to edit down

a poem into its brittle bones

down to the last ash

on a burning log

down to thin veins

on a frozen leaf

twigs on an icy night

shivering in the dark gray

solstice sky

down to breath

or the last

kiss

before sleep?

Poetry & ProseTribesOctober 25, 2018Carla Schick, Down to Bone, Steve Cannon, A Gathering of the Tribes, poem, poetry

A City on a Lake, Urban Political Ecology and The Growth of Mexico City - Review

A City on a Lake by UC San Diego History Professor Matthew Vitz tells a pained and difficult history of Mexico City. The book uses academic language and vocabulary, and references many places, things and actors from Mexico, resulting in very thoughtful treatment. The book is a history, presenting a story of the city that we can learn from. It also shows the movements and actions of the past that are still part of the cities political environment. The book recounts mostly an pre World War II history attempting to explore “Urban Political Ecology and The Growth of Mexico City.” Vitz is argument that we can learn from the past presented here.

Vilma Hodo

On our mindsChavisa WoodsOctober 22, 2018vilma hodo, Steve Cannon, A Gathering of the Tribes, actor

Mary Chen

On our mindsChavisa WoodsOctober 22, 2018Mary Chen, Steve Cannon, a gathering of the tribes

Phoebe Halkowich

On our mindsChavisa WoodsOctober 22, 2018phoebe halkowich, Steve Cannon, a gathering of the tribes, actor

An urgent call in the second life

red rays of the unknown sun came down to my new window
warmly shiver touched me, made me laugh as a fresh baby
I decided to think about the source of these unknown rays
but, suddenly a kind of musical sound covered my ears
the sound did not seem like any earthen sound I ever heard
it was a mix of waves dancers and creation of colorful bird
it was like a smell of honey and the secrets of gold

For Laura Isabel Feldman

I want to carry in my womb

The bodies of the dead women

Killed by the dictatorship

My womb

Full of old pictures with their serrated sides

Full of vaporous language

Full of gardens in child’s mind

My womb will grow like a giant piñata

So full of communists

And you'll fear them all

Poetry & ProseTribesOctober 16, 2018Laura Isabel Feldman, poem, Eline Marx, a gathering of the tribes, Steve Cannon

A Map of Every Building in America (NY Times)

Traces of Distant Culture

South of New Orleans This arrangement of buildings along a narrow spit of land on either side of a Louisiana bayou shows the imprint of the region’s history under France: “long lot” development, which stretched skinny holdings laterally away from important waterways. Geography shapes settlement, but culture does, as well.

ON WITH THE SHOW

for J.D. Rage

I pick up a Xeroxed flyer
for a show by someone I know slightly.
Her photo shows her in leather, chains, sunglasses,
with a mass of black hair.
And I think, This is where
I want to take a woman for a date.

Allowing for Context: A Constitution in Dialogue with the Present

Last Sunday evening at New York Theater Workshop, Heidi Schreck, playwright of What the Constitution Means to Me, walked on stage and the house lights dimmed imperceptibly. The confirmation hearing of, now, Justice Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court had taken place only one day prior. But Schreck doesn’t make us forget the outside; in fact, she keeps that door open and thanks us for being there during this time. This play only grows when the context of our reality bleeds into the room, it feeds on the here and now, unflinching from one of the more dire truths we find ourselves facing: the US Constitution is in need of attention and we must decide if we are to stand by it, or to cast it aside.

Photo by: Joan Marcus

White Anxieties 1982-2018

International Body Repair Shop:

In Memory of Vincent Jen Chin 1955-1982

Artist: Chin Chih Yang

Seeking My Revolutionary Generation

Where are you? Who are you? Which path did you take when you left us here alone? Why did the grass look greener? How could you run when we needed you? These and many more questions are asked by those who stayed the course. Just because you got a job and started to grow up and accept the establishment's values of what life should be didn't mean you had to abandon the moral fiber of who you once were. Assimilation into a society that put blinders on your eyes, denying the movement as though you were never apart of it, surely doesn't let your spirit rest when you remember the cause that you so fervently loved. There was a time when words were louder than actions and peace was our banner that moved like fire across a country. Who fooled you? Who coerced you into thinking you were wrong and they were right? These are questions that I am seeking as I look for the revolutionary generation that still burns in my inner being.

Steve Cannon and Phoebe Halkowich at Three Tall Women

On our mindsChavisa WoodsOctober 8, 2018Steve Cannon, phoebe halkowich, a gathering of the tribes, three tall women

New Flowers

On our mindsChavisa WoodsOctober 4, 2018flowers, Steve Cannon, a gathering of the tribes