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We are in a new golden age for Black British theatre. Over the last two years, a raft of productions from Black theatre-makers have been making waves, garnering critical acclaim and exciting audiences. Black writers and directors are relishing telling the stories that they want to tell and are undeterred in getting them on stage. Alongside plays and musicals, productions that interweave drama, movement, music and even verbatim theatre are coming to the fore, creating a diverse ecology of storytelling that aims to inspire more Black writers and directors into the industry.

This moment has been a long time coming. In the 1950s, three writers Wole Soyinka, Errol John and Barry Reckord paved the way for Black writers when their plays were staged at the Royal Court in London. Between the 1960s and 80s, many Black writers and actors were denied opportunities for regular work and turned to forming collectives and theatre companies to create and stage their plays. Many failed to survive without continued public funding. Contrast that with today, when three theatre companies Croydon-based Talawa, Eclipse and Tiata Fahodzi, which focuses on the changing African diaspora in Britain receive regular funding from Arts Council England.

Actor and director Yvonne Brewster, a pioneer of Black British theatre, now in her 80s, recalls that when she graduated from Rose Bruford drama school in 1959 she was told she would never get work. Suffering from a dearth of career opportunities, she co-founded Talawa in 1986, to create opportunities for Black theatre-makers. However, she faced resistance from men when she set up writing workshops for women and encouraged female directors. We werent supposed to direct, she says. Youre out of your place, get back in the kitchen And then you want to encourage women to write? It was crazy.

Just as the pioneers in Black British theatre created spaces for Black work to thrive, Londoner Ryan Calais Cameron has recently done the same, setting up the collective Nouveau Riche in 2015. Cameron, now 34, is an actor turned writer, whose play For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy, about five young men who join together for group therapy, opened to rave reviews at the Royal Court this year.

Cameron created For Black Boys after noticing how the pandemic was affecting the mental health of young Black men. What youre dealing with right now isnt that you just dont want to go out, he says. Youre dealing with anxiety. Youre not someone whos just a moody guy; youre dealing with depression. I wanted to create characters who were talking about this, but without being able to have the science for it, because it wouldnt be authentic for one of my characters to be like: Hey, Im so depressed.

Cameron asked the Royal Court to go further than just stage the play. He wanted to create an environment within the building that would be welcoming to his target audience of young Black men. He recalls his conversation with the Royal Courts artistic director, Vicky Featherstone: Were going to need this kind of music being played, were going to need this type of drink being sold, youre going to need to walk around the theatre and see images of young Black boys. Cameron is rightly proud of his play 70% of tickets sold out before the show opened. The thing that meant the most to me was that young Black men were gonna come in and see this.

Another play to emerge amid the lockdowns was Running With Lions. Commissioned by Talawa to create opportunities for Black writers to keep working and earning during the pandemic, the play began life as a Radio 4 drama, part of a three-part series by new writers. It tells the story of a British-Caribbean family dealing with their unique reactions to the death of a loved one. According to director Michael Buffong, something like 800,000 people listened to the series, and to capitalise on this success he transferred Running With Lions to a live setting earlier this year. We had the opportunity to do the full-length version of it at [Londons] Lyric Hammersmith. And it was brilliant. Its fantastic to be the launchpad for these writers. We can look back and go: Yep, they started here [and] we were the people who helped them.

During the pandemic, some Black plays moved from the stage to screen. Natasha Marshalls play Half Breed, a semi-autobiographical, coming-of-age drama about finding your voice, was broadcast on BBC Four in 2021, and Nicle Lecky adapted her 2019 one-woman stage play, Superhoe, about the world of influencers, sex work and mental health, into the daring drama series Mood, which earned much acclaim when it aired on BBC Three earlier this year.

In February, Chinonyerem Odimba, artistic director of the Watford-based Tiata Fahodzi, won the 2020 Writers Guild of Great Britain award for best musical theatre bookwriting for Black Love. The play is about a brother and sister who look after each other in a small flat filled with the memories of their parents love. Along with House of Ife, Heres What She Said to Me and Running With Lions, Odimbas play is one of many tracing the contours of Black family life. Nothing gives me [more] joy than new work coming up and flourishing and growing, she says. Still, Odimba sounds a note of caution about the potential for Black work to be marginalised when it comes to marketing. Sometimes the messaging around [a show] and putting it in special lights, or giving it a particular sense that its something different, can be detrimental to inclusion for Black artists and their work.

Buffong says we need to get rid of all the barriers that people refuse to believe are there for us. Determined to dismantle those barriers for Black writers are two passionate and insightful women working as artistic directors, Natalie Ibu from Newcastle upon Tynes Northern Stage and Lynette Linton from the Bush theatre in London.

Ibu spent six years as artistic director at Tiata Fahodzi before being appointed by Northern Stage in 2020. She is currently directing The White Card by the African American playwright, Claudia Rankine, in which a wealthy, privileged white couple invite a talented Black artist to dinner. Tensions run high and a heated debate uncovers some uncomfortable truths that cant be ignored about white privilege, cultural appropriation and representation. As part of a national tour, the play is at the Soho theatre in London for a four-week run. For Ibu, it felt really important that it was made by a global-majority creative team. So while there are four white actors on stage, and one Black woman, I wanted to make sure that the lens of this production was held by the global majority. Who better to talk about whiteness than those who have to navigate it every single day?

For all that Black theatre is enjoying a post-Black Lives Matter breakthrough, the bright lights of the West End have thus far proved elusive for Black British writers and directors. Lintons vision for making sure that works by Black writers and directors dont only appear on the Bushs stage is simple: Black British work is part of the canon and the ecology of British theatre. For her, the Bush is about disrupting the canon, disrupting the West End, disrupting what we see, so stories like House of Ife and Red Pitch can be seen as plays that could be staged in the West End.

There is a temptation to see these recent successes as some kind of renaissance for Black British theatre, with more productions and writers being given opportunities to adapt their work for the screen, but the future will determine how decisive this period in the aftermath of the pandemic, the killing of George Floyd, and BLM has been in creating lasting change and equity in British theatre. Dismantling systemic racism is the key to achieving true inclusion. As Cameron says: I want longevity, I dont want to be part of a fashion trend.

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One giant leap: why we are witnessing a brave new world for Black British theatre - The Guardian

The U.S. Department of Justice must investigate local prosecutors in Memphis and elsewhere where policies are disproportionately targeting communities of color.

Kerry Kennedy| Guest Columnist

Bond posted for Rosalyn Holmes

Josh Spickler, Executive Director ofJust City, and Wade McMullen, an attorney with Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, speak about Rosalyn Holmes' release. Rosalyn Holmes, 16, was reunited with family after more than 40 daysin an adult prison.

Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal

In Memphis, more children are prosecuted in adult court than in the rest of the state combined. Nearly all of them are Black.

On the Fourth of July, our nation celebrates the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But for too many, that promise is not only broken, it is weaponized by prosecutors who criminalize poverty and race.

More than a half century after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in Memphis, the city remains a cradle of profound injustice.

Black Memphians are disproportionately targeted for harsh criminal enforcement and punishment. Prosecutors break the rules to rack up convictions, prison terms, and even death sentences.

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I visited Memphis in April with colleagues from Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the organization founded to carry out my late fathers dreams of a better world. Through our partners at the Memphis Community Bail Fund, the local chapter of Black Lives Matter, and Just City, we met with residents who had been unjustly targeted by local prosecutors.

Among them: Rosalyn Bird Holmes, a Black woman, charged as an adult at only 16 in a robbery committed by two boys while she sat in the backseat of a car. Her bail was set impossibly high $60,000 and she was sent to solitary confinement for more than 40 days, prevented from attending school.

Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights paid her bail and secured her release, but even then, while no one accused Bird of the robbery or taking any money, she still potentially faced decades in prison. She eventually won her case, but it took two years. And the terror of being locked away in a cage as a child will remain with her forever.

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We also met Pamela Moses, a Black woman sentenced to six years in prison for simply registering to vote.

Officials had told Moses incorrectly that she could vote despite a previous felony conviction; she followed their advice in good faith. Yet Memphis elected prosecutor, Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich, aggressively pursued a voter fraud conviction.

A court later overturned Moses conviction; Weirich and her office had violated the Constitution by failing to disclose emails showing Moses had been misled by a county official. Still, Moses spent nearly three months in prison because of that officials mistake. Several times during our conversation, we had to pause the pain of her experience remained raw.

On the surface, Holmes and Bird have little in common except for three damning factors in the eyes of Memphis prosecutors: they are poor, Black, and call Memphis home.

But they also share remarkable courage and resilience. These women could have been broken by the system, but they bravely shared their pain to prevent it from happening to others.

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A group of local lawyers and community leaders are working to ensure the womens experiences arent repeated. The advocates this year demanded a Racial Equity Audit of Weirichs office to identify, and hopefully correct, the systemic practices that lead to racist outcomes.

Race discrimination in our legal system from how Black people are prosecuted and punished more harshly, to how Black crime victims are dismissed and disregarded is a crisis that can no longer be ignored, the group wrote.

While the audit is a sound idea, this is not simply a local matter. When law enforcement is driven by discrimination and prosecutors disregard the Constitution, the U.S. Department of Justice and its Civil Rights Division must intervene.

The DOJ has the power to investigate local prosecutors. In 2020, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and a coalition of civil rights groups urged the DOJ to investigate state and local prosecutors in Georgia after white men chased down and murdered Ahmaud Arbery, but prosecutors initially failed to bring charges.

In Memphis and Shelby County, such intervention is long overdue.

Bird Holmes is not the only Black child whose life Weirich has threatened. From 2018 to 2020, 98% of the 217 Shelby County children transferred to adult court were Black. It has been four years since a federal monitor tasked with oversight of the countys juvenile justice system described Weirichs tactics as toxic … for African-American youth, and the racial disparities have only worsened since then.

Similarly, shirking constitutional obligations to fairly present evidence such as in Pamela Moses case has been a hallmark of Weirichs career: A Harvard Law School study examining the first five years of her tenure uncovered more than a dozen cases of misconduct and found Weirich led the state in findings of misconduct and the number of cases reversed because of it.

This sort of repeated discrimination and misconduct is precisely why DOJ enforcement is essential. Memphis system of injustice has gone unchecked for too long, and the Civil Rights Division has the power, and the duty, to force change.

Kerry Kennedy is a human rights lawyer and president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.

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We must restore the promise of freedom and justice for Black people in Memphis | Opinion - Commercial Appeal

The more a congressional investigation reveals about the Jan. 6 insurrection, the more outrageous it is that anyone would try to compare it to the Black Lives Matter protests that swept the nation after George Floyd was murdered.

Its not even apples and oranges. Its apples and tractor trailer parts.

And the fact that an American football coach could still be employed after trivializing the violent assault on our government as nothing more than a dust-up says so much about whats wrong with our country right now.

In the days before the Jan. 6 hearings started, Jack Del Rio, the defensive coordinator of the Washington Commanders, weighed in with a controversial tweet.

Would love to understand the whole story about why the summer of riots, looting, burning and the destruction of personal property is never discussed but this is ??? the coach wrote.

Then he doubled down in remarks to reporters after a team practice.

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Peoples livelihoods are being destroyed, businesses are being burned down no problem, Del Rio said. And then we have a dust-up at the Capitol, nothing burned down and were gonna make that a major deal?

Del Rios specialty is defense, but he sounded more like the offensive coordinator.

Del Rio apologized, was fined $100,000 and deleted his Twitter account, straight out of the lack of accountability playbook.

But the damage was already done.

Add Del Rio to the growing list of big mouths who wrongly assume that exercising their First Amendment right to free speech means saying anything they want without consequences.

Dust-up, he said. Nothing burned down.

Because the one revisited last week by the congressional committee shows an angry lynch mob hellbent on literally hanging Mike Pence, the vice president of the United States, whose fuse-burning boss did all but tie the noose.

Maybe our supporters have the right idea, then-President Donald Trump told staffers at the time, according to U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the vice chair of the House select committee investigating Jan. 6.

What insurrection did Del Rio see?

Because the one revealed in new, behind-the-scenes footage during the hearings showed frenzied rioters and traitors relentlessly assaulting police officers, threatening elected leaders and storming the venerable halls of government.

Shots were fired in the Capitol, where elected officials were huddled under their desks. Insurgents were walking door to door shouting, Where the f--- are they, and Trump won that election.

It was carnage. It was chaos, Cheney said. It was just hours of hand-to-hand combat, hours of dealing with things that were way beyond any law enforcement officer has ever trained for.

At least the Black Lives Matters demonstrators were protesting something real, not some voter fraud lie concocted by the Contriver-in-Chief.

George Floyd died, with a police officers knee in his neck. He was on the ground in handcuffs. Everybody saw it.

Donald Trump lost an election. Nobody stole it from him. He sicced a mob on America, and everybody saw it.

We will never give up, Trump said that day. We will never concede. It doesnt happen. If you dont fight like hell youre not going to have a country anymore.

Apples and oranges. Its more like apples and costume jewelry designs.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.

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Leonard Greene: Black Lives Matter and the truth about Jan. 6 - Greensboro News & Record

The month of June has become an insufferable time for normal people as corporations, schools, governments, the media, and leftists push Gay Pride Month into everyones face.

Over the past 50 years, Boston (like hundreds of other cities) has endured an increasingly massive and perverse Gay Pride Parade ending with a Gay Pride Festival at Boston City Hall Plaza. Its frightened summer tourists, scared away families, and destroyed the aura of a once beautiful city.

For a dozen years, MassResistance documented the depraved event, sharing photos and videos and exposing the participating corporations, schools, and politicians.

But this year there was no parade, no festival, and no plans for any in the future. The Board of Directors of the Boston Pride Committee, which planned, funded, and organized it, voted to permanently disband the whole organization. The streets of downtown Boston are (relatively) safe and sane again!

What happened? You cant make this up! According to multiple news reports, the gays who run the event were being accused of racism by Black Lives Matter (BLM). BLM also accused them of snubbing some of the weirder transgender groups, and not supporting the entire gay community.

The bizarre complaints from Black Lives Matter began back in 2015 but were pretty much brushed aside. However, the big eruption came during 2020 and 2021 while the event was postponed due to COVID. Black Lives Matter aligned with a gaggle of local fringe LGBT groups and targeted Boston Prides all-white (and gentrified) Board of Directors with a list of complaints and demands. This wacky list of complaints (which itself reflects a racist attitude) included:

The BLM coalition also persuaded most of the Pride volunteers to resign. Then they began organizing a boycott of the upcoming (June 2021) Pride event.

The June 2021 Pride event was postponed because of COVID. But that didnt quiet anything down. In July 2021, the BLM coalition publicly demanded that the Pride Board resign. A week later the Pride Board reacted by voting to disband the organization completely.

This whole thing isnt really surprising. By 2020, the City of Boston had become ultra-pro-LGBT, so there was basically nothing left for them to fight for. But left-wing, revolutionary organizations are made up of obsessive, dysfunctional, and irrational people. Without a pressing cause, these radical groups invariably turn on each other. This is typical for leftist revolutionary movements going back to the French Revolution and the Lenin-Stalin era in the Soviet Union. The revolutionaries eventually eat their own.

Since theres no 2022 Boston Pride Parade and accompanying festival to remind everyone what the LGBT movement is about, we are presenting below just a few highlights from our past reports to show everyone in Boston what theyre missing!

Editors note: To avoid highlighting vile, graphic images, The Stream is not reprinting this part of the article.

We never thought wed ever find ourselves cheering for Black Lives Matter! Lets hope that this conflict spreads across the country.

Originally published at massresistance.org. Reprinted with permission. For additional media content, see original post.

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Some Good News for 'Pride' Month: Boston Gay Pride Parade is Cancelled Possibly Permanently After Accusations of Racism From Black Lives Matter and...

After two long years, Torontos Pride Parade is back on Sunday where members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community and allies will march along downtown streets to celebrate diversity and protest for equal rights for everyone.

One distinguished guest who will be in attendance is this years International Grand Marshal Dr. Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, widely known as Lady Phyll.

As the co-founder and executive director of UK Black Pride and the the executive director of human rights charity Kaleidoscope Trust, Lady Phyll is a renowned advocate for the 2SLGBTQ community worldwide.

In January, Lady Phyll received an honourary doctorate from London South Bank University for her work in the fight against homophobia, sexism and racism in the U.K. and globally.

Toronto Pride is Lady Phylls first pride event after the global COVID-19 lockdown, but this is not her first time being honoured with a prestigious role. In 2019, she was the grand marshal at New Yorks World Pride.

CP24.com spoke to Lady Phyll about being Toronto Prides international grand marshal, her accomplishments in human rights advocacy and what work needs to be done to achieve equal rights for the 2SLGBTQ+ community.

CP24: Can you tell us a little about yourself and why you decided to work in human rights advocacy?

Lady Phyll: I guess I've always known that I was different and I've always asked questions, been really inquisitive about justice and social justice. I went to a school which was predominantly white. And, you know, we were taught everything about the Battle of Hastings 1066, Christopher Columbus, but we were never taught enough about our histories and Herstories. So I think I dug deeper, I wanted to read about Audre Lorde, Bell Hooks, James Baldwin. And I also came out and had a greater understanding of self and wanted to dig deep and know what have our communities looked like in the past? What hasn't been done, what activities do we do to amplify ourselves? So that has been that whole trajectory and I've also been a really staunch trade unionist. So you know, workers rights have been incredibly important to me and when you connect and intertwine all of that it just makes for all the ingredients about moving forward where social justice is concerned.

CP24: Can you tell us about UK Black Pride and Kaleidoscope Trust?

LP: I lead this amazing international LGBT+ organization called Kaleidoscope Trust, which works to uphold human rights for LGBT+ people across the globe, primarily in the Commonwealth. Ive been in that role for three years now and I have the fortunate pleasure of working with some of the most amazing activists.

With UK Black Pride, it's been in existence since 2005. We are really about that education piece; that love, hope, joy, celebration and protests and understanding the different intersections where our communities meet. So from Black and brown peoples, who are looking at race, gender, class, religion, faith, belief, maturity, and our young people looking at housing and all other aspects of what 2SLGBTQ+ people really, really want to focus on.

CP24: When did you find out about being Pride Torontos International Grand Marshal and how excited are you?

LP: I think I found out about three months ago and when I was told by the executive director of Pride Toronto I literally jumped off the chair and I started screaming with excitement. Because to be the international grand marshal is not just sending a message of solidarity, but it's connecting all of the work around the world and bringing love, joy, hope, the elements of being part of this wider global movement of 2SLGBTQIA+ people. It's just thrilling.

CP24: Have you been to Toronto before?

LP: I've been to Toronto before. I've seen some work out here, working with activists and leaders, and grassroots community activists, I should say, around global Black pride, and we're speaking about a human rights conference that will be coming to Toronto in July.

CP24: What do you like about the city?

LP: The people. You know, I'm single so I can actually mingle with beautiful people, beautiful energy. The hospitality is just so on point. I haven't actually been to other places and felt this much love. And it's not just because I'm the international grand marshal. I think people genuinely, especially after this lockdown period where we haven't had a pride (event) for two years, haven't been able to connect. It just feels like it's meant to be.

CP24: What pride events are you attending this weekend?

LP: I'll be making sure I'm present at the trans rally. I'll be there at the Dyke March. I'll be there at the main stage. But also just connecting with as many people as possible through the parade, seeing families come out for the first time, meeting young queer people who this may be their first experience of pride and also finding time to eat and breathe as well. That's quite important.

CP24: Are you familiar with past conflicts between Pride Toronto and Black Lives Matter Toronto? How do you think the organizations should collaborate going forward?

LP: I guess this is not about me being familiar with the history of Black lives matter here in Toronto, but it's being familiar with the issues that face Black people and Black queer people. So if there's anything that Pride Toronto and organizations like Blackness Yes and Blockorama should be doing is working collaboratively and understanding the nuances and complexities and the beautiful nature of how our organizations and individuals should be able to coexist together.

I would say there's things that need to be addressed and looked at, and this could be the ways in how structural, systemic issues play out for for Black queer people in terms of housing, education, in terms of poverty. And some of that has to be looked at in line with how MPs take forward their work, how communities are well resourced and well funded. And more importantly, what visibility and amplification of the great work that they do takes place.

READ MORE: Black Lives Matter stages sit-in at Toronto Pride Parade

CP24: What does pride mean for you?

LP: I guess pride means so many different things. It can mean a home, it can mean chosen family, it can mean love, it can mean solidarity, it can mean togetherness, it can mean connecting. I think what this pride is going to be showing us today is the power of movements. And the power of movements when we come together and we turn up the volume on society. It means it makes it absolutely impossible to ignore us, erase us and to forget about us.

I just like to add that I think that we've got to understand pride is a movement and it's a process and it's one that has to be celebrated with so many different people because that's what makes our movement strong. It's not just for one particular group, it is really for everyone to enjoy themselves and that's exactly what I'm gonna do.

CP24: What other projects are you working on?

LP: We have UK Black Pride which is Sunday the 14th of August. As you know, everyone is welcome. It's going to be a beautiful celebration and protest of, you know, Black and POC (People of Colour) queer people celebrating themselves, loving on one another, enjoying the space that's been created for them and by them.

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Pride is 'for everyone to enjoy themselves,' Q&A with Pride Toronto's International Grand Marshal Lady Phyll - CP24 Toronto's Breaking News