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'Welcome. Welcome to Bristol in 1963. Welcome to Waterloo Bridge in
2016. Welcome to a house in May 2017. Welcome to three couples and
what might be, what once was and what could have been in 2017.
Welcome to a West Indian household in 2018. Welcome to London in
2018. Welcome to the past, present and - crucially - the future.'
This anthology brings together six plays, all written or performed
since 2017, by six brilliant Black British writers - Travis
Alabanza, Firdos Ali, Natasha Gordon, Arinze Kene, Chinonyerem
Odimba and debbie tucker green. The plays demonstrate a rich range
of settings, forms, styles, locations, scales, contents and
concerns - and explore themes including politics and protest, grief
and colonisation, relationships and gender. They have been seen on
stages including the National Theatre, the Royal Court, the Bush
and Bristol Old Vic, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in the West
End, and on tour of the UK. Selected and introduced by leading
theatre director Natalie Ibu, Contemporary Plays by Black British
Writers celebrates a multiplicity of stories authored by Black
playwrights in the UK over the last decade.
Sarah Baartman's iconic status as the "Hottentot Venus" - as
"victimized" African woman, "Mother" of the new South Africa, and
ancestral spirit to countless women of the African Diaspora - has
led to an outpouring of essays, biographies, films, interviews, art
installations, and centers, comprising a virtual archive that seeks
to find some meaning in her persona. Yet even those with the best
intentions, fighting to give Baartman agency, a voice, a
personhood, continue to service the general narratives of European
documentation of her life without asking "What if we looked at
Baartman through another lens?" This collection is the first of its
kind to offer a space for international scholars, cultural
activists, and visual artists to examine the legacy of Baartman's
life anew, specifically finding an alternative Africanist rendering
of a person whose life has left a profound impact on the ways in
which Black women are displayed and represented the world over.
Family, food, music and mourning. Gloria is gravely sick. When her
time comes, the celebration begins; the traditional Jamaican Nine
Night Wake. But for Gloria's children and grandchildren, marking
her death with a party that lasts over a week is a test. Nine
nights of music, food, sharing stories - and an endless parade of
mourners. Natasha Gordon's debut play Nine Night is a touching and
very funny exploration of the rituals of family. It is premiered at
the National Theatre in April 2018.
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