"In the Year 2525 (Exordium and Terminus)" (recorded in 1968) warned of the dangers of technology, portraying a future in which the human race was destroyed by his own technological and medical innovations. The last stanza of the song suggests mankind undergoes a continuing cycle of birth, death and rebirth.
So what do you think about this song in 2014? Hmmm. Do you think life will exist on Earth in 511 years?
Friday, February 7, 2014
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Monday, February 3, 2014
HBD 2014
The first birthday cake with my name on it in FOREVER and I get to wash it down with champagne!
Thursday, December 5, 2013
What we share
This rectangle
this rectangle is my tangible link to Madiba
from the desolation of a small cell with a bedroll (no mattress), a stainless steel bowl and a stool
the only creature comforts afforded during those 27 years.
From a dark cell to the quarries.
where you were to chip and chisel and cough and breathe in toxic dust stirred up by your chipping and chiseling.
That same toxic dust is your final foe.
Not apartheid, not prison, not hate, not greed, not age
That same toxic dust you stirred up while working hard labor under the watchful eyes of armed guards.
Breathing in, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after...
That same toxic dust will not prevail.
Your steely resolve, your purpose, your strength, your wisdom, your freedom, our freedom will be always and for ever more...
It is the rock from the same limestone quarry where you labored
Mandela. 46664. Icon. Statesman. President of the New South Africa. Elder.
This rectangular rock resembles your resilience in a just and rightful cause.
Limestone. This piece of rock...
is my only tangible connection to Mandela
but oh, the intangibles.
(c) C. Denise Johnson 2013
Editor's note: The limestone came from Robben Island, the bracelet in Capetown, South Africa 2009
Monday, November 25, 2013
So much bigger
Those are some of the last words he wrote in his last blog entry dated Nov. 17.
A week has passed and now he's gone.
I was gonna write that I'm sick of death but really, I'm tired of it. Only two days ago I was online checking out Be The Match, the National Bone Marrow Registry. Now I am just stunned.
Dr. Rex L. Crawley has been battling cancer for a long time and even though he has transitioned at age 49, he went out a winner. How you ask? Just read his last blog entry. We should be so lucky to lead our lives as he lived his - with integrity.
A week has passed and now he's gone.
I was gonna write that I'm sick of death but really, I'm tired of it. Only two days ago I was online checking out Be The Match, the National Bone Marrow Registry. Now I am just stunned.
Dr. Rex L. Crawley has been battling cancer for a long time and even though he has transitioned at age 49, he went out a winner. How you ask? Just read his last blog entry. We should be so lucky to lead our lives as he lived his - with integrity.
Dr. Rex L. Crawley, Ph.D. ~ Rest with God
"I have decided to allow my situation to be used by God to help increase awareness at a large scale. I want people to know that they could save a life simply by registering with the Be The Match registry. There are people dying everyday because they have no donor matches and no other transplant options and you could be the one to save their lives. How awesome would that be? How awesome would that feel?
This thing is so much bigger than me and I am so glad and blessed to be a part of it."
"I have decided to allow my situation to be used by God to help increase awareness at a large scale. I want people to know that they could save a life simply by registering with the Be The Match registry. There are people dying everyday because they have no donor matches and no other transplant options and you could be the one to save their lives. How awesome would that be? How awesome would that feel?
This thing is so much bigger than me and I am so glad and blessed to be a part of it."
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Only the strong survive... through arts
This past week has been such a challenge for me to retain what sanity I have left. Between bureaucratic ineptitude, racist ignorance, outright bad-taste in Halloween costumes and dramatized history, it's truly astonishing that I have not gone clear-the-eff-off!
When one is homeless the Dept. of Public Welfare will use it's office address to fill in that particular blank line in their paperwork so, when your benefits are about to end they send out your notification of pending termination to themselves. I found this out when I went to pick-up prescription refills. So naturally, I make a follow-up phone call (and it doesn't help that this occurs doing the gov't. shutdown) for clarification. When I finally get a human on the line I'm told that I have to re-apply for benefits all over again. In the meantime, I'm running out of meds that I take everyday for diabetes, blood pressure, menopause symptoms, antidepressants, cholesterol, allergies, migraines... so I jump through a bunch of hoops get statements from my shrink and therapist to underscore the urgency for me to get my meds and to please expedite my paperwork, I'm told that I have to wait...up to 30 days. *sigh*
 |
| Boo? Your ass! |
 |
| 12 Years a Slave |
 |
| Venus |
Switching gears (or not) I put on my critics hat to review a production of Venus, Suzan-Lori Parks' play, inspired by the macabre recounting of the life of the Hottentot Venus during the early 1800s, an voluptuous African woman who, like Northrop, was tricked and transplanted from her home into a life of exploitation. However, instead of being a slave, her physique becomes the top draw of a sideshow where she is the main attraction and depicted as a freak, an oddity, wild beast and savage. For a price, patrons have the opportunity to grope and touch her buttocks, genitalia and breasts. The actress in the title role manages to convey the humanity and grace of a soul who is continually used and degraded.
 |
| Blue/Orange |
The latest production for me to review is called Blue/Orange a socio-psychodrama of a chess match about two determined psychiatrists advocating polar opposite approaches to treating a border-line schizophrenic (aka as the more politically correct multiple personality disorder) who claims to be the son of Idi Amin. Explorations of culturally-competent treatments, contexts of normalcy and preconceptions and prejudices abound with lots of questionable ethics abound from all involved parties. Seating surrounds the stage like a boxing ring as each player jab and spar for position, pride, salvation and vindication; yet the audience is the ultimately the judge of the final outcome. Yeah, participatory observation is regarded to truly appreciated the script.
Lots of fiber to digest indeed, but fortunately the 43rd Pitt Jazz Seminar and Concert was just the needed respite my exhausted and weary spirit required. A soaring and swinging evening was precisely what was needed to get back to where I needed to be... this was musical therapy.
‘August in August’ serves up tasty morsels of theater
Another extraction from the Draft file
(This originally ran in the August 24, 2011 edition of the New Pittsburgh Courier)
by C. Denise Johnson
For New Pittsburgh Courier
Generally speaking in theater circles, revivals refer to new productions of long –
remembered and highly regarded works returning to the Great White Way. Liberty
Avenue may not be Broadway, but last weekend saw the much-anticipated return of
the “August in…” theater sampler to Pittsburgh’s Cultural District in the August Wilson
Center for African American Culture.
Begun as a collaboration between the Cultural Trust’s Janice Burley Wilson and
Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater Company founder Mark Clayton Southers, it experienced
growing pain and hiatuses while attracting Broadway luminaries James Earl Jones and
Charles Dutton in tribute to Pittsburgh’s Hill District griot.
A near-capacity house was treated to performances from nationally respected
actors, Broadway veterans and some of the best talent from southwest Pa. in scenes from
ten plays comprising August Wilson’s “Century Cycle” that portray African American
life in each decade of the 1900s.
To present “August in August” in the AWC in Wilson’s hometown was a full
circle moment reminiscent of the African sankofa bird that returns to where it began.
Metaphors aside, the symbolism was not lost on the audience as they were treated to soul
food in the words and wisdom dispensed through Wilson’s pen.
The evening began with a taste of things to come in a very brief scene from “Gem
of the Ocean” of an uninvited visitor intent on conferring with Aunt Ester. The ensuing
scuffle disturbs Aunt Ester who queries the insistent intruder with “Didn’t he tell you to
come back Tuesday?”
We do return, but this time we’re in recording studio awaiting the arrival of Ma
Rainey (Vanessa German). This scene from “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” features
Antonio Fargas (best known as “Huggy Bear” from the 1970 Starsky & Hutch cop
series); film, TV actor and Swissvale native David Conrad; and members of the August
Wilson Center Theatre Ensemble.
In “Radio Golf,” Harmon Wilks receives a brilliant object lesson in
gamesmanship, race and reality from urban philosopher Sterling; followed by an excerpt
from “Jitney” where Youngblood comes clean to the mother of his child about his
suspicious behavior.
“Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” features Tony Award-winner Stephen McKinley
Henderson as Bynum sharing his perspective on women and “Two Trains Running”
highlights dialogue on current events (funerals, finance and real estate) steeped in
authenticity as served up by Anthony Chisholm, Sala Udin and Fargas to close out the
first half.
The second act opened with a scene from “King Hedley” where Tonya and King
argue over whether or not she should keep the child she’s carrying. Powerful
performances from AWCTE member Joshua Elijah Reese and August Wilson
Monologue winner Emily Kolb (an incoming college freshman) captivated the audience,
as did its follow up, a scene between Chrystal Bates and Kevin Brown from “The Piano
Lesson.” Both excerpts highlight the struggle of the sexes for balance with their world
and each other.
The “dance” between Hedley (Fargas) and Bernice (Andrea Frye) in “Seven
Guitars” sheds a different light on the male-female battle of wills (call this one a draw).
Family conflict is the centerpiece of the “Fences” excerpt that has McKinley reprising his
Broadway role of Bono and Udin as Troy (the Broadway role played by Denzel
Washington). It’s hard to imagine Washington measuring up to the emotional stakes
ratcheted up by Udin in the confrontation with son Corey (played by Carter Redwood) in
the climatic scene.
A collective exhale of the built of tension is released with the evening’s closing
scene from “Ma Rainey” with a hilarious, scene-stealing turn by Michaelangelo Turner.
It truly took a village to put on “August in August” and, as attested by Wilson’s
widow Constanza who was in attendance closing night, would have met his approval
with it’s multigenerational participation onstage and backstage with crew, costumers
(Cheryl El-Walker, Kennedy Guess, Grace Hines, Deryck Tines) and actors. Three high
school monologue winners (Kolb, Devaughn Robinson and Heaven Bobo) held their own
along side theatre and Broadway vets.
The ensemble spirit was shared among the directors (including JaSonte Roberts
Dean, Tami Dixon, Kim El, Frye, Henderson, Joseph Martinez, Redwood and Southers)
and cast (Jeffrey Carpenter, Jason Shavers, Mark Conway Thompson and Bria Walker).
Special kudos go to composer Kathryn Bostic who brought her Broadway Wilson
sensibilities to bear on providing the music to providing the comfortable and familiar
soundtrack to underscore the product.
'August in August' is a fitting conclusion to a season of transition at the AWC and
an appropriate first finale for Southers’ tenure as Artist Director of Theater Initiatives of
the namesake facility of his mentor.
(This originally ran in the August 24, 2011 edition of the New Pittsburgh Courier)
by C. Denise Johnson
For New Pittsburgh Courier
Generally speaking in theater circles, revivals refer to new productions of long –
remembered and highly regarded works returning to the Great White Way. Liberty
Avenue may not be Broadway, but last weekend saw the much-anticipated return of
the “August in…” theater sampler to Pittsburgh’s Cultural District in the August Wilson
Center for African American Culture.
Begun as a collaboration between the Cultural Trust’s Janice Burley Wilson and
Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater Company founder Mark Clayton Southers, it experienced
growing pain and hiatuses while attracting Broadway luminaries James Earl Jones and
Charles Dutton in tribute to Pittsburgh’s Hill District griot.
A near-capacity house was treated to performances from nationally respected
actors, Broadway veterans and some of the best talent from southwest Pa. in scenes from
ten plays comprising August Wilson’s “Century Cycle” that portray African American
life in each decade of the 1900s.
To present “August in August” in the AWC in Wilson’s hometown was a full
circle moment reminiscent of the African sankofa bird that returns to where it began.
Metaphors aside, the symbolism was not lost on the audience as they were treated to soul
food in the words and wisdom dispensed through Wilson’s pen.
The evening began with a taste of things to come in a very brief scene from “Gem
of the Ocean” of an uninvited visitor intent on conferring with Aunt Ester. The ensuing
scuffle disturbs Aunt Ester who queries the insistent intruder with “Didn’t he tell you to
come back Tuesday?”
We do return, but this time we’re in recording studio awaiting the arrival of Ma
Rainey (Vanessa German). This scene from “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” features
Antonio Fargas (best known as “Huggy Bear” from the 1970 Starsky & Hutch cop
series); film, TV actor and Swissvale native David Conrad; and members of the August
Wilson Center Theatre Ensemble.
In “Radio Golf,” Harmon Wilks receives a brilliant object lesson in
gamesmanship, race and reality from urban philosopher Sterling; followed by an excerpt
from “Jitney” where Youngblood comes clean to the mother of his child about his
suspicious behavior.
“Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” features Tony Award-winner Stephen McKinley
Henderson as Bynum sharing his perspective on women and “Two Trains Running”
highlights dialogue on current events (funerals, finance and real estate) steeped in
authenticity as served up by Anthony Chisholm, Sala Udin and Fargas to close out the
first half.
The second act opened with a scene from “King Hedley” where Tonya and King
argue over whether or not she should keep the child she’s carrying. Powerful
performances from AWCTE member Joshua Elijah Reese and August Wilson
Monologue winner Emily Kolb (an incoming college freshman) captivated the audience,
as did its follow up, a scene between Chrystal Bates and Kevin Brown from “The Piano
Lesson.” Both excerpts highlight the struggle of the sexes for balance with their world
and each other.
The “dance” between Hedley (Fargas) and Bernice (Andrea Frye) in “Seven
Guitars” sheds a different light on the male-female battle of wills (call this one a draw).
Family conflict is the centerpiece of the “Fences” excerpt that has McKinley reprising his
Broadway role of Bono and Udin as Troy (the Broadway role played by Denzel
Washington). It’s hard to imagine Washington measuring up to the emotional stakes
ratcheted up by Udin in the confrontation with son Corey (played by Carter Redwood) in
the climatic scene.
A collective exhale of the built of tension is released with the evening’s closing
scene from “Ma Rainey” with a hilarious, scene-stealing turn by Michaelangelo Turner.
It truly took a village to put on “August in August” and, as attested by Wilson’s
widow Constanza who was in attendance closing night, would have met his approval
with it’s multigenerational participation onstage and backstage with crew, costumers
(Cheryl El-Walker, Kennedy Guess, Grace Hines, Deryck Tines) and actors. Three high
school monologue winners (Kolb, Devaughn Robinson and Heaven Bobo) held their own
along side theatre and Broadway vets.
The ensemble spirit was shared among the directors (including JaSonte Roberts
Dean, Tami Dixon, Kim El, Frye, Henderson, Joseph Martinez, Redwood and Southers)
and cast (Jeffrey Carpenter, Jason Shavers, Mark Conway Thompson and Bria Walker).
Special kudos go to composer Kathryn Bostic who brought her Broadway Wilson
sensibilities to bear on providing the music to providing the comfortable and familiar
soundtrack to underscore the product.
'August in August' is a fitting conclusion to a season of transition at the AWC and
an appropriate first finale for Southers’ tenure as Artist Director of Theater Initiatives of
the namesake facility of his mentor.
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