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The Mother of the Movement (M.O.M.S.) Celebrated
Fifty years ago, Barbara Ann
Teer founded the National Black Theatre (NBT). NBT, New York
City’s oldest continually run black theater, is celebrating
its golden anniversary with “NBT Beyond Walls,” with
activities across the city, country and world.
On Saturday, March 16, in
honor of Women’s History Month , National Black Theatre
partnered with the Weeksville Heritage Center to present
“The Mothers of The Movement [M.O.M.S.]: The Black Woman —
She Does Exist,” part of the Onstage @ Weeksville theater
series. Directed by NBT Artistic Director Jonathan McCrory,
the event revisited the foremothers who organized, marched,
recruited, campaigned, made meals, coordinated direct action
efforts and laid the groundwork for the Civil Rights and the
Black Arts movements. Black women art-ivists reimagined
several seminal texts from the Civil Rights and Black Arts
Movements.
Readings included:
“The Black Woman: She Does
Exist” by Dr. Barbara Ann Teer, performed by Lizan Mitchell.
The piece was reimagined by Chisa Hutchinson, whose “Gaze
This” was performed by Victoria Wallace. |
Barbara Ann Teer
Mothers of the Movement
Celebrated |
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“Address at the Hattiesburg
Freedom Day Rally” by Ella Baker, performed by Marjorie
Johnson. The piece was reimagined by Mfoniso Udofia, whose
“Birthday Homily” was performed by ChelseaDee Harrison.
“The SNCC Position Paper” by
the Women of SNCC, performed by Patrice Johnson. The piece
was reimagined by Staceyann Chinn, whose “Me Too, Too” was
performed by Brittany Bellizeare.
In further celebration of a
Brooklyn-based mother of the movement, an article written by
Dr. Joan Maynard, artist, preservationist, and first
executive director of The Weeksville Society, “I’m A
Preservationist,” by Maynard, National Trust for Historic
Preservation, was featured, performed by Elizabeth Van Dyke.
The next stop for NBT is the
Schomburg Center in Harlem on Tuesday, April 16 for “In
Perpetual Flight: The Migration of the Black Body.” For
up-to-date information about NBT’s 50th anniversary, visit www.nationalblacktheatre.org or
follow NBT on Facebook (@NationalBlackTheatre) and Twitter/Instagram
(@NatBlackTheatre).
ABOUT NATIONAL BLACK
THEATRE:
Founded by visionary Barbara
Ann Teer in 1968, National Black Theatre (NBT) is a
nationally recognized cultural and educational institution.
Teer pioneered “the healing art of Black theater as an
instrument for wholeness in urban communities where
entrepreneurial artists of African descent live and work.”
In 1983, Teer expanded the vision of NBT by purchasing a
64,000-square-foot building on 125th Street and Fifth Avenue
(renamed “National Black Theatre Way” by local law in 1994).
This was the first revenue-generating Black arts complex in
the country, an innovative arrangement through which
for-profit businesses who shared NBT’s spiritual and
aesthetic values rented retail space to subsidize the arts.
Out of her vision, NBT houses the largest collection of
Nigerian New Sacred Art in the Western hemisphere and is
considered the authentic representation of a model whose
time has come. NBT is supported by grants from the Ford
Foundation, New York Community Trust, Time Warner
Corporation. Howard Gilman Foundation, Jerome Foundation,
Andrew Mellon Foundation, City Council of New York, City of
New York Department of Cultural Affairs, Columbia Service
Society and private donations. Visit www.nationalblacktheatre.org or
follow NBT on Facebook (@NationalBlackTheatre) and Twitter/Instagram
(@NatBlackTheatre).
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