Posts Tagged ‘Talk Back’
Week in Review (Talk Back at Art Rage)
Sunday, February 21st, 2016When Talk Back Is Real Talk
Saturday, October 10th, 2015
Journalist Ashley Kang (left) listens to Quante Wright during today’s Talk Back session at the South Side Communications Center. Below listen to a brief comment made by Wright about re-entry into the workforce following incarceration. He was the subject of a cover story in this month’s Stand Newspaper. Wright was joined on this mornings panel by author General Davis.
The Book of August
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011When it comes to an accurate portrait of African American life, site August Wilson’s cycle of plays examining the 20th century is a gift that keeps on giving.
This month Syracuse Stage produced Wilson’s Radio Golf.
Radio, set in 1990s Pittsburgh, revolves around Harmond Wilks (played by Richard Brooks) as he attempts to redevelop a blighted Pittsburgh neighborhood and parlay that venture into a run for mayor. At the climax of the play the audience is left with a sense that change is coming, but not without a struggle, or a fight.
A “Talk Back” forum was held by the stage and the actors talked about the genius of Wilson and how his work always fosters further examination.
Leland Gantt (Radio’s Sterling) said that the actors were on a journey to excavate the truth in Wilson’s work (the last he produced before he passed in 2005).
During a celebration of August Wilson’s work at Syracuse University in 2006, Dramaturg Kyle Bass, said it best: “Wilson gave us back to us.”
Thomas Jefferson Byrd (Radio’s Elder Joseph Barlow), who appeared in Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom at Syracuse Stage in 2009, described interpreting Wilson’s work on stage like eavesdropping on a conversation or peering thru a peephole at a family discussion. He said Wilson was able to avoid stereotypes by being true to the characters. “You know the truth when you hear it,” he said.