*Black history and theatre or stage performance are affirmed on this date in 1500. Excluding performing arts, stage/theater productions have a rich, diverse, and profound history and culture. From the early African griots to Broadway performances, Black performers and creators have played a pivotal role in shaping the global landscape of theater. These actors have […]
learn more*On this date in 1976, for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf premiered. Ntozake Shange wrote this theatrical play. It consists of a series of poetic monologues to be accompanied by dance movements and music, a form which Shange coined the word choreopoem to describe. It tells the stories […]
learn more*The Rose McClendon Players are celebrated on this date in 1935. This was a theater group founded in Harlem, New York. The Rose McClendon Players lived up to the outstanding legacy left by their legendary namesake, Rose McClendon. While working with the Federal Theatre Project, she developed her vision of a Black theatre company. Together […]
learn more*Dorothy Heyward was born on this date in 1890. She was a white-American playwright. She was born Dorothy Kuhns in Wooster, Ohio, and lived in New York, Puerto Rico, and Washington, DC, throughout her childhood. She was interested in literature from an early age and started writing plays. After graduating from high school, she attended […]
learn moreBrenda Bell Brown is a stage and media performer and educator. In this segment, she shares two treasured moments in her playwright and acting careers.
learn more*Ada Brown was born on this date in 1890. She was an American blues and jazz singer and actress. Ada Scott Brown was born and raised in Kansas City, Kansas. She was born into a musically inclined family and grew up singing in church as a child. In 1910, she successfully launched her career at […]
learn more*Vivian Dandridge was born on this date in 1921. She was a Black singer, actress, and dancer. Vivian Alferetta Dandridge was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Cyril Dandridge. She was the older sister of actress and singer Dorothy Dandridge and the daughter of actress Ruby Dandridge. Her parents separated shortly before the birth of her […]
learn more*James Washington was born on November 10, 1908. He was a Black painter and sculptor. James W. Washington Jr. was born and raised in Gloster, Mississippi, a rural mill town. He was one of six children of Baptist minister James Washington and his wife, Lizzie. While he was still a child, his father fled the […]
learn more*William E. Scott was born on this date in 1884. He was a Black artist. William Edouard Scott was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, to Edward and Caroline Scott (née Russell). After graduating from Manual Training High School in 1903, Scott spent a year studying drawing under Otto Stark. In 1904, he moved to Chicago and […]
learn more*Alonzo J. Aden was born on May 6, 1906. He was a Gay Black art historian and gallerist. Alonzo “Lonnie” Aden was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina. He was the oldest son of Ephraim Aden, a hotelier, and Naomi Barnett, a schoolteacher. Aden had blonde hair until early adulthood and green eyes. In 1920, Aden […]
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