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The Adventures Of A Black Girl In Search Of God
''The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God'' is a drama written and produced by Canadian playwright Djanet Sears. The production ran from October 2003-March 2004, co-produced by Obsidian Theatre and Nightwood Theatre, and was reprised in 2015 at the National Arts Centre and Centaur Theatre. A print version of this play was published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2003. The play is set in modern day Canada, telling the story of the fictional Doctor Rainey Baldwin-Johnson within the factual Black community, Negro Creek, of Holland Township, Ontario. This community dates back to the War of 1812 when it was granted to Black settlers for their contributions to the British forces. This is touched upon many times within ''The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God''; Rainey and the other characters of the play, being the descendants of Black loyalists who were granted the Ojibwe land that would become Negro Creek, are constantly confronted by the attempted erasure of their his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Djanet Sears
Djanet Sears is a Canadian playwright, actor and director, nationally recognized for her work in African-Canadian theatre. Sears has many credits in writing and editing highly acclaimed dramas such as ''Afrika Solo'', the first stage play to be written by a Canadian woman of African descent; its sequel ''Harlem Duet''; and '' The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God''. The complexities of intersecting identities of race, and gender are central themes in her works, as well as inclusion of songs, rhythm, and choruses shaped from West-African traditions. She is also passionate about "the preservation of Black theatre history," and involved the creation of organizations like Obsidian Theatre, and AfriCanadian Playwrights Festival. Early life and education Born (1959) in England, to a Guyanese father and a Jamaican mother, Sears lived there until 1974 when her family moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and then settled in Oakville, Ontario in 1975. Her birth name was Janet â ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alison Sealy-Smith
Alison Sealy-Smith (born 1959) is a Barbados-born Canadian actress best known for her role as Storm in various Marvel animated TV series. Early life and education Sealy-Smith was born in Bridgetown, Barbados and raised in Toronto. She attended Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Canada, where she studied psychology on a scholarship. Career She is the founding director of Obsidian Theatre, a company that specializes in Black Canadian drama. Sealy-Smith was awarded a Dora Mavor Moore Award for her 1997 star turn in Djanet Sears' ''Harlem Duet''. Her film and television credits have included the series '' Street Legal'', '' This is Wonderland'' and ''The Line'', and a recurring role in ''Kevin Hill''. She also had a small role in the 1998 film ''My Date with the President's Daughter''. Sealy-Smith also voiced characters in various animated series such as Storm on the 1990s ''X-Men'' and Scarlett on the Teletoon series ''Delilah and Julius''. She played Sergeant Rose i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trillium Book Award
The Trillium Book Award (french: Prix littéraire Trillium or ''Prix Trillium'') is an annual literary award presented to writers in Ontario, Canada. It is administered by Ontario Creates, a Crown agency of the Government of Ontario, which is overseen by the Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries. The monetary component for the award includes amounts paid to the author of the book and to the publisher of the book. The award has been expanded several times since its establishment in 1987: a separate award for French-language literature was added in 1994, an award for poetry in each language was added in 2003, and an award for French-language children's literature was added in 2006. History The Trillium Book Award was created for three reasons: *to recognize a book of literary excellence which furthers the understanding of Ontarians and Ontario society; *to assist Ontario’s publishing industry; and, *to bring Ontario’s public library and writing commu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and social activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 slaves, including family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. During the American Civil War, she served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army. In her later years, Tubman was an activist in the movement for women's suffrage. Born enslaved in Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman was beaten and whipped by her various masters as a child. Early in life, she suffered a traumatic head wound when an irate overseer threw a heavy metal weight intending to hit another slave, but hit her instead. The injury caused dizziness, pain, and spells of hypersomnia, which occurred throughout her life. After her injury, Tubman began experiencing strange visions and vivid dreams, which she ascribed to premonitions from God. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rosa Parks
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has honored her as "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement". On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks rejected bus driver James F. Blake's order to vacate a row of four seats in the "colored" section in favor of a White passenger, once the "White" section was filled. Parks was not the first person to resist bus segregation, but the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) believed that she was the best candidate for seeing through a court challenge after her arrest for civil disobedience in violating Alabama segregation laws, and she helped inspire the Black community to boycott the Montgomery buses for over a year. The case became bogged down in the state courts, but the federal Montgomery bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, California. The party was active in the United States between 1966 and 1982, with chapters in many major American cities, including San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Philadelphia. They were also active in many prisons and had international chapters in the United Kingdom and Algeria. Upon its inception, the party's core practice was its open carry patrols ("copwatching") designed to challenge the excessive force and misconduct of the Oakland Police Department. From 1969 onward, the party created social programs, including the Free Breakfast for Children Programs, education programs, and community health clinics. The Black Panther Party advocated for class struggle, claiming to represent the proletarian vanguard. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shaka
Shaka kaSenzangakhona ( – 22 September 1828), also known as Shaka Zulu () and Sigidi kaSenzangakhona, was the king of the Zulu Kingdom from 1816 to 1828. One of the most influential monarchs of the Zulu, he ordered wide-reaching reforms that re-organized the military into a formidable force. King Shaka was born in the lunar month of ''uNtulikazi'' (July) in the year of 1787 near present-day Melmoth, KwaZulu-Natal Province, the son of the Zulu King Senzangakhona kaJama. Spurned as an illegitimate son, Shaka spent his childhood in his mother's settlements, where he was initiated into an '' ibutho lempi'' (fighting unit), serving as a warrior under Inkosi Dingiswayo. King Shaka further refined the ''ibutho'' military system and, with the Mthethwa Paramountcy's support over the next several years, forged alliances with his smaller neighbours to counter Ndwandwe raids from the north. The initial Zulu maneuvers were primarily defensive, as King Shaka preferred to apply pressure d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olivier Le Jeune
Olivier Le Jeune (died ) was the first recorded slave purchased in New France. Olivier was a young boy from Madagascar, believed to have been approximately seven years of age when he was brought to the French colonial settlement of Quebec in New France by Scottish privateer David Kirke or one of his brothers, Lewis and Thomas Kirke during their capture of the settlement on behalf of the English Crown. Shortly afterwards, the boy was sold to Olivier Le Baillif, a French clerk in the pay of the expeditionary force which captured the settlement. When Quebec was handed back to the French in 1632, Le Baillif left the colony and gave his slave to a Quebec resident, Guillemette Couillard. The boy was educated in a school established by the Jesuit priest, Father Le Jeune. In 1632, the boy said to Father Le Jeune: "You say that by baptism I shall be like you: I am black and you are white, I must have my skin taken off to be like you." Nevertheless, Father Le Jeune baptised him as Olivie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Luther King Jr
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. An African American church leader and the son of early civil rights activist and minister Martin Luther King Sr., King advanced civil rights for people of color in the United States through nonviolence and civil disobedience. Inspired by his Christian beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi, he led targeted, nonviolent resistance against Jim Crow laws and other forms of discrimination. King participated in and led marches for the right to vote, desegregation, labor rights, and other civil rights. He oversaw the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and later became the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). As president of the SCLC, he led the unsuccessful Albany Movement in Albany, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jackie Richardson
Jackie Richardson (born January 4, 1947) is a Canadian singer and actress. Richardson is known for her screen roles in '' Turning to Stone'', ''The Gospel According to the Blues'', ''The Doodlebops'', and '' Sins of the Father''. She is also known for her appearance on the YTV show ''Catwalk'' where she played the grandmother to Atlas (Christopher Lee Clements). Early life Richardson was born in Donora, Pennsylvania in 1947, and is of African-American descent. In 1954, Richardson moved with her family to Toronto. Career Richardson was a member of 1960s Toronto-based girl group The Tiaras along with Brenda Russell, Arlene Trotman, and Colina Phillips. Richardson is a three-time nominee for the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television Gemini Award, and won the Gemini Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series for ''The Gospel According to the Blues.'' In 2003 she was nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Best Actress in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Borden
Walter Marven Borden, (born July 20, 1942) is a Canadian actor, poet and playwright. He is originally from New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, New Glasgow, Nova Scotia."Poet radical: The adventures of Walter Borden ''Xtra!'', October 30, 2003. His film and television credits include ''Nurse.Fighter.Boy'', ''The Event (2003 film), The Event'', ''Gerontophilia (film), Gerontophilia'', ''Lexx'' and ''Platinum (TV series), Platinum''. Most prominent as a stage actor, he joined Halifax Regional Municipality, Halifax's Neptune Theatre (Halifax), Neptune Theatre company in 1972.Dawn Williams, ''Who's Who in Black Canada, Volume 2'', p. 73. 2006. . He has since appeared in stage productions across Canada, including William Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'', ''Richard III (play), Richard III'', ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as ''Man and Superman'' (1902), ''Pygmalion'' (1913) and '' Saint Joan'' (1923). With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Dublin, Shaw moved to London in 1876, where he struggled to establish himself as a writer and novelist, and embarked on a rigorous process of self-education. By the mid-1880s he had become a respected theatre and music critic. Following a political awakening, he joined the gradualist Fabian Society and became its most prominent pamphleteer. Shaw had been writing plays for years ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
