Ruby Dee Obituary - A Life Well Lived

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Hello All:

I just spoke with Terrie Williams, the Diva of Public Relations, who informed me that Ruby Dee's family held a quiet ceremony for their mother last Thursday, but plans are now in formation for a memorial service sometime in the near future.  

This, in the interim, is a reprint of the New York Times Obituary that appeared in the paper today, for those who did not see it.  Gene Tinnie was so wonderful to have emailed to me and a host of others who were waiting to learn the details of a home going service.

My heartfelt condolences to the Davis Family, and to the millions of us around the globe who absolutely adored her and her wonderful husband.  The blessing in all of this is that they are now reunited on the plane of action with the rest of our Ancestor/Angels - though they were never really apart because Ossie's spirit always walked with her.
 
As more information comes forth about the date, time and place of the memorial service for Ruby Dee, I will keep you abreast of the updates.

STAY BLESSED &

ECLECTICALLY BLACK 

Gloria Dulan-Wilson

 

 

Subject: NY TIMES OBITUARY: Ruby Dee, aRinging Voice for Civil Rights, Onstage and Off, Dies at 91

 

Ruby Dee, one of the most enduring actresses of theater and film, whose public profile and activist passions made her, along with her husband, Ossie Davis, a leading advocate for civil rights both in show business and in the wider world, died on Wednesday at her home in New Rochelle, N.Y. She was 91.     Her daughter Nora Davis Day confirmed the death.     A diminutive beauty with a sense of persistent social distress and a restless, probing intelligence, Ms. Dee began her performing career in the 1940s, and it continued well into the 21st century. She was always a critical favorite, though not often cast as a leading lady.     Her most successful central role was Off Broadway, in the 1970 Athol Fugard drama, “Boesman and Lena,” about a pair of nomadic mixed-race South Africans, for which she received overwhelming praise. Clive Barnes wrote in The New York Times, “Ruby Dee as Lena is giving one of the finest performances I have ever seen.”     Her most famous performance came more than a decade earlier, in 1959, in a supporting role in “A Raisin in the Sun,” Lorraine Hansberry’s landmark drama about the quotidian struggle of a black family in Chicago at the dawn of the civil rights movement. Ms. Dee played Ruth Younger, the wife of the main character, Walter Lee Younger, played by Sidney Poitier, and the daughter-in-law of the leading female character, the family matriarch, Lena (Claudia McNeil).         Ruth is a character with far too much on her plate: an overcrowded home, a troubled husband, a young son, an overbearing mother-in-law, a wearying job and an unwanted pregnancy, not to mention the shared burden of black people everywhere in a society skewed against them. Ms. Dee’s was a haunting portrait of a young woman whose desperation to maintain grace under pressure doesn’t keep her from being occasionally broken by it.     The play had 530 performances on Broadway and was reprised, with much of the cast intact, as a 1961 film. On screen, Edith Oliver wrote in The New Yorker, Ms. Dee was “even more impressive” than she was onstage. “Is there a better young actress in America, or one who can make everything she does seem so effortless?” Ms. Oliver wrote.     The loyal but worried loved one was a role Ms. Dee played frequently, in films like “The Jackie Robinson Story” (in which she played the wife of the pioneering black ballplayer, who starred as himself) and “No Way Out,” a tough racial drama in which she played the sister of a young doctor (Mr. Poitier).     Over the course of Ms. Dee’s career, the lives of American blacks, both extraordinary and ordinary, belatedly emerged as rich subject matter for mainstream theater productions and films, and black performers went from being consigned to marginal and often belittling roles to starring in Hollywood megahits.     Ms. Dee went from being a disciple of Paul Robeson to starring with Mr. Poitier on Broadway. She was a featured player in the films of Spike Lee and an Oscar nominee for a supporting role in the 2007 movie “American Gangster,” about a Harlem drug lord (Denzel Washington); she played a loving mother who turned a blind eye to her son’s criminality.     But Ms. Dee not only took part in that evolution; through her visibility in a wide range of projects, from classics onstage to contemporary film dramas to television soap operas, she also helped bring it about.     In 1965, playing Cordelia in “King Lear” and Kate in “The Taming of the Shrew,” she was the first black woman to appear in major roles at the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Conn. In 1968, she became the first black actress to be featured regularly on the titillating prime-time TV series “Peyton Place.”     She appeared in two of Mr. Lee’s earliest films, “Do the Right Thing” and “Jungle Fever.” (On Thursday, Michelle Obama tweeted about Ms. Dee: “I’ll never forget seeing her in ‘Do the Right Thing’ on my first date with Barack.”)     Ms. Dee picketed Broadway theaters that were not employing black actors for their shows and spoke out against film crews that hired few or no blacks.     Having made her name in films that addressed racial issues, she began seeking out more of them. She collaborated with the director Jules Dassin on the screenplay for “Up Tight!,” a 1968 adaptation of “The Informer,” Liam O’Flaherty’s 1925 novel set after the Irish civil war. (It had also been filmed by John Ford.) Mr. Dassin and Ms. Dee shifted the tale of betrayal among revolutionaries to 1960s Cleveland; Ms. Dee played a welfare mother who helped feed her family by resorting to prostitution.     She also lent her voice and presence to the cause of racial equality outside show business. She was an active member of the Congress of Racial Equality, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.     At the Tony Awards ceremony on Sunday, Audra McDonald, in accepting her sixth acting award for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill,” acknowledged Ms. Dee as one of five black women whose shoulders she stands upon. (The others were Holiday, Maya Angelou, Diahann Carroll and Lena Horne.)     A revival of “Raisin in the Sun,” now playing at the Ethel Barrymore Theater on Broadway, the same stage as the original production, won three Tonys, including one for Sophie Okonedo, who plays Ruth Younger. In a statement, Ms. Okonedo called Ms. Dee “one of my heroines.”     Ruby Ann Wallace, as she was known when she was born in Cleveland on Oct. 27, 1922, grew up in Harlem. The third child of teenage parents, she was reared mostly by her father, Marshall Wallace, who became a waiter on the Pennsylvania Railroad, and his second wife, the former Emma Amelia Benson, a college-educated teacher who was 13 years older than he. Ms. Dee described her as a strict but loving mother, a stickler for elocution and the person who introduced her to poetry, music and dance.     By the mid-1940s, when she graduated from Hunter College, Ms. Dee was already a working actress, having appeared on Broadway and in productions of the American Negro Theater, then a fledgling professional company housed in the basement of the Harlem branch of the New York Public Library.     She had also been married, in 1941, to the singer Frankie Dee Brown. The marriage dissolved within four years, but it gave Ms. Dee the name by which she would be known for the rest of her life.     She made her Broadway debut in December 1943 in a short-lived play called “South Pacific,” unrelated to the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical that came along more than five years later. In 1946 she joined the cast of a Broadway-bound play called “Jeb,” about a black soldier who has lost a leg in World War II and discovers that his sacrifice for his country is of little value in the face of the racism he encounters on his return home.     Hired as the understudy for the role of Libby, the title character’s loving girlfriend, Ms. Dee not only replaced the original actress in the role before opening night but also fell in love with the star, Ossie Davis. The show lasted for nine performances, the relationship nearly 60 years, until Mr. Davis’s death in 2005. They married in 1948.     Besides her daughter Nora, Ms. Dee is survived by another daughter, Hasna Muhammad; a son, the singer Guy Davis; a sister, Angelina Roach; and seven grandchildren.     The partnership between Ms. Dee and Mr. Davis was romantic, familial, professional, artistic and political, and they jointly received the National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton. During their careers they performed together many times, including in “Raisin,” when Mr. Davis took over the stage role of Walter Younger from Mr. Poitier, and in “Purlie Victorious,” Mr. Davis’s own broad satire about a charismatic preacher in the Jim Crow South, on Broadway in 1961 and in the 1963 film version, “Gone Are the Days!”     In 1998 they published a joint autobiography, “With Ossie & Ruby: In This Life Together,” to commemorate their 50th wedding anniversary. The book is remarkable for its candor, not only about their careers and upbringings but also about their intimate lives, together and apart, and their reflections on race relations, politics and art. Told in separate, alternating voices, it was a book-length public conversation that testified to a lifelong private one.     Ms. Dee and Mr. Davis stood together, far to the political left, on behalf of numerous causes. They spoke out in the 1950s against the executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and against the persecution of American Communists (and purported Communists) in the investigations by Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee. When, under the McCarran Internal Security Act, the government revoked the passport of Robeson, the great black actor, singer and outspoken socialist, they helped organize the campaign to have it restored.     They were friends and supporters of both the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, whose eulogy, after his assassination in 1965, was delivered by Mr. Davis. On Aug. 28, 1963, the day of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which culminated in Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Ms. Dee and Mr. Davis were the M.C.'s of the entertainment event at the foot of the Washington Monument that preceded the march to the Lincoln Memorial. They raised money for the Black Panthers. They demonstrated against the Vietnam War.     In 2005 Ms. Dee received a lifetime achievement award from the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.     “You can only appreciate freedom,” she said then, “when you find yourself in a position to fight for someone else’s freedom and not worry about your own.”     Correction: June 12, 2014 An earlier version of this obituary misstated the name of Ms. Dee’s first husband. He was Frankie Dee Brown, not Freddie Dee Brown. Correction: June 13, 2014 An earlier version of this obituary referred imprecisely to the part Sidney Poitier played in the film “No Way Out,” in which Ms. Dee also appeared. He was a doctor in a county hospital that had a prison ward; he was not a prison doctor.     A version of this article appears in print on June 13, 2014, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Ruby Dee, Actress and Activist, Dies at 91.

 

 

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Tribute to Richard Wesley - A Fine Black Man

-->By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

I have the great Voza Rivers to thank for the opportunity of knowing Richard Wesley.  Had he not conceived of the Harlem Writers Screen Writers program at Columbia University; and had he not invited me to be a part of it, I would never had the honor or pleasure or privilege of working with such a wonderful personage as Richard "Rich" Wesley.

RICHARD WESLEY, SCREEN WRITER, PLAYWRIGHT, FBM

  

I admit that I, along with the rest of the females in the writers' workshop, was immediately "smitten" as soon as I saw Rich.  There's nothing more compelling than a good looking Black man with brains and talent.  But a Good Looking Black Man with brains, talent - and not afraid to use it - and not bombastic or ego ridden about who he is and what he's accomplished; with good manners, and eloquent - and deep, dark chocolate brown to boot!!!???  

 

That moved Rich immediately into the category of Fine Black Man!

Admittedly, I was a fan of Rich's long before I even knew he existed - having seen his movies - "Uptown Saturday Night," "Let's Do it Again," "Mandela and DeKlerk," among others, which I totally enjoyed, high comedy Black style at its finest.  Not an "f" word or "b" word anywhere and good use of the talents of some of my favorite icons - and goodness knows I love good comedies about us and for us .

But to now have this fantastic brother mentoring our class in Screen writing!  Wow!  I was totally appreciative of his honest critique and evaluation of my writing and my dialogue skills. Talk about walking in high cotton!!! Goodness knows I can write for ever - Rich taught me how to be concise and still convey the emotionality of the moment.  I think he helped me get to my comedic side as well - though no where near the level of what he's accomplished. 

His encouragement was priceless to us all.  Those Saturdays were invaluable to all of us.  We definitely looked forward to his  evaluation and recommendation - I can see why he is so highly valued and respected at the Tisch School.

Richard Wesley and Eddie Pomerantz were so great, making it possible to bring stories that were on the back burner of my brain to the forefront, and do it on a regular basis, those of us who were part of the program are deeply grateful to them both.  It was a sad day, though, when his schedule prohibited his continuing to work with us on a consistent basis.

 

For the uninitiated who are not aware of the magnitude of this dynamic Fine Black Man, I'm borrowing a brief bio from Wikipedia: 

Richard Wesley is an African-American playwright, and screenwriter for television and cinema. He is an associate professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts where he is the chair of the Rita and Burton Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing.
Wesley was born in Newark, New Jersey to George & Gertrude Wesley, and grew up in that city's Ironbound section. Following high school he studied playwriting and dramatic literature at Howard University and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree^.
He is married to author Valerie Wilson Wesley.

Works:He first achieved renown with the production by the New York Shakespeare Festival of his 1971 play Black Terror, which portrayed the story of a black revolution that was to take place in "the very near future". Clive Barnes in The New York Times described the play as a "winner" that "makes the case for black revolution and against black revolution."^[3] Wesley was recognized with the Drama Desk Award for the 1971–72 season as most promising playwright for Black Terror, which earned him a $100 check from the president of Ticketron.  (don't know why that was important to mention)

In 1975, Wesley created The Past Is the Past, a drama about a black man who meets the father who had abandoned him many years before. The play was revived in 1989 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn's Billie Holiday Theatre, starring John Amos and Ralph Carter.
Wesley earned a substantial amount of money writing the screenplays for the 1974 film Uptown Saturday Night and the following year's Let's Do It Again, both of which starred Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier.
His 1978 play The Mighty Gents tells the story of the members of a gang that had ruled the Central Ward of Newark having conquered their rivals the Zombies, who are now in their 30s and left only with the recollections of their past successes.
Wesley's 1989 play The Talented Tenth takes its name from W. E. B. Du Bois's seminal 1903 article, The Talented Tenth, that described the likelihood of one in ten black men becoming leaders of their race in the world, through methods such as continuing their education, writing books, or becoming directly involved in social change. The play features six successful graduates of Howard University — among them a realtor, advertising agent, a middle manager at a Fortune 500 firm and a Republican — who have reaped the benefits of their success, but feel the guilt of betraying their origins. Wesley had originally considered including the character of Essex Braxton from The Mighty Gents, who had achieved financial success in loan sharking and prostitution after leaving the gang, but dropped the idea as too artificial.^[2] The play was recognized with six awards, including for dramatic production of the year and best playwright, at the 17th annual AUDELCO Recognition Awards which were established by the Audience Development Committee to honor excellence in New York African American Theatre.

Notable works: 

Plays

• The Black Terror (1971)
• The Mighty Gents (1978)
• The Talented Tenth (1989)

Screenplays

• Uptown Saturday Night (Warner Brothers, 1974)
• Let's Do It Again (Warner Brothers, 1975)
• Native Son (American Playhouse, Cinecom, 1984)
• Fast Forward (Columbia Pictures, 1985)

Teleplays

• Murder Without Motive (NBC, 1991)
• Mandela and De Klerk (Showtime, 1997)
• Bojangles (Showtime, 2000)

Television series contributions

• Fallen Angels (Showtime)
• 100 Centre Street (A&E)

Awards and honors

• 1971 Drama Desk Award for The Black Terror
• 1978 AUDELCO Award for The Mighty Gents

 

That's just a smidgen of Rich Wesley''s accomplishments!!

 

Beyond the Harlem Screenwriters'  Guild, the fact that we are both involved in the Black Literature and  Writers Programs at Medgar Evers, as well as other organizations and  programs, keeps us running in the most wonderful concentric circles.

This is why I'm posting this tribute to him - he is being honored on March 2, 2014, and I unfortunately will not be in attendance due to a previous engagement.  I just want to go on record in posting my appreciation for this wonderful brother - and let him know how much I and so many others truly value him as a friend, mentor, creative guide, and FINE BLACK MAN.  

 

My only complaint is this:  Rich, you need to get a photographer who will take a really great GQ Photo of you - these photos absolutely don't do you justice!! They should be in color, not black and white!! And anyway  you really can't play low key - you're waaaay too tall.

 

Kudos and congratulations and blessings Rich to you and Valerie.  You deserve all the accolades accrued to a brother who has been a wonderful shining example to us all.

Stay Blessed &

ECLECTICALLY BLACK

Gloria  Dulan-Wilson
www.gloriadulanwilson.blogspot.com/ECLECTICALLY BLACK NEWS

SPECIAL EVENT ALERT UPDATE: Woodie King Jr.‘s New Federal Theatre 40th Anniversary Celebration

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Well its 48 hours and counting until the Celebration of New Federal Theatre’s 40th Anniversary Award and Gala!!

This a monumental milestone in the annals of Black History - make no mistake about it! From Ira Aldrich, to Paul Robeson, to Oscar Michaux, to Ossie and Ruby, to Belafonte and Portier, and all those in between, the great, near great, known, lesser known brothers and sisters who have graced the stage, daring to put their all out there to prove the legitimacy of Black theatre, drama, talent - 40 years of continued existence and excellence is no small accomplishment.

And yes, it’s time for the applause, the kudos; time to say encore, magnifique, marvelous, and moto bene to Woodie King Jr., for a monumental job well done.

Likewise to the honorees: Sidney Poitier, Ntozake Shange, Ruby Dee, Alicia Keys, Hon. David Dinkins, Imhotep Gary Byrd, George Faison, Amiri Baraka, Rev. Malcolm Boyd, Elizabeth McCann, Carla Pinza, Terrie Williams and National Black Theatre Festival (Sylvia Spinkle-Hamlin) - each an icon in their own right, and totally worthy of praise and accolades for their impact on our lives, our culture, and the multicultural blueprint of the country.

Presenters represent the who's who of entertainment - stage, screen, television - including: Spike Lee, Whoopi Goldberg, Robert Townsend, Danny Glover, S. Epatha Merkerson, Lamman Rucker, Sonia Sanchez, Dr Mary Schmidt Campbell, Glynn Turman, Ted Lange, Tommy Hicks, Pia Lindstrom, Pamela Portier, Starletta DuPois, Garrett Morris, Susan Taylor, and Oz Scott.

Woodie King, Jr., acknowledged in a recently held interview, that the Black theatre would be nothing without the Black community. So it is likewise to our credit that we have had the cognizance to understand what a vital role they play in telling our story, keeping us entertained, translating our triumphs and tragedies; as well as giving us an opportunity to bask in the fantasy of suspended disbelief while they keep us thoroughly entertained.

Honorary Chair is none other than the great Maya Angelou; Chairs for the event are Laurence Fishburne, John Morning and Susan Taylor; with the glamorous Emmy Award-Winner Lynn Whitfield & Randall Pinkston (CBS News) serving as hosts of the evenings festivities.

The stars will be coming out on Sunday, May 22, from 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm at the historical Edison Ballroom (240 West 47th Street, between Broadway & 8th Avenue)

Founded by Woodie King, Jr. in 1970, New Federal Theatre (NFT) has gone on to international acclaim for its bold mission to integrate African Americans, minorities and women into the mainstream of American theater by training artists for the profession, and by presenting plays by African Americans, minorities and women to integrated, multicultural audiences – plays which evoke the truth through beautiful, artistic recreations of ourselves.

Under Woodie King, Jr.'s stewardship, NFT presented over 280 productions in the last four decades including: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf, What the Winesellers Buy, Reggae, The Taking of Miss Janie and The Dance and The Railroad. His directorial credits are extensive and include work in film as well as in theater. He has directed at the most prominent theaters across the country and has been the recipient of numerous awards from AUDELCO, The NAACP, Drama Critics Circle and an Obie Award for Sustained Achievement

Specializing in African American and minority drama, New Federal Theatre has brought the joy of the living stage to not only the African American community living on the Lower East Side, near NFT’s home at Henry Street Settlement’s Abrons Arts Center, but to audiences from all over the metropolitan area. NFT has provided emerging playwrights with the opportunity to have their works produced; and catapulted Black actors, directors and designers to national attention and sponsored numerous ethnic theater groups and event.

For information and reservations call or contact: (212) 838-2660 x 14.

We have come so far, got so very far to go, but as we move forward, we must celebrate each and every milestone along the way, and each and every person who stayed the course in spite of and because of the challenges, and the bigger vision that kept them keeping on. GDW

Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson

SPECIAL EVENT ALERT: Woodie King Jrs New Federal Theatre to Celebrate 40 Years May 22

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Now it can be told: As a kid in Oklahoma City, I was in every play and Christmas pageant in both my school and church. At Douglas Sr. High, I played Beneatha Younger in Raisin in the Sun. In fact, I was a card carrying member of the National Thespian Society, and proudly wore my gold Janus pin. I loved acting and performing, and, though I never pursued the field professionally, have always had a deep admiration and respect for those who do it so well. And somehow or other, I have always tried to in some small way, be in contact or involved with those in the field who have kept us entertained.

So it is with a great deal of pleasure that I write this piece in reference to a friend, Woodie King Jr, a brother whom I consider the tops in his field. He has always set the bar high when it comes to the theatre, and has consistently done so for 40 years. He is to be congratulated, revered, emulated, respected and celebrated for his accomplishments.

And that is why on Sunday, May 22, the luminaries of stage, screen and television will turn out in grand style as Woodie King celebrates the New Federal Theatre’s 40th Anniversary at a gala awards ceremony to be held at the Edison Ballroom.

Woodie King Jr - legendary dynamic director, producer, actor, writer that he is - founded the New Federal Theatre in 1970 at the Henry Street Settlement’s Arts for Living Center in the Abron Arts Theatre, located in the multicultural Lower East Side. Just a little historical note: The New Federal Theatre was named after the African American branch of the Federal Theatre Project in the 1930s. It is dedicated to works by African American, women and minority artists. The group often collaborates with the Public Theatre.

Many a career has been launched on the stage under the direction of Woodie, including, but not limited to, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Debbie Allen, Phylicia Rashad, Robert Downey, Jr., Garrett Morris, Ruby Dee, Samuel L. Jackson, Laurence Fishburne, the ever glamorous Lynn Whitfield, among a great many others. Many Black writers likewise were featured first at New Federal Theatre, including E Bullins, Amiri Baraka, Samm-Art Williams, Richard Abrons, Ntozake Shange, and a host of others.

And while we will be celebrating this wonderful milestone, Woodie has chosen his own pantheon of honorees, to share the limelight with him: including Ruby Dee, Sidney Portier, Ntozake Shange, Alicia Keys, Imhotep Gary Byrd, Amiri Baraka, George Faison, The Rev. Malcolm Boyd, Elizabeth I. McCann, Carla Pinza, Terrie Williams, former New York City Mayor David N. Dinkins, and Sylvia Spinkle Hamlin, Executive Producer of the National Black Theatre Festival.

Actress Lynn Whitfield and CBS News Anchor, Randall Pinkston will serve as co-hosts. Co-Chairs are Laurence Fishburne, Susan Taylor and John Morning. The great Maya Angelou serves as Honorary Chair. This gives you some idea of the momentousness of this occasion.

Forty years of continuous existence is indeed something to celebrate, in an era where most marriages don’t last that long. It is a tribute to Woodie King Jr., a man who has never strayed from his mission to integrate Black actors, writers and talent into the mainstream American theatre by training artists for the profession and by presenting plays by Blacks, minorities and women into integrated, multicultural audiences. American Visions has called Woodie King, Jr., the "king of black theater producers,” and rightly so, considering that he has either produced and/or directed at least 200 plays; not to mention his vast body of written work for stage, screen and television.

At a recently held press conference, which was catered by none other than Norma Jean Darden of SpoonBread, I had an opportunity to interview Woodie, as well as Ms. Ruby Dee (my heroine), Gary Byrd (GBE), Ntozake Shange, and Lamman Rucker, who was there on behalf of the National Black Theatre Festival. Also present at the press conference were Lynn Whitfield, George Faison, Amiri Baraka, Terrie Williams, Carla Pinza, and Cliff Frazier. I couldn’t help but feel as though I was in a privileged space. In the South they would have called it walking in high cotton.

Gary Byrd, host, producer, creator of the GBE (Global has the distinction of having the longest running Black radio broadcast in the history of New York. I asked him how it felt to be recognized for his work accomplishments after having gone through so many challenges over the past few years. He responded, “I was thinking about it today; and two words came to me “Overjoyed!” and “overwhelmed”. I’m overjoyed by, I think first of all, Woodie and the New Federal Theatre in terms of the terrain they covered to get here.” He admitted that he had had aspirations for the stage, and had been discovered as an actor prior to going into radio. Byrd had emigrated from Buffalo to Manhattan, and had the privilege of being mentored by Hal Jackson. His accomplishments as a spoken word artist, on air personality, songwriter are legendary, and include a body of work he co-wrote and co-produced with Stevie Wonder under the Wonder-Byrd title, including Village Ghetto Land and Black Man, which were featured on Stevie Wonder’s “Songs In the Key of Life.”

Going forward, Gary plans to write and produce stage productions based on the lyrics and themes of these songs. “Interestingly enough, I’m going to use my own personal catalogue first. Songs that I’ve written; some of the things I’ve done with Stevie (Wonder); some of my original things, like Every Brother Ain’t a Brother.” On Stevie’s side, “You Wear the Crown,” “Village Ghettoland.” I’m really literally going to write plays on those themes,” he quipped enthusiastically.

Ntozake Shange, whose “choreo poem” For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf was produced at the New Federal Theatre in the 70’s stated: “When I first met Woodie, he was amazing to me. It was stunning to me when I first came to New York. And it’s an amazing honor to be included as an awardee.”

Ms. Ruby Dee, the Grand Diva of them all, gave me a few minutes of her time to relate her feelings about Woodie King, Jr., the New Federal Theatre, and being selected as an honoree:
“I can’t tell you how pleased I am at this forty years! What Woodie has done - he has established what I call one of the womb places; where people like me got started, from the street corners and the church basements, the living rooms and libraries; and sometimes in schools, and then working out on street corners when the City let us. People don’t remember what a sacrifice it was! And that those of us who had jobs got paid. When you got spaces like in the library, we’d shovel the snow and cleaned up the basements - I mean, whatever it took - and the sacrifices. People like Woodie … The womb people, but for these people, wed still be creeping down the steps of the library - they let us have that little space with 6 cents in the treasury. All those people who made those kinds of sacrifices. We called the New Federal Theatre the womb place; it was full of all of those kinds of people, and it had a kind of - meaning in the lives of so many people.”

When I asked her what she saw as the future of Black Theatre, she responded: “I see an explosion of new Black writers, actors and new ideas, and the confidence to try things - and I’m one of them. If it hadn’t been for Woodie and Joe Papp, they did my first musical - I did three musicals with them because I could come to places like the New Federal Theatre.”

Lamman Rucker, of Meet the Browns and Angels Over Tuskeegee, an enthusiastic fan of Woodie’s spoke eloquently of his interaction with him: “I come from the tradition and the standards - the high standards - that was established by Mr. King. So I stand here as one of the younger - I say - examples of what this work and what this sacrifice breeds. What this work and this sacrifice, and these tireless towers of creation and creativity, and the festivals, and rewrites and endless work; and they all know it because we live it.”

He continued, “I was always that kid that wanted to be Ossie Davis and have a beautiful woman like Ruby Dee by my side. I wanted to be Sidney Portier, I wanted to be Paul Robeson and Harry Belafonte, a father figure like you know Canada Lee -the people that lived in me, and lived through me. I wanted to dance like George (Faison). And no mistake, I can dance. We had to be able to do it all - act sing dance- be a triple threat - and bring it!” And that was just his statement for openers. Representing the upcoming National Black Theatre Festival, which will take place this summer in North Carolina, Rucker stated that he had met Woodie while in college honing his dramatic skills.

I, of course, had to ask him about what it was like working with Tyler Perry, who has featured him in several of his movies, as well as the current TV comedy hit, Meet the Browns: "It’s great working with Tyler, and in a way, I’m almost a representative of his too. I mean I don’t do the stage play work, but, the way Tyler has established himself, and established his work, is again an example of what’s been learned, what’s been taught by these same people. How to be self produced; how to create your own opportunity; create opportunity for other people.
So I’m happy for him; and I’m happy for Mr. Woodie King Jr. Woodie’s like my theatre Godfather you know."

This blog input would not be complete without some words from Woodie King Jr.:

When asked how does it feels to celebrate 40 years, he responded, “It feels great, you know to have been around for 40 years; and starting that theatre when it was kind of barren out here. A year after we started the Black exploitation movies and all that stuff just flooded the market. Just inundated everything. And so we thought that this was the end. That this was where it was going to go. But fortunately we had a hit play every year from 1971 through 1982. And that just gave New Federal Theatre and unbelievable amount of visibility to our artists and writers across America. So we think our contribution to the American Theatre has been exceptional."

For those of us who recall the days of Blaxploitation movies, we can be grateful that Woodie persevered. Not only were they stereotypical, they were, in the main, a diversion from so many Black movies that were of merit; and appealed to the lowest common denominator in the community. Woodie, on the other hand, gave voice and visibility to some of the great talent of the day that were either ignored or overlooked by that genre.

1982, according to Woodie, was the beginning of a period when whites began to produce Black plays, cutting in to the New Federal Theatre and other Black theatre Black production company’s role in providing access to Black audiences, as well as their funding.

According to Woodie, “A hit play can take care of that company and artist for five years. And after 82 the system in New York Changed in the way that things are produced. White people began to produce Black plays, suddenly. And white people began to get the funding that we had gotten up until then to do these plays. Because before then, they weren’t interested.”

His thoughtful response to the question, in addition to this 40 milestone; of what are you most proud:“Well for having just existed for 40 years; for having been around; Most theatres close after five or ten years; most Black organizations; in that regard, for New Federal Theatre, Black Spectrum Theatre; Billie Holliday Theatre, The Hadley Players, New Heritage Repertory Theatre; National Black Theatre - these theatres have been around. They are doing it! “

What do you see as the future of Black Theatre? “Whatever the future of Black people are in America, it’s tied in to the future of Black Theatre. Black Aesthetics. However way Black go is the way Black Theatre will go.”

That said, I know you will definitely want to go and be among those who salute the greatness that is Woodie King Jr., and the monumental contributions that he and the New Federal have made specifically to the Black community, and to the world at large.

So break out your most elegant attire and be there, front and center at the Edison Ballroom, Sunday, May 22 at the Edison Theatre, 240 W. 47th Street, in the heart of the Theatre District. You can make reservations by calling (212) 838-2660 x 14.

Beyond that, of course, is to continue to be the supportive audience, responsive and appreciative of the valiant efforts on the part of our Black actors, actresses, musicians, producers, directors - who keep giving us their creative and soulful best.

STAY BLESSED &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson