Rose Weaver Presents Two New Staged Readings in Providence on Saturday
Saturday, December 08, 2018
Singer, actress, and producer Rose Weaver joined GoLocal News Editor Kate Nagle on LIVE to talk about two stage readings taking place on Saturday, December 8 at the SouthSide Cultural Center in Providence — “Sally: A Black Woman’s Journey from Africa to Enslavement in Rhode Island” and “Black Women Taking Off Masks.”
“I’ve always tried to write about things that are important to me and hopefully important to the community,” said Weaver. “I’ve done ‘Menopause Mama’ — everybody knows that — I’ve done ‘Skips the Record’ about Alzheimer’s Disease — and this is about slavery and living in Rhode Island.”
“Sally [was] a slave ship that the Brown University brothers sent to West Africa to pick up slaves, one of the most disastrous slave journeys in the history of slavery,” said Weaver. “I based it on materials that are in the John Carter Brown Library. There’s this wonderful book called ‘Black Mechanics’ — this is [at] the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University, so they’ve really done a lot to educate us and that’s what it’s all about, education through arts, from my perspective.”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“And so Heritage Harbor Commission was kind enough to award me a grant to be able to put this together, I’ve got a group of ten actresses,” said Weaver.
Weaver spoke to the second reading, “Women Taking of Their Masks.”
“My feeling is that black women have often bitten their tongues when they want to say one thing, they said another. We’ve often been called the ‘angry black woman’ - even Michelle Obama was called an angry black woman, even though she was just speaking her mind and being assertive.”
“You have to ask the question why? So underneath, is it maybe we haven’t been loved enough? Maybe we haven’t been cared for enough? Maybe there’s stuff like that, that's the cause — so I’m exploring that with my actresses,” said Weaver.
Event Details
The readings start at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 8 at the Southside Cultural Center of Rhode Island at 393 Broad Street in Providence.
$20 General Admission
$15 seniors and students
$25 at the door (senior and student rate accepted at door)
2:30-3:15: Sally: A Black Woman's Journey from Africa to Enslavement in Rhode Island
The reading dramatizes the journey of the Slave Ship Sally and what might have happened to one African woman on the ship renamed Sally from her capture through through the Middle Passage to enslavement in Rhode Island. Funding provided by the Heritage Harbor Foundation.
3:30-4:30: Black Women Taking Off the Masks
Inspired by Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s poem, "We Wear the Mask,” Black Women Taking Off the Masks is a new script exploring my feeling that American Black women wrestle with knowing authentic love and thus wear masks when it comes to showing their “for real” feelings. It is organized around twelve-bar blues, rap, hip hop lyrics and monologues. Initial funding by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts as the winner of the 2018 Fellowship in Playwriting.
Cast: Becky Bass, Ramona-Bass Kolobe, Elizabeth Keiser, Angela Nash Wade, Michaelle Saintil, Wanda Schell, Sylvia Ann Soares, Kim Trusty, Rose Weaver
Related Articles
- LIVE: Rose Weaver Joins Molly O’Brien
- Pot au Feu to Celebrate Bastille Day With Performance by Rose Weaver
- LIVE: Caprio’s “Caught in Providence” Begins National Distribution
- LIVE: Eve and Mathieu Revolutionizes Non-Dairy Milk Distribution
- LIVE: Salisbury Farm Corn Maze Raises Money for Hemophilia Association
- LIVE: Styleweek Northeast Returns to Providence
- LIVE: Academy Players to Debut Updated Performance Space with Opening of “Newsies”
- LIVE: Hera Gallery Celebrates Local Female Artists
- LIVE: La Salle Senior Develops VR App to Help Public Speaking
- LIVE: Interior Designer Garceau: Floor Plans and Furniture
- LIVE: “Swipe Right on the Weekend” with WeKey
- LIVE: Project LETS’ Hawes Breaks Down Resources Available to Students
- LIVE: Senate Candidate Bell Calls for End to Tax Cuts for the Wealthy
- Gorbea on LIVE: Last-Minute Primary Voting Information for Rhode Islanders
- Trillo on LIVE: “I’m Not Going to Tell You What You Want to Hear”
- ELECTION 2018 LIVE: Cicilline Predicts Dems Will Retake the House
- ELECTION 2018 LIVE: Witman Says She has the Momentum to Win Mayor’s Race
- ELECTION 2018 LIVE: Raimondo Denies Collusion and Says Fung and Trillo are One and the Same
- ELECTION 2018 LIVE: Fung Says Raimondo and Trillo’s Coordination Will Not Stop His Victory
- LIVE: Interior Designer Garceau on Electrical Considerations
- ELECTION 2018 LIVE: Magaziner Says He Will Be “All Over the State” in Reelection Bid
- VIDEO LIVE: Top SEC Whistleblower Siedle Endorses Fung for Governor, Calls for Investigation
- Lawless on LIVE: “My Bet is Kavanaugh Will Drop Out”
- Providence Mayoral Candidate Witman on LIVE: Strike, Public Safety, Tax Breaks and More
- Lawless on LIVE: Whitehouse “Damned If He Did, Damned If He Didn’t” Report Kavanaugh Allegations
- LIVE: 3 Injured as Portion of Mill Building in Pawtucket Collapses During Rehab
- RI Marijuana Advocate Moffat LIVE: “We’ve Waited Long Enough,” After MA Tops $2.2 Million in Sales