"Plainfield Acts!" Drama Workshops for Children and Adults

Plainfield's own Danielle Tucker is at it again, and that is great news for Plainfield's thespians! Hot on the heels of her previous success in directing sold-out performances of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues, Danielle will be teaching a series of drama workshops for both children and adults, sponsored by the Plainfield Division of Parks and Recreation. In addition, she will be directing a performance of Annie JR, based on the popular musical, Annie, scheduled for Friday, June 1. Auditions are Friday, April 6. No previous experience is necessary. For more information, click on the fliers, and contact Recreation at 908-753-3097.

Plainfield Acts! (for children)

The 8-week workshop for children begins this Saturday, April 7, from 12:00 noon - 3:00 pm at the First Unitarian Society of Plainfield (FUSP), located at 724 Park Avenue. The cost is only $25.00. Sign up by clicking on this link: Community Pass

Plainfield Acts! (for adults)
The intensive for adults (18 and up) starts Tuesday, April 10 and runs through Thursday, May 24, from 6:30 - 8:30 PM, at the same location (FUSP). This acting course (also only $25.00) will culminate in a stage performance scheduled for Friday, May 25. Danielle notes the following: "Participants will learn audition techniques, scene study, character development, and more. The workshop will end in a culminating performance with invited industry professionals." Sign up by clicking on this link: Community Pass

14th Annual National Black Writers Conference - March 22 - 25!

Calling all my writers, readers, and lovers of black literature!  

The 14th Annual National Black Writers Conference will be presented on Thursday, March 22 through Sunday, March 25, 2018 at The Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College, CUNY,1650 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, 11225. Dozens of writers, scholars, and other literary professionals will be in attendance at this one-of-a-kind 4-day literary conference, participating in panel discussions, roundtables, workshops, author readings,film screenings, a poetry cafe, and more! The 2018 conference theme is Gathering at the Waters: Healing, Legacy and Activism in Black Literature. As noted in the press materials, "This timely theme acknowledges our concern about the recent, and continuing, issues of social inequality and injustices that challenge us and builds on the legacy of healing through activism." This year's Honorary Co-Chair is Dr. Myrlie Evers-Williams, and the 2018 NBWC Honorees are Steven Barnes, Kwame Dawes, Tananarive Due, David Levering Lewis, Eugene B. Redmond, Susan L. Taylor, and Colson Whitehead. This exciting annual event is a "must-attend" for writers of all genres--come and share in the joy of literary expression!

 

For more information and to register, click on the link:

www.centerforblackliterature.org

Visit NBWC on Facebook at:
National Black Writers Conference

 

"Take the Mic: Spoken Word" Saturday, March 17 at Plainfield's Dream House Theater

This Saturday, March 17, from 7:00 - 9:00 PM, Dream House Theater will host "Take the Mic: Spoken Word" at the Parish Hall Theater, 724 Park Avenue. All poets, singers, rap artists, and other spoken word aficionados and practitioners are invited to come out and share their gifts. For more information, call Dream House Theater at (908) 219-7745. With a stated mission focused on "Empowering our community through theater," Dream House Theater provides a space for the arts in Plainfield. Come out and support the arts in our community! Click on the link to visit the website: dreamhousetheater.org

 

2018 Adele DeLeeuw Scholarship Deadline: Wednesday, March 7!

2018 Adele DeLeeuw Scholarship applications--ranging from $1,000 - $5,000--are being accepted until Wednesday, March 7. Graduating high school students in the Plainfield area are welcome to apply, as well as previous DeLeeuw Scholarship recipients. Read the flier below!

Read Across America on Friday, March 2!

I have always been a bookworm. My voracious reading habits were instilled in me as a child, growing up in Jamaica, Queens, with daily browsing through my elementary and middle school libraries in conjunction with making weekly expeditions to my local Queensborough Public Library. I always read biographies—Harriet Tubman, Annie Oakley, Francis Marion, Frederick Douglass, Samuel F.B. Morse, Alexander Graham Bell. I also read any series of books involved in mystery, especially Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew. I also read Classics Illustrated comics—which provided great versions of classic novels. Among my favorite books back then were (are), in no particular order: To Kill A Mockingbird,  Frankenstein, The Soul Brothers and Sister Lou, The County of Monte Cristo, Daddy was a Number Runner, Robinson Crusoe, and Oliver Twist.

Friday, March 2 is Read Across America Day, celebrated in honor of Dr. Seuss and devoted to demonstrating the importance of reading to young people. I will be reading to students at Queen City Academy tomorrow afternoon. I would encourage everyone to read to take some time tomorrow to read aloud to the young people in your sphere—even if only for 15-30 minutes—it really makes a difference!

Best,

Rebecca

Happy New Year...Reclaiming My Time!

Welcome to the new year! As one who keeps busy, with legislative work as well as a full-time teaching job, it is important to balance one's time in a way that helps one to remain effective and happy. This year, I am working to achieve greater balance as I look forward to new opportunities!

Young, Black, and Suicidal: A Cause for Alarm

The son of a classmate of a close friend of mine committed suicide recently. What awful feelings of hopelessness and despair must have filled his waking thoughts until he made his terrible, fateful decision to end his pain. I talk about suicidal children in my 19th century black literature classes--two texts that I teach are Frederick Douglass's Narrative and Harriet E. Wilson's autobiographical novel, Our Nig respectively (see links below for the complete texts). In each, we see the despair and the traumatizing effects and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness that our ancestors bore, even as young children.

For Douglass, the devastating realization that his young, black life was doomed to enslavement made him contemplate suicide at the age of twelve: "I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead; and but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I should have killed myself, or done something for which I should have been killed." 

Similarly, fourteen year-old Frado, the free Northern black indentured servant (a fictionalized version of Wilson) has suicidal thoughts, which are overheard by James, the sympathetic son of her white mistress: "'Oh! oh!' I heard, 'why was I made? why can't I die? Oh, what have I to live for? No one cares for me only to get my work. And I feel sick; who cares for that? Work as long as I can stand, and then fall down and lay there till I can get up. No mother, father, brother or sister to care for me, and then it is, You lazy nigger, lazy nigger—all because I am black! Oh, if I could die!'" 

These two protagonists do not kill themselves, but they speak to the depth of psychological pain experienced by children who live without hope. In the past several years, the statistics for black children who attempt and/or commit suicide are rising. I was reading an article on black children and suicide that was published a couple of days ago (November 14, 2017) in The Root-the entire story is below--just click on the link.  

A 2016 article in CNN quotes a study in JAMA Pediatrics, noting : "...black youth may experience disproportionate exposure to violence or traumatic stressors, both of which have been associated with suicidal behavior. Also, research has shown that black youth are less likely to receive services for depression, suicidal ideation, and other mental health problems compared with non-black youth"--click here to read the entire CNN article. The article also notes that the highest youth suicide rates are among Native American youth.

'Sometimes I Just Don't Wanna Be Here Anymore': On Black Children and Suicide 

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself

Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, In A Two-Story White House, North. Showing that Slavery's Shadows Fall Even There