Stories Of Black Brooklynites Celebrated At New 'Theatrical Exhibit'

BROOKLYN, NY — A new exhibit coming to Brooklyn's history center will put Black voices from the borough on display.

The "Enacting Central Brooklyn" exhibit, set to launch next week, will feature stories of Black Brooklynites both past and present through a partnership between the Center for Brooklyn History and Medgar Evers College.

The project will reflect specifically on exploring Central Brooklyn's community through memories of childhood, injustice, generosity, police brutality and protection, according to organizers.

It will be fueled by stories form the Center for Brooklyn History's oral history collection, writings from the Center for Black Literature’s Writing Workshop for Elders at Medgar Evers College and the poetry of current Medgar Evers students.

The Central-Brooklyn focused exhibit is part of the Brooklyn Public Library and historical center's larger Brooklyn Resists initiative, which examines "how Black Brooklynites have responded to systemic racial injustice, risen up against those systems, and how the protest movement the present ties to the generations of activists and leaders who came before."

Here's what to know about the event:

WHEN: Wednesday, May 25, 2022, at 7:30 p.m.

WHERE: Brooklyn Public Library’s Center for Brooklyn History at 128 Pierrepont Street.

HOW: RSVP required. (For all indoor Center for Brooklyn History and BPL Presents programs, guests must provide proof of vaccination and wear masks while onsite at all times. In-person capacity is limited and admission will be conducted on a first-come, first-served basis.

WHO:

• Adebowale Adebiyi is an acting MFA candidate at Columbia University (‘23). He is delighted to bring this story of community to life with such a generous group of artists.
• Stephanie Anuwe is a Nigerian American Texas native based in New York City. Stephanie completed her MFA from The Actors Studio Drama School in NYC. She is a lover of the written word and a natural storyteller.
• Bonita Jackson is an actor, writer, and teaching artist based in New York City; an MFA graduate from FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training. She's the co-founder of BARE, an interdisciplinary theatre and film-based organization that empowers artists by cutting through fear and shame, to create transformative works of theatre and film.
• Toussaint Jeanlouis is an Actor and Teaching Artist. Originally from Houston, Texas, he attended Arizona State University, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Theater with a Concentration in Acting and continued to California Institute of the Arts, earning a Master of Fine Arts in Acting. He currently lives in New York City where his last performance was in the Pulitzer Prize winning Hot Wing King by Katori Hall at the Signature Theatre.
• Director Victoria Collado is a Cuban-American director who creates adventurous traditional and non-traditional theatrical experiences. Recently named Best Director of 2020 by Miami New Times, her work includes The Amparo Experience and John Leguizamo's Latin History For Moronson Broadway.
• Playwright Amina Henry is a Brooklyn-based playwright and educator. She is currently an adjunct lecturer at Brooklyn College, SUNY Purchase and Molloy College and is a teaching artist for the Teachers & Writers Collaborative and the Hunts Point Alliance for Children. She is an affiliate artist at New Georges.
• Producer Darrel Alejandro Holnes is an Assistant Professor of English at Medgar Evers College, a senior college of the City University of New York (CUNY), where he teaches creative writing and playwriting, and a faculty member of the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University.
• Designer Anna Driftmeir is a scenographer and production designer whose work extends across the US and Europe. She is the scenography mentor for the Juilliard School’s Center for Innovation in the Arts and an Art Department Coordinator for LAIKA Studios on their upcoming feature film.