Happy Monday!
I hope that you’re having a good one.
I’ve been laid up with the latest virus that’s going around for almost two weeks. Got the flu shot, but unfortunately I caught a strain that’s not included in the vaccine.
A couple of things...
I’ll be performing THE GREAT AMERICAN SH*T SHOW featuring monologues on life in the Trump era at the San Leandro Performing Arts Center on Friday January 31.
The show benefits the progressive organizations Swing Left, Flip the West and Indivisible.
Come out, laugh, think and support the preservation of our democracy. Get your tickets HERE.
Since I’ve been ill, I haven’t gotten to too much, but I have a couple of things to tell you about this week.
BOOK
I’m currently reading HATTIE McDANIEL: BLACK AMBITION, WHITE HOLLYWOOD by Jill Watts.
The story of the first African American Oscar winner is both fascinating and maddening. Though she broke color barrier after color barrier with her work, she was dismissed and degraded by many black dogmatists and organizations because of the roles she played; primarily maids and servants... the only roles Hollywood offered to artists of color.
She famously said, “I can be a maid and make $2 a week or play a maid and make $200 a week.”
She was right about her options.
A lot of people (myself included) don’t know that her groundbreaking Academy Award for GONE WITH THE WIND has been missing for decades. She donated it to Howard University and sometime in the 1960s it vanished.
One rumor is that black students threw it in the river over the disdain they had for the role she played to earn it.
The book is a great story of a person of color pulled apart by two worlds. One you know that I can certainly relate to if you’ve seen or read NOT A GENUINE BLACK MAN.
READ.
TELEVISION
During my convalescence, I binged the miniseries KILLER INSIDE: THE MIND OF AARON HERNANDEZ.
The tragic rise and fall of a gifted young athlete who had it all, including a $40 million deal with the New England Patriots, yet threw it all away by committing three murders is a riveting three-part documentary.
All I can say is... WATCH IT and prepare to be shocked. You may think you know the whole story but trust me... you don’t.
Here’s where you can catch me performing in the coming days:
The Waiting Period:
JANUARY 26, FEBRUARY 16, MARCH 15: The Marsh San Francisco, 5 PM
The Great American Sh*t Show:
JANUARY 31: San Leandro Center for the Performing Arts, 7:30 PM
Not A Genuine Black Man:
FEBRUARY 8: The Marsh Berkeley, 5 PM
Grandma and Me:
MARCH 20, 27, APRIL 3, 10, 17, 24, The Marsh San Francisco, 8 PM
MARCH 21, 28, APRIL 4, 11, 18, 25, The Marsh San Francisco, 5 PM
Have a GREAT week!
Copie
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