Category Archives: Craft

black and white (NPM2017 # 4)

Posted on April 6, 2017 by Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD

imagine me as i am fiercely beautiful a black and white negative growing in the shade of contempt like a desert rose fragrant in the funk of it unbowed refusing to be broken being everything else and then some more … Continue reading →

Posted in (NPM2017), Brick House Collection, Craft, North American African Perspective | Tagged , | Leave a comment

the house hustle made

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD

this is the house hustle made born blessings due 101 in the shade rough rider striding through life behind the veil imperial no fade  the light in the house  hustle made instructed by the bones bottom of the ocean on … Continue reading →

Posted in artist scholar, August Wilson, Black Arts, Craft, North American African Perspective | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Two Trains Running: Lower Bottom Playaz Next Stop

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD

Season 14 for the Lower Bottom Playaz starts with Two Trains Running by August Wilson. Wilson is one of America’s finest playwrights, his work The American Century Cycle is his signature writ large on the American theaterscape. His unduplicated accomplishment … Continue reading →

Posted in August Wilson, Black Arts, Craft, non fiction essay, North American African Perspective, Performing Arts, Tales of Iron and Water, Theater, work in progress | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Rainmaker

Posted on November 7, 2013 by Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD

In order to make art artist need access to space, materials, marketing, points of exchange and more. Each item mentioned comes with a price tag. The bottom line gets bigger when you actually employ other artists. Star making needs Rainmakers. Continue reading →

Posted in August Wilson, Black Arts, Craft, I'm Just Saying!, North American African Perspective, Performing Arts, Tales of Iron and Water, Theater, work in progress | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Importance of August Wilson to American Theater

Posted on July 4, 2013 by Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD

August Wilson is a playwright. In my opinion he is the most important American playwright of the 20th century.  His work the Century Cycle is the most expansive chronicle of American life in  the history of American theater. His tale of America … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Arts, Craft, I'm Just Saying!, Life., non fiction essay, North American African Perspective, Performing Arts, Tales of Iron and Water, Theater | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Unlikely Magicians

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD

Theater offers you a chance to solve a character’s problem, enjoy his destiny, fight along side him against his fate. Theater gives a performer a place to spend the emotional currency stored in an their well of lived experiences, it gives you a place to go when it is necessary to vacate your own reality temporarily for the sake of being able to carry it when you are forced to return to it. Continue reading →

Posted in Black Arts, Craft, non fiction essay, North American African Perspective, Performing Arts, Tales of Iron and Water | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Seven of One, Five of the Other: Half way through August Wilson’s Century Cycle

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD

Wilson is a bluesologist and we are blues people. Avotcja Jiltonilro explained to me once that the blues as we know it actually evolved from praise music not from the angst of the American experience as we have been taught. It is our song. Our ever overstanding of the beauty and majesty inherent in life and our heart’s determination to continue beating. Continue reading →

Posted in Black Arts, Craft, non fiction essay, North American African Perspective, Performing Arts, Tales of Iron and Water, Theater, work in progress | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD

In the sorrowful funk and divine fury of the music there is a delicately etched study of humanity for us to consider if we want more than entertainment from our theater. Continue reading →

Posted in Black Arts, Craft, North American African Perspective, Performing Arts, Theater | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A room full of broken birds

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD

the new born still talk to the dead the dead go as the new are born entering and exiting a room full of broken birds called life we are born dying the young man said it life brimming in his … Continue reading →

Posted in Craft, I'm Just Saying!, journal, Life., North American African Perspective, Poetry, spokenword, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 1 Comment

A Song of August Wilson or The Lion’s Roar, Parts 1, 2 and 3.

Posted on October 15, 2011 by Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD

There is no return from this baptism by Wilson. Nothing will ever be the same again. I have been caught by the piper. I follow the roar of the lion.
Continue reading →

Posted in Black Arts, Craft, journal, North American African Perspective, Performing Arts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments