Nate’s North Coast Notes • Six Scintillating Sisters Shine in PBS’ ‘How It Feels to Be Free’ • Peter Lawson Jones hits ‘Chicago Fire’, ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ • Tommy Davidson at Cleveland Improv • MIX returns to art museum

By Nathan E. Paige

“How It Feels To Be Free” the latest PBS “American Masters” documentary, features clockwise from top left,
Lena Horne, Cicely Tyson, Pam Grier, Nina Simone, Abbey Lincoln, and Diahann Carroll.  

‘How It Feels to Be Free’ – ‘American Masters’ on PBS

PBS’ “American Masters” series presents the new documentary, “How It Feels to Be Free,” highlighting six prominent black women artists — Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier — who became game changers in the entertainment industry. Celebrity interviews include Halle Berry, Lena Waithe, Meagan Good, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Samuel L. Jackson, as well as Horne’s daughter Gail Lumet Buckley. Alicia Keys narrates and serves as executive producer.  

 “I am proud to be a part of such a meaningful, important project,” says Keys. “Art is the most powerful medium on the planet, and I continue to be inspired by and learn from these powerful, brave and stereotype-shattering women who leveraged their success as artists to fearlessly stand up against racism, sexism, exclusion and harassment. I honor their courage by celebrating their stories and continuing the work they started.”

The documentary is based on the book “How It Feels To Be Free: Black Women Entertainers and the Civil Rights Movement” by Ruth Feldstein. The video link above is accessible on pbs.org until February 16.

Local politician-turned-actor Peter Lawson Jones appears in the January 27 episode of “Chicago Fire” on NBC.

Peter Lawson Jones on NBC’s “Chicago Fire” - January 27

Local politician-turned-actor Peter Lawson Jones can be seen in the Wednesday, January 27 episode of the NBC drama “Chicago Fire,” airing at 9PM ET. He also has a role in the upcoming “Judas and the Black Messiah,” starring Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield, which is scheduled for a February 12 release. 

Comedian Tommy Davidson will do five shows at the Cleveland Improv January 29-31.

Comedian Tommy Davidson at Cleveland Improv – January 29-31

Comedian Tommy Davidson comes to town for 5 shows Jan. 29-31 at the Cleveland Improv, 1148 Main Avenue in the Flats. Tickets $20. In recent years, Davidson has been seen in the 2020 Netflix special “Sarah Cooper: Everything’s Fine,” and heard as the voice of Oscar Proud on The Disney Channel’s “The Proud Family.” He also had a small role in the fourth installment of the “Sharknado” franchise. 

The film noir classic “The Maltese Falcon” returns to theaters to mark the 80^th anniversary of its release.
[Photo courtesy of Fathom Events]

Fathom Events presents 80th anniversary screenings of ‘The Maltese Falcon’ – January 24, 27

Fathom Events will re-release “The Maltese Falcon” in select theaters January 24 and 27 in conjunction with the 80^th anniversary of the film noir classic. Based on the short story by Dashiel Hammett, the film stars Humphrey Bogart — one of the prototypes for what a cinematic private detective should be — who portrays hard-boiled gumshoe Sam Spade. Also starring Sidney Greenstreet, Mary Astor and Peter Lorre.  Don’t try to follow the story, just go along for the ride.  

A virtual version of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s MIX event takes place Friday, February 5 at 8PM.

MIX: Move at The Cleveland Museum of Art – February 5

The Cleveland Museum of Art reopened to the public on the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday. Come February 5 at 8PM, the MIX event returns with “MOVE” featuring movement and performance artist Marcia Custer who will take the audience on a virtual dancing tour through the galleries, accompanied by  visuals from artist Ben Oblivion. DJ Haley Himiko Morris provides the tunes. Free.  Colorful attire encouraged. 

Is there an upcoming event you’d like included in this column? Please send the details, along with a high-resolution photo/graphic, to northcoastnotes@therealdealpress.com at least two weeks prior to the event.

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The Amen Corner seeds start of new black theater district

James Baldwin classic marks hopeful emergence of new black theater district

By Prester “Shake Spear” Pickett, M.F.A.

A strong cast anchors the inauguration of Powerful Long Ladder Ensemble company in The Amen Corner, which runs through a matinee performance Sunday, December 10 at the new Holy Trinity Cultural Arts Center.

[Mychal Lilly Photography]

The Holy Trinity Cultural Arts Center (HTCAC) at 7209 Woodland Avenue is almost a quarter in blocks east of what was once known as “The Double Nickel,” or East 55^th Street. This part of Cleveland was once known as “The Forgotten Triangle.” Today, in the midst of all of the historical geographic descriptions, a ticket to Holy Trinity's production of The Amen Corner will bring you to a place that Holy Trinity's pastor, Dr. Andrew D. Clark, has rechristened “the new Black Theater District.”

Director Terrence Spivey, left,
founder of Powerful Long Ladder Ensemble
theater company, with Holy Trinity COGIC
pastor Andrew D. Clark.
[Mychal Lilly Photography]

HTCAC has united with Powerful Long Ladder Ensemble's artistic vision in an embrace of “the belief that theatrical arts hold transformative potential.” In many ways, they have combined efforts to find in James Baldwin’s classic work a balm in Gilead that can heal the sin-sick soul. This Terrence Spivey-directed piece takes you to church, the one where foot stomping, hand clapping, and harmonizing voices usher you into a devotion without the contemporary accouterments of state-of-the-art technological alterations.

The Amen Corner plot is centered around Sister Margaret, convincingly played by Jeanine Gaskin.  The December 1 opening night saw Gaskin find every dimension of black womanhood as a sister, loving spouse, and mother despite the conditions of hardships and estrangements. As Margaret pastors a congregation that is critical of her leadership because she is a single woman, you are forced to watch the play and think about the type of challenge that a woman pastor might have faced during the time when Rosa Parks declined to relinquish her seat on that Cleveland Avenue bus. The need to contrast that thought with the fact that opposition to women in the pulpit still exists today soon follows.

Much like many of the storefront churches that developed in Cleveland in response to the great migration after the end of World War I with a fight abroad, this play highlights the fight at home that took place against the warring idea of separate but equal. While it concentrates on the life of a particular family, it reminds us of racism’s serious and lasting impact and may inspire audiences to consider opening history books as well as bibles.

Praise the Lord and put out the Preacher!

[Mychal Lilly Photography]

The set of Margaret's church is framed on the basement stage of Holy Trinity C.O.G.I.C. The home that she shares with her sister is thrust in front of the church scene and slightly elevated above the main floor with the audience. Unfortunately, the structure of the basement causes a concerning acoustics problem that sometimes obscures the dialogue. But, eventually the arrangement is accepted when the consideration of all of the other dynamics of community theater are understood to be at work on the foundational level of this theater as a work in progress.

Sister Margaret and her husband are confronted by
the challenges of work, marriage, and parenthood.

[Mychal Lilly Photography]

The realization that community theater evolves because the people recognize a need to tell their own story empowers the overall experience with this off-Broadway, or for us off-Euclid, encounter. The relevance of this piece speaks to conditions that are still the same today as they were in the past.  

Discussions about infant mortality and poverty are as traumatizing today as they were yesterday. However, the references to the impact of racism with this Baldwin relic directs a closer attention on how we survived versus how we were oppressed. The human experience of a son's longing for his father in his life is portrayed through contrasting dimensions in the developing craft of Kali Hatten, who plays  a teenaged David against the very seasoned Peter Lawson Jones, who portrays his father. Jones encourages the audience to extend to his character both sympathy and empathy in regard to his life's choices and indecisions.

Just like East 55^th Street, this play attempts to present both sides of two coins—the religious and the secular with gosel and jazz as well as the young and the old amidst the struggles between righteousness and hypocrisy.  Meanwhile, the play gives several opportunites to reflect on popular bible verses anchored in the churchgoer and practical to a first-time visitor. Another comfort with the play are the clever inserts of familiar gospel songs coached by Sharolyn Ferebee and delivered by groomed voices that transition scenes to a new sequence of emotions.

Cleveland's collective memory of the days when churches fellowshipped with each other with regular concerts, socials, and even plays approach a renaissance in Cleveland with an ensemble with strong supporting actors that make moments both heavy and light. The discussion of Mt. Sinai Ministries advancing a production of A Raisin in the Sun adds to the emergence of a new Black Theater District in Cleveland on Woodland Avenue and give those interested in Black Theater a great alternative. In the meantime, there remain a few days of the doors being open for church and theater with The Amen Corner which is scheduled through this Sunday, December 10.

Prester Pickett is director of The Howard A. Mims African American Cultural Center at Cleveland State University.

SHOW TIMES: Thursday - Saturday - 7:30PM; Saturday Matinee - 1PM; Sunday Matinee - 3PM. For more information call 216.417.4571 or email Trinity.Boxoffice@gmail.com.

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Terrence Spivey brings August Wilson to Shore Cultural Centre starting tonight

August Wilson is the only playwright, Terrence Spivey told us in our interview over the weekend, to have ALL of his works appear on Broadway. Wilson wrote ten plays, each framed in a different decade of the twentieth century, depicting African American experience.

Tonight, Spivey, the artistic director at the Shore Cultural Centre in Euclid, launches an ambitious effort to demonstrate the fertile legacy that Wilson depicts through readings of his plays beginning with Gem of the Ocean.

Leon Bibb, the noted broadcaster [recently retired from Channel 5], is featured in Gem, which is set in the year 1904.

Spivey emphasizes the message of preservation of heritage, history, and remembrance that is uniqueness to all of Wilson’s plays.  The tone of spirituality and healing reverberates soundly inside an African American community that finds itself in a situation demanding heedfulness to introspective dialogue that simmers the core of how we perceive race, oneness, and dignity.  Wilson’s plays will render your emotions “fighting on the inside.”

As a director, Spivey highlights the value of approaching his craft organically and working from how the actors are feeling at that moment.  He eschews the excessive pre-staging and writing prior to the rehearsal that could stifle the performer’s natural power and delivery.  He believes that yielding to inventive freedom at appropriate moments delivers a grander experience than could have been scripted - and no erasing is needed. 

This series of readings of Wilson’s plays, The American Century Cycle, will continue on October 30 with Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, featuring Peter Lawson Jones.

For tickets, visit here.  Shore Cultural Centre is located at 291 East 222 St., Euclid OH 44123 [216. 289-8578].

 By Neina K.

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