The Riverside Theatre and BeBop Theatre Collective Celebrate Sonia Sanchez

Sanchez’s first play, The Bronx Is Next, is a provoking commentary on interracial racism and interracial sexism that premiered in The Drama Review in 1968.  The play follows Charles, Roland and Jimmy, three Black Revolutionaries forcing tenants into the streets as part of their organization’s protest plan to burn out the horrible tenements of Harlem.  The play typifies Sanchez’s bold spirit as it illustrates her early capacity to celebrate the Black Power Movement and critique it at the same time. The patriarchal oppression of women within the Black Power Movement is thus central to the play’s impact both in the ’60s and today.

Sister Son/Ji, in part, explores the vital role in the movement of college students whose personal interactions often mimicked confrontational, unhealthy male/female relationships derived from sexist behavior within the larger black (militant) community.  Descriptions of social and personal divisions among characters in the play emphasize Sanchez’s criticisms of black paternalism within the movement-continuing Sanchez’s unflinching examination of paradoxical notions of liberation in the Black Power Movement.  This BeBop Theatre Collective production marks the 40th anniversary of Sister Son/Ji.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 6 – MONDAY, AUGUST 17
8:00 P.M.-AUGUST 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, 17
3:00 P.M.-AUGUST 9, 16

$20 General Admission

For more info and to purchase tickets, click here.

Tags: bebop theatre collective, Harlem, riverside church, riverside theatre, sonia sanchez

Category: * ALL EVENTS *, Theatre