“I was always the only black in the movie theater, the only black in class, the only black in the library, the only black in the discotheque. I always felt observed and judged.” FeltBlackClassTheaterLibraryJudgedMovie Theater Author:Concha Buika
“Well, I couldn't play an instrument. I'd just stand up front and announce the numbers. They had me sing a little, but that was a horrible mistake. I can't carry a tune in a bucket. We played black theaters and nightclubs all over hell. One-nighters. Apollo Theater in Harlem and the Earle Theater in Philly - That was big time for blacks.” WellsLittlesI CanPlayBigsSportsBlackNumbersMistakeHellFrontsTheaterInstrumentsAthleteHorribleTunesApolloBucketsHarlemNightclubsHorrible Mistakes Author:Jesse Owens
“My first time performing was in the black box theater of my high school's basement as a member of 'Clownaz,' the school's improv team. We charged money for tickets, saying the proceeds went to our school's recycling program. Then, immediately after the show, we divided up all the money and kept it.” FirstsShowsSchoolBlackTeamMembersHigh SchoolFirst TimeProgramTheaterBoxesPerformingDividedTicketsBasementsRecyclingBlack Boxes Author:Joe Mande
“I always believed I was an ugly duckling in a family of swans, you know? I was such a black sheep, and it was the same way in high school... I was just kind of that awkward theater kid with a bunch of athletes... it was very Glee.” KnowsWayKindKidsSchoolBlackHigh SchoolTheaterAthleteUglyBunchSheepAwkwardAlways BelieveSwansGleeBlack SheepDucklingsUgly Duckling Author:Lindsay Pearce
“I was a kid who liked art and theater and dance and music, but if you lived in Harlem, high culture was somewhere else, and it wasn't black.” IfsArtKidsCultureBlackTheaterSomewhere ElseHarlem Author:Samuel R. Delany
“When you look at me you don't immediately imagine a very very glamorous icon, so it's only in the theater that I get to do these experiments. I've been an actor about 51 years now. I've played everything from an 8-year-old black boy to a 72-year-old French matriarch, and they hardly hire you to do that on TV.” YearsLooksActorsBlackBoysImagineTvsTheaterExperimentsLook At MeIconsGlamorousBlack BoyMatriarchs Author:Tyne Daly
“At one time, you could sit on the Rue de la Paix in Paris or at the Habima Theater in Tel Aviv or in Medina and you could see a person come in, black, white, it didn't matter. You said, 'That's an American' because there's a readiness to smile and to talk to people.” PeoplePersonsSaidMatterBlackWhiteTheaterParisOne TimeReadinessBlack WhiteRueMedina Author:Maya Angelou
“I was really sporty and loved singing. I started off doing musical theater. I left university to go to drama school. So I was a bit of a black sheep.” SchoolLeftBitsBlackDramaSingingTheaterMusicalUniversitySheepMusical TheaterBlack Sheep Author:Sophie Cookson
“I've had frank conversations with theaters who say, 'We love your play, but we've already done a play by another black person this year,' or 'I don't think the kind of people you write about are the ones our audience wants to see'... Up and coming young black female writers are still struggling to have their voices heard and have their plays produced.” PeopleThinkingWantWritingYearsKindPersonsStillsDonePlayYoungBlackVoiceAudienceStruggleHeardLove YouConversationFemaleTheaterFrankBlack PersonFemale Writers Author:Katori Hall
“People inside the theaters usually, not 100 percent but most of them, enjoy the movie. Usually they come with a small negative view. In a way, they're prepared to get bored because it's silent and because it's black and white. So they are much more pleased to be entertained in a way. They're very happy when they go out. This was my job. For the other ones, I can do nothing except screen the movie and hope that they will say to their friends that it's not so [bad].” PeopleWayI CanJobsEnjoyBlackCan DoWhiteViewsPercentNegativeTheaterPreparedSilentScreensBoredBlack And WhiteVery Happy Author:Michel Hazanavicius
“Hung be the heavens with black! Yield, day, to night!” NightHeavenBlackTheaterMourningYieldHung Author:William Shakespeare
“I don't know why people always compare me [ with Amiri Baraka] I was never part of the Black Arts Repertory Theater or the Black Arts Movement; people who claim that I was are wrong. I was downtown. I was living in Chelsea when they were operating in Harlem.” PeopleKnowsArtBlackMovementClaimsTheaterCompareDowntownHarlemChelseaBlack Art Author:Ishmael Reed
“I knew what it was to be uncomfortable in a movie theater watching unfolding on the screen images of myself - not me, but black people - that were uncomfortable.” PeopleBlackTheaterScreensUncomfortableBlack PeopleUnfoldingMovie Theater Author:Sidney Poitier
“I am inspired by great food, theater, books, the beach, black-and-white photography, and great vocalists, like Dianne Reeves, Alice Smith, and Shirley Horn. I am inspired by my mentor Diana Castle, who is guiding me towards a truth and honesty in my life and work that I have always longed for.” BookBlackWhiteHonestyPhotographyTheaterInspiredBeachBlack And WhiteMentorCastlesHornsDianaTruth And HonestyGreat FoodVocalistBlack And White Photography Author:Erica Tazel
“I lived right on the borderline of a black neighborhood. So I could go into the black area and then there'd be these ghetto theaters that you could actually see the new kung fu movie or the new blaxploitation movie or the new horror film or whatever. And then there was also, if you went just a little further away, there was actually a little art house cinema. So I could actually see, you know, French movies or Italian movies, when they came out.” IfsKnowsLittlesArtFilmHouseBlackHorrorAreasTheaterCinemaNeighborhoodItalianGhettoHorror FilmKung FuBorderlineFrench MoviesKung Fu Movie Author:Quentin Tarantino
“The thing I learned is that the work is getting done by people who dig in and work on a particular project: the people who spend 20 years sustaining a theater for black teenagers in Chicago; the people who reintroduce sticklebacks into Strawberry Creek in Berkeley and then wait patiently for the first egrets to show up.” PeopleYearsFirstsDoneShowsWaitingBlackParticularProjectsTheaterTeenagerChicagoSustainingStrawberriesCreeksBerkeley Author:Robert Hass
“I just remember not having access to films as a young person who loved films but living in Compton. In order to see the film, I had to get on the bus and travel quite a ways to get to an arthouse theater - none of which you're gonna find in black and brown communities - to see anything that was outside of what the studios fed me, and that's not the case anymore.” WayPersonsRememberFilmYoungOrderBlackCommunityCasesTheaterStudiosAccessBrownFedsBusCompton Author:Ava DuVernay
“The Circle Theatre, black people had to sit in the balcony. Any theater with a balcony, black people had to sit up there. Black people couldn't check into any hotel except their own. And black people couldn't eat anywhere except in their own restaurants.” PeopleBlackTheaterTheatreCirclesChecksRestaurantsHotelBlack PeopleBalconies Author:Kurt Vonnegut
“I grew up in Houston, and I remember we had separate drinking fountains, and black people sat in the balcony of the theater... We had an African-American housekeeper growing up who was really like my second mother. I thought it was silly - hatred just because of the color of somebody's skin.” PeopleRememberMotherBlackGrowing UpGrowingColorGrewGrew UpHatredSkinsTheaterDrinkingSillyAfrican AmericanSatBlack PeopleFountainHoustonBalconiesHousekeepers Author:Dennis Quaid
“I played in front of every conceivable audience you could face: an all-black audience, all-white, firemen's fairs, policemen's balls, in front of supermarkets, bar mitzvahs, weddings, drive-in theaters. I'd seen it all before I ever walked into a recording studio.” FacesBlackWhiteAudienceFrontsFairsBallsTheaterStudiosBarsPolicemenSupermarketsFiremanAll BlackRecording StudioBar MitzvahMitzvah Author:Bruce Springsteen
“It will take very sophisticated marketing to achieve our aim of bringing more black people into the theater.” PeopleBlackAchieveTheaterAimMarketingBlack PeopleSophisticated Author:Alvin Ailey
“I not only loved studying theater, I loved being a theater major. It gave me an excuse to brood, to grow a beard, to wear black 'at' people. I didn't just want to play Hamlet, I wanted to be Hamlet.” PeopleWantPlayWantedGrowsBlackStudyMajorsTheaterExcuseBeard Author:Stephen Colbert