From Left to Right: Nicole Anderson, Lloyd Roseman, Kenza Dawn Hill, Yvonne Echols
The Hansberry-Sands Theatre Company (HSTC) opened its 35th season under the direction of its tenured Artistic Director, Willie AbNey with a tribute to the Black family thru playwright Georgia Turner Douglas’, SAFE.
This historically relevant social justice work was mounted in collaboration with America’s Black Holocaust Museum’s Black Voices Matter – An Evening of Arts and Culture at Centennial Hall.
“The arts have a particularly brilliant way of raising consciousness and making history relevant and timely.
The Founders Day 2016 event brought together artists, activists and scholars to explore the lingering problems with racial violence directed at Black people in America.
The Hansberry-Sands Theatre Company’s rendition of the classic anti-lynching play, SAFE, placed the audience back into the era of Jim Crow, while simultaneously making important commentary on today’s injustices.
SAFE made the event all the more powerful and educational – and artistic – thanks to the brilliant staff and cast” stated Robert S. Smith, Associate Professor of History, Associate Vice Chancellor, Global Inclusion and Engagement, and Executive Director, Cultures & Communities Program at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee.
This production marked the continuation of Hansberry’s important social justice work introduced last year through their Youth Tribute Troupe REAL Street Theatre.
The successful Violence2- Peace grassroots programming offered a unique approach to violence awareness, utilizing the celebration of history and current life experiences as a platform to educate, uplift, empower, and transform.
Hansberry formally celebrates its 35th anniversary later this year with the premier of Ultimate Sacrifice, an important human trafficking work, and will co-host the citywide AFY Reunion honoring a history maker and man who touched the lives of more youth than any one individual in Milwaukee, Mr. Roy Hill.
For these and other 2015-2016 season events and interested AFY coaches and players, e-mail hansberry-sand7529@sbcglobal.net.