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Black Repertory Group Future in Peril, Seeks Community Support

Founded in 1964 in the basement of Progressive Baptist Church, the Black Repertory Group (BRG) moved to a storefront at 1719 Alcatraz until the Black community, led by members of Downs Memorial Church, reached deep into their pockets, and, with the help of the City of Berkeley, built their theater on Adeline St. BRG had two missions: to serve underprivileged, underserved and minority populations and perform the works of Black playwrights.

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Members of the 2022 summer theatre camp. Photo by Pamela Spikes.
Members of the 2022 summer theatre camp. Photo by Pamela Spikes.

Part II

By Tanya Dennis

Founded in 1964 in the basement of Progressive Baptist Church, the Black Repertory Group (BRG) moved to a storefront at 1719 Alcatraz until the Black community, led by members of Downs Memorial Church, reached deep into their pockets, and, with the help of the City of Berkeley, built their theater on Adeline St.

BRG had two missions: to serve underprivileged, underserved and minority populations and perform the works of Black playwrights.

Established by founders Birel and Nora Vaughn and continued by their daughter, Dr. Mona Scott and grandson, Sean Scott, BRG used theater as a platform to address social issues oppressing the Black community while elevating Black art, music and advocacy.

BRG was instrumental to the African American community to address such issues as:

  • Human trafficking
  • Health Education Through Theater (HETT) programs
  • HIV/AIDS prevention programs and services
  • A youth Tutorial and Cultural Enrichment program (TACE)
  • Summer day camp drama programs for at-risk youth and children with disabilities
  • The Transformation Festival, which celebrated the healing of trauma through the performing arts
  • Partnerships with the World of Work projects to provide at-risk youth on-the-job training, anti-violence and recidivism reduction programs targeting at-risk youth and adults
  • A three-year partnership with Rome Neal of the Nuyorican Theatre, resulting in his award-winning “Monk,” a one-man dramatization of the life of Thelonious Monk and Neal’s “Banana Puddin’ Jazz Meets Sweet Potato Jazz.”

In addition to staging over 50 plays by Black playwrights, the Black Rep. has hosted political townhalls, book launches, comedy shows and is currently in discussion with Dr. Vileen Shah of the East Bay School for the Blind to write and collaborate in the production of a documentary, “Vileen’s Vision,” about Louis Braille, the inventor of the Braille system that allowed blind and visually impaired individuals to read through touch.

Despite BRG’s legacy and history, theater administrator Sean Scott alleges that the City of Berkeley is reneging on its $25,000 annual pledge to the Black Rep for upkeep and maintenance and they are now in litigation with the city over unpaid fees despite the city recently touting a reparations program for African Americans.

Scott is reaching out to supporters of the theater, requesting they write letters to Mayor Jesse Arreguin and Berkeley City Councilmember Ben Bartlett, who, Scott believes, have no clue how instrumental BRG has been to the development of Black culture in the City of Berkeley. He is asking that BRG not only be allowed to continue their work but to purchase the theater building currently owned by the city.

“Councilman Bartlett is not representing us, he is not on the same page” as us, said 89-year-old Berkeley resident Ms. Ritchie Smith, who was interviewed while cleaning up in front of the BRG building.

“I’ve known the Black Rep. since its infancy, when they were in the basement of Progressive church across the street from where I live,” Smith said. “I’m not giving up on this, I’m out here fighting, picking up trash on Fairview right now. This theater will not disappear!

“Too many people put their blood, sweat and tears into the Black Rep. for that love to be ignored and dismissed. We got to unite on this. Black folks better do something before we lose everything.”

Concerned citizens may send letters of concern to Mayor Jesse Arreguín at mayor@berkeleyca.gov, Councilman Ben Bartlett at bbartlett@berkeleyca.gov and City Manager Dee Williams-Ridley manager@berkeleyca.gov.

Arts and Culture

Book Review: Building the Worlds That Kill Us: Disease, Death, and Inequality in American History

Nearly five years ago, while interviewing residents along the Mississippi River in Louisiana for a book they were writing, authors Rosner and Markowitz learned that they’d caused a little brouhaha. Large corporations in the area, ones that the residents of “a small, largely African American community” had battled over air and soil contamination and illness, didn’t want any more “’agitators’” poking around. They’d asked a state trooper to see if the authors were going to cause trouble.

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Courtesy of Columbia University Press
Courtesy of Columbia University Press.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

 Author: David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz, c.2024, Columbia University Press, $28.00

Get lots of rest.

That’s always good advice when you’re ailing. Don’t overdo. Don’t try to be Superman or Supermom, just rest and follow your doctor’s orders.

And if, as in the new book, “Building the Worlds That Kill Us” by David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz, the color of your skin and your social strata are a certain way, you’ll feel better soon.

Nearly five years ago, while interviewing residents along the Mississippi River in Louisiana for a book they were writing, authors Rosner and Markowitz learned that they’d caused a little brouhaha. Large corporations in the area, ones that the residents of “a small, largely African American community” had battled over air and soil contamination and illness, didn’t want any more “’agitators’” poking around. They’d asked a state trooper to see if the authors were going to cause trouble.

For Rosner and Markowitz, this underscored “what every thoughtful person at least suspects”: that age, geography, immigrant status, “income, wealth, race, gender, sexuality, and social position” largely impacts the quality and availability of medical care.

It’s been this way since Europeans first arrived on North American shores.

Native Americans “had their share of illness and disease” even before the Europeans arrived and brought diseases that decimated established populations. There was little-to-no medicine offered to slaves on the Middle Passage because a ship owner’s “financial calculus… included the price of disease and death.”  According to the authors, many enslavers weren’t even “convinced” that the cost of feeding their slaves was worth the work received.

Factory workers in the late 1800s and early 1900s worked long weeks and long days under sometimes dangerous conditions, and health care was meager; Depression-era workers didn’t fare much better. Black Americans were used for medical experimentation. And just three years ago, the American Lung Association reported that “’people of color’ disproportionately” lived in areas where the air quality was particularly dangerous.

So, what does all this mean? Authors David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz don’t seem to be too optimistic, for one thing, but in “Building the Worlds That Kill Us,” they do leave readers with a thought-provoker: “we as a nation … created this dark moment and we have the ability to change it.” Finding the “how” in this book, however, will take serious between-the-lines reading.

If that sounds ominous, it is. Most of this book is, in fact, quite dismaying, despite that there are glimpses of pushback here and there, in the form of protests and strikes throughout many decades. You may notice, if this is a subject you’re passionate about, that the histories may be familiar but deeper than you might’ve learned in high school. You’ll also notice the relevance to today’s healthcare issues and questions, and that’s likewise disturbing.

This is by no means a happy-happy vacation book, but it is essential reading if you care about national health issues, worker safety, public attitudes, and government involvement in medical care inequality. You may know some of what’s inside “Building the Worlds That Kill Us,” but now you can learn the rest.

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Arts and Culture

‘Giants Rising’ Film Screening in Marin City Library

A journey into the heart of America’s most iconic forests, “Giants Rising” tells the epic tale of the coast redwoods — the tallest and among the oldest living beings on Earth. Living links to the past, redwoods hold powers that may play a role in our future, including their ability to withstand fire and capture carbon, to offer clues about longevity, and to enhance our own well-being.

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A woman stands amid towering redwood trees in a forest. Photo courtesy of Marin County Free Library.
A woman stands amid towering redwood trees in a forest. Photo courtesy of Marin County Free Library.

By Godfrey Lee

The film “Giants Rising” will be screened on Saturday, Jan. 11, from 3-6 p.m. at the St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, located 100 Donahue St. in Marin City.

A journey into the heart of America’s most iconic forests, “Giants Rising” tells the epic tale of the coast redwoods — the tallest and among the oldest living beings on Earth. Living links to the past, redwoods hold powers that may play a role in our future, including their ability to withstand fire and capture carbon, to offer clues about longevity, and to enhance our own well-being.

Through the voices of scientists, artists, Native communities, and others, we discover the many connections that sustain these forests and the promise of solutions that will help us all rise up to face the challenges that lay ahead.

The film’s website is www.giantsrising.com. The “Giants Rising” trailer is at https://player.vimeo.com/video/904153467. The registration link to the event is https://marinlibrary.bibliocommons.com/events/673de7abb41279410057889e

This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Marin City Library and hosted in conjunction with the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and St. Andrew Presbyterian Church.

All library events are free. For more information, contact Etienne Douglas at (415) 332-6158 or email etienne.douglas@marincounty.gov. For event-specific information, contact Zaira Sierra at zsierra@parksconservancy.org.

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Activism

‘Resist’ a Look at Black Activism in U.S. Through the Eyes of a Native Nigerian

In 1995, after she and her brothers traveled from their native Nigeria to join their mother at her new home in the South Bronx, young Omokha’s eyes were opened. She quickly understood that the color of her skin – which was “synonymous with endless striving and a pursuit of excellence” in Nigeria – was “so problematic in America.”

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Cover of “Resist! How a Century of Young Black Activists Shaped America.” Courtesy image.
Cover of “Resist! How a Century of Young Black Activists Shaped America.” Courtesy image.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer, The Bookworm Sez

Throughout history, when decisions were needed, the answer has often been “no.”

‘No,’ certain people don’t get the same education as others. ‘No,’ there is no such thing as equality. ‘No,’ voting can be denied and ‘no,’ the laws are different, depending on the color of one’s skin. And in the new book, Resist!” by Rita Omokha, ‘no,’ there is not an obedient acceptance of those things.

In 1995, after she and her brothers traveled from their native Nigeria to join their mother at her new home in the South Bronx, young Omokha’s eyes were opened. She quickly understood that the color of her skin – which was “synonymous with endless striving and a pursuit of excellence” in Nigeria – was “so problematic in America.”

That became a bigger matter to Omokha later, 15 years after her brother was deported: she “saw” him in George Floyd, and it shook her. Troubled, she traveled to America on a “pilgrimage for understanding [her] Blackness…” She began to think about the “Black young people across America” who hadn’t been or wouldn’t be quiet about racism any longer.

She starts this collection of stories with Ella Josephine Baker, whose parents and grandparents modeled activism and who, because of her own student activism, would be “crowned the mother of the Civil Rights Movement.” Baker, in fact, was the woman who formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, in 1960.

Nine teenagers, known as the Scottsboro Nine were wrongly arrested for raping two white women in 1931 and were all released, thanks to the determination of white lawyer-allies who were affiliated with the International Labor Defense and the outrage of students on campuses around America.

Students refused to let a “Gentleman’s Agreement” pass when it came to sports and equality in 1940. Barbara Johns demanded equal education under the law in Virginia in 1951. Huey Newton and Bobby Seale formed the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in 1966.  And after Trayvon Martin (2012) and George Floyd (2020) were killed, students used the internet as a new form of fighting for justice.

No doubt, by now, you’ve read a lot of books about activism. There are many of them out there, and they’re pretty hard to miss. With that in mind, there are reasons not to miss “Resist!”

You’ll find the main one by looking between the lines and in each chapter’s opening.

There, Omokha weaves her personal story in with that of activists at different times through the decades, matching her experiences with history and making the whole timeline even more relevant.

In doing so, the point of view she offers – that of a woman who wasn’t totally raised in an atmosphere filled with racism, who wasn’t immersed in it her whole life – lets these historical accounts land with more impact.

This book is for people who love history or a good, short biography, but it’s also excellent reading for anyone who sees a need for protest or action and questions the status quo. If that’s the case, then “Resist!” may be the answer.

“Resist! How a Century of Young Black Activists Shaped America” by Rita Omokha, c.2024, St. Martin’s Press. $29.00             

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