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My brother, Dan, picked me up at the airport in Newark, New Jersey. For March on the East Coast, the weather was warm. |
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I took the train from New York City to Rhode Island. This is the first site, coming out of the train in Providence - the State Capitol. |
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Professor Erik Ehn (right), head of the playwriting department at Brown University, invited me to present and perform two hours worth of my multimedia work-in-progress Ceiba-de-Cuba. Erik has written many plays on genocide. |
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My friend and neighbor of many years, Dolann Adams, flew in from LA to play the role of my Siboney ancestor in the first staged reading of a new scene I that wrote for the piece. Dolann received her MFA in theatre from the Actor's Studio Pace University in 2009. |
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My cousin Reina De La Caridad Maria Elena Powell (left) read the role of the Ex Slave Grandmother which requires the singing of a Cuban slave lullaby. Angels sang through Reina's voice. She is a full-lyric operatic soprano and is receiving her MA in music, in April 2010, from the New England Conservatory of Music. |
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Erik Ehn and other Brown U Professors found students to fill in for supporting roles. Griselle Escotto (right), a 2009 Brown graduate, played the role of the DANCER and performed a wonderful solo of the Orisha Ochun. Griselle has danced Afro-Cuban folklore for over 10 years. She also read the role of the Siboney Daughter. |
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Two Cubans (Reina and I), one Dominican (Griselle), and one American with a lot of native blood in her lineage (Dolann). The four of us right after the performance. The scene reenacts the genocide of my Siboney native Cuban ancestors in the 1500's. |
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The whole cast with Erik Ehn. Marquis (far left), Reina's friend, read the role of the Ex Slave Boy. Ian Sims (the tallest) accompanied my spoken word on percussion, and Corrie Tran (far right) accompanied Reina's solo lullaby on piano. |
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Professor Kym Moore (right) teaches acting and directing at Brown University. She and her Brown U student Angella Ford (left) expressed that they were very moved by the performance. |
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A casual dinner was hosted on Campus, right after our performance, for all many presenters of the conference who came from all parts of the World. The conference was a huge success. |
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Back at my brother Dan's house, with his kitty cat, for the night. |
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On the way to the airport back to Los Angeles . . .
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Photo Credit: Lili Bernard and Wilki Tom
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