My take on every tongue confess

Thanks to the wonderful discount ticket lottery at Arena Stage, I had the privilege of seeing acclaimed playwright Marcus Gardley’s every tongue confess starring Phylicia Rashad last night. Gardley graduated from the Yale School of Drama in 2004 with a Master of Fine Arts degree and has been showered with awards and recognition since. every tongue confess is the first performance on the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle Stage, a new stage built during the recent $135 million renovation of Arena Stage.

The play is set in a small Alabama town during a time of racially motivated black church burnings. On the surface, the setting seems trite for a black play, but the fact that it takes place in the 90’s adds an element of uniqueness. Most characters in the play are modern and anti-racist and one character even jams her headphones while rigidly adhering to a vegan lifestyle. This interesting contradiction of a seemingly outdated phenomenon happening in modern times ignites feelings of curiosity and confusion in the audience. (I was on the edge of my chair trying to figure out who the heck would burn down black churches in the 1990’s)

every tongue confess provides opportunities for both black and white actors to play complex roles that develop slowly over the course of the performance. A mute quietly evolves into a loud vocalist and a blues singer seamlessly becomes a savior. Phylicia Rashard’s character, Mother Sister, is a mother, preacher, widow and healer. She is by far the most captivating of the actors and eloquently displays her deep roots in live performance art.

Without spoiling the show, I’ll conclude by saying that the play really does a good job of demonstrating how hypocrisy fuels bigotry and how hate is passed down inside families. I definitely recommend this new play and hope to see it travel the country and maybe even get featured on Broadway. Be sure to use your imagination to embrace the magic realism in the show and don’t be afraid to laugh at the punch lines.

NAACP is slippin

Wow! I felt so disappointed to learn that the NAACP supported the Tea Party in their push to fire a black woman from her job for reverse racism. Of all groups, I would have thought the NAACP would be more critical of Tea Party and extremist right wing claims, especially those made against African-Americans. After all, it was barely a week ago when the NAACP called out the Tea Party for harboring racist elements among its factions. And for the record, anyone who's been near a Tea Party protest and seen their swastikas and heard their racist chants can attest to fact that some of their supporters are racist.

Why then, would the NAACP rush the Tea Party's aid at the expense of a hard working black federal employee? The answer is politics. The political pendulum is shifting to the right and conservatives are gaining popularity and credibility, even in the eyes of race-based social justice organizations like the NAACP.

During the late days of the Bush Administration, progressives had a powerful grassroots political voice and were able to succeed in securing the election our nation's first African-American president. However, now that Obama has been getting things done as president, conservatives have begun a spirited movement in opposition to his policies. The passage of health care reform legislation and other big government initiatives has fired up fiscal conservatives and the fringe elements that follow their lead.

Hopefully this incident will serve as a wake-up call for the NAACP and other progressive groups. Tea Party accusations may be hyped up by the media because of their current level of political hotness, but media coverage doesn't always equate with legitimacy so it's still important to investigate the validity of right wing claims before backing them.

The Kids are All Right

Last night, I had the pleasure of viewing the film, The Kids are All Right, which tells the story of a family of four as they face life's challenges. Interestingly, the two teenage kids in this family have two moms instead of a mom and a dad. They were conceived through an alternative insemination process with the assistance of a sperm donor. The movie begins with the teens becoming curious about their donor, seeking him out and ultimately bringing him into the family.

I must say that it was refreshing to see a realistic representation of a family with two moms given the scarcity of these types of on-screen depictions. However, I worry that the storyline was compromised in an effort to reach a larger audience. In the plot, the more feminine of the two moms immediately begins a steamy affair with the sperm donor only to be caught and cause a tremendous disruption to her whole family. While I do agree that gender and sexuality are very complex aspects of human identity that are often oversimplified by society, it still irks me that most of the sex scenes in The Kids are All Right were heterosexual. I just wonder if the script would have been able to attract such great actors and if the movie would have been released so widely had it been gayer.

All and all, this was a really good movie -- and I rarely say that about films these days.

PETA's New Advertisment

Offensive and outrageous marketing tactics are preventing PETA from advancing the ethical treatment of animals. PETA's latest billboard features First Lady Michelle Obama as an advocate of PETA's anti-fur agenda. While it's true that Mrs. Obama is very cognizant of her fashion choices and chooses not to wear fur, it's also against White House policy for the President or First Lady to officially endorse an advocacy group. PETA executives were aware of this policy and even cited it as the reason they did not ask Mrs. Obama before using her image in their newest advertisement.

Last summer, PETA generated controversy by trivializing the murder of late-term abortion doctor, George Tiller, in an ad that compared his life to that of baby chickens. PETA did not take the time to consider Dr. Tiller's family or the many women who owe their lives to Dr. Tiller. No, they were only concerned with shocking people into vegetarianism.

The worst PETA advertising campaign was the 2003 "Holocaust on your Plate" initiative that consisted of an installation that juxtaposed images of Jewish people about to be exterminated with pigs awaiting slaughter. This installation was more than reckless, it disrepected humanity by comparing the lives of six million Jews to the pork many people eat for breakfast.

No one who is familiar with the practices of the meat processing industry can deny the fact that the industry needs to adopt more humane methods and be held to higher standards. However, PETA's marketing techniques are so alienating that they preclude the organization's effectiveness in getting its point across. If PETA is trying to reach reasonable people who care about animal rights, perhaps they should try a more sensible approach.

It's no surprise that Mrs. Obama is upset that PETA is using her photo on their billboards.