Today director Ryan Coogler and Marvel Studios dropped another edge-snatching preview of the most anticipated superhero film in the diaspora’s history. It seems Coogler’s visionary film crew and talented cast (which includes Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o, Michael B. Jordan, and Academy Award nominee Angela Bassett) are channeling Parliament Funkadelic and Sun Ra with a […]
The pioneering LGBT magazine The Advocate called 9 GRAMS “heartfelt and often humorous” in a glowing review of the play that appears in both its print and online publications. Writer David Artavia explains playwright Maisha Yearwood “has written a brutally honest and poignant one-woman play…putting on full display the ugly truth of what it means […]
Eminem offered President Trump a thorough read in a freestyle recorded for the 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards called “The Storm.” After going in on how Trump has fanned the flames of the national anthem controversy… But this is his form of distraction Plus, he gets an enormous reaction When he attacks the NFL so […]
Progressive Pupil announces its programming line up for the 2017-2018 academic year. With the award-winning documentary Black and Cuba, prize-winning one-woman show 9 GRAMS (recently featured in The Advocate) and always thought provoking workshop Coping With Microaggressions; our programs contribute to learning at universities, nonprofits and corporations throughout the US and abroad. Download catalogue .pdf here
The people of the US Virgin Islands are ready to rebuild! Let’s help them make a comeback from Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Native Virgin Islander, Fortune Bay co-creator, and Land of Love and Drowning author Tiphanie Yanique recommends donating funds and supplies through the local community-based nonprofit VI Strong. Amazon users can help out with their wish list-which ranges […]
The Independent Filmmakers Project (IFP) selects the forthcoming Progressive Pupil television series Fortune Bay to its Project Forum September 17-21, 2017. The only international co-production market in the U.S., the Project Forum sets up meetings between content creators and executives, financiers, and other decision makers. Adapted from the prize-winning novel Land of Love and Drowning, the one-hour […]
Prize-winning novelist and native Virgin Islander Tiphanie Yanique skewered the Trump Administration for turning its back on the US Virgin Islands in their time of need in a New York Times op-ed this week. The Islands-St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix-are grappling with extensive damage created by Hurricane Irma. “Today Virgin Islanders are led by […]
It is so easy to focus on the negative right now. To endlessly repeat in our minds everything that is wrong, wrong, wrong about White supremacy, fascism and the deplorable people who hold those ideals dear. It has taken me a minute to quiet my own mind and gain some clarity. The swastikas brandished in […]
Steps from the famed Inkwell Beach on Martha’s Vineyard, prize-winning playwright Maisha Yearwood performs a reading of her work 9 GRAMS. Based on a true story, this surprisingly funny play follows Hollywood screenwriter Ayeesha Freeman as she endures solitary confinement in a Turkish prison because of how she looks and who she loves. A Q&A […]
The legendary National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina welcomes 9 GRAMS to its Readers Series. Award-Winning playwright Maisha Yearwood will read her work about a Hollywood screenwriter who endures solitary confinement in a Turkish prison after being racially profiled as a drug trafficker. Based on a true story.