By canceling his trip to Memphis, the vice-president has avoided witnessing a potential Butler loss and at least one planned protest.
Vice Presidents Mike Pence, who was scheduled to attend NCAA South Regional games at the FedEx Forum has cancelled his trip to Memphis.
Pence’s office confirmed today that the vice president is canceling his trip to Memphis and Little Rock, Arkansas so he can stay in Washington as the GOP-controlled House prepares to vote later today on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.
Pence has a connection to Butler University, where is his wife attended. Butler is one of four teams playing at the FedExForum this weekend in hopes to land a spot in the Elite Eight.
At least one civic action was planned to protest the vice president’s presence in the Bluff City, but was cancelled following the announcement that Pence would not be in the Bluff City, after all.
Downtown Memphis will still be heavily packed with tournament goers and the accompanied police presence for large events.
Additionally, the Memphis Area Transit Authority has boosted service for the downtown area to accommodate anticipated foot and auto traffic congestion.
Steamed vegetables, grilled chicken, a whole wheat roll, with a side of jello and two percent milk.
That’s just one example of a hot, nutritious lunch that over two thousand seniors across Memphis depend on each weekday to be delivered to their doorstep by a smiling face.
Under the national Meals on Wheels program, the Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association (MIFA) was able to serve 409,442 meals to 3,204 seniors who are homebound or at congregate sites and are nutritionally at-risk in Fiscal Year 2016.
However, MIFA worries about the future of Meals on Wheels following the release of President Donald Trump’s budget blueprint, also known as the “skinny budget,” to Congress earlier in the month. The budget focuses on federal discretionary spending levels for Fiscal Year 2018.
Non-defense discretionary programs, such as MIFA’s Meals on Wheels, could lose portions of funding, due to plans to invest in defense programs, as stated in President Trump’s preliminary budget, which will not take effect until October of this year.
“It’s really too soon to tell what the new budget’s effect will be on us,” Jim Seacat, MIFA’s director of marketing and communications, said. “But with the growing need for Meals on Wheels in Memphis, it would be ashame for the seniors in the community to have to scale back the program.”
While only plans of eliminating federal programs, including the Community Services Block Grant and the Community Development Block Grant, which fund other Meals on Wheels around the country, have been released thus far, details for budget cuts concerning the Older Americans Act, through which MIFA receives Meal on Wheels funding, have not yet been released.
The Act, which has supported senior nutrition programs for the past 45 years, provides 35 percent of funding for Meals on Wheels nationally. With a planned 17.9 percent cut to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services budget, which funds the Act, MIFA officials are wary that services will be negatively impacted as a result.
Despite the potential upcoming funding cuts, officials at MIFA are confident that Meals on Wheels, supported in part by local donors and corporations, will be able to continue in the future, but with a possible decrease in the number of meals served.
“The reality is, with or without potential budget cuts, federal funding for Meals on Wheels is failing to keep pace with the growing need,” Sally Jones Heinz, President & CEO of MIFA said in a letter to the public.
According to a 2014 Plough Foundation study, there are over 3,700 food insecure seniors, not knowing when their next quality, nutritious meal will come, in Shelby County with more than 1,000 of them on the Mid-South Aging Commission’s waiting list to receive MIFA meals.
Research shows that seniors who receive proper nutrition have increased mental sharpness and energy levels, strengthened immune systems, as well as, resistance to illnesses and diseases, such as Alzheimer’s.
“At a time when increased funding is needed, we fear that thousands of seniors who rely on us every day for a nutritious meal, a safety check, and a visit from a volunteer will be left behind,” Heinz said.
Sometimes captioning goes wrong. Sometimes a line like, “Hotter than Memphis Asphalt,” becomes, “Hotter than Memphis Ass Farm.” Okay, that only happened once, on an episode of Sun Records. Of course the Internet caught it right away. Thanks Internet.
Shelby County Commissioner Terry Roland said Sen. Lamar Alexander “put his own agenda ahead of what’s best for West Tennessee” in his remarks this week against a project that would bring wind energy here.
Clean Line Energy Partners want to build a $2 billion wind-energy network (called the Plains and Eastern Clean Line) that would begin with wind farms on the plains of Oklahoma and Texas and bring that power here through 720 miles of overhead electrical lines, ending at converter stations in Pope County Arkansas and Millington, Tenn.
Alexander took to the Senate floor Wednesday to tell TVA board members that buying that renewable energy would raise energy rates here. He specifically targeted Clean Line Energy Partners in his speech, noting that a contract with the company “could cost TVA ratepayers more than $1 billion over the next 20 to 30 years.”
Roland called a quick news conference Thursday and called Alexander’s information “outdated and misleading.” He said many Memphis-area institutions, including Memphis Light Gas & Water, the city of Memphis, the Shelby County Board of Commissioner, the University of Memphis, the Millington Industrial Board, and the Black Business Association of Memphis, “all agree” that the project would be an asset here and its energy would save money for TVA ratepayers.
[pullquote-1] “Senator Alexander obviously didn’t take note of what happened in November,” Roland said in a statement. “The American people voted for public-private partnerships, new infrastructure, job creation, and economic opportunity.
“It’s no secret that Sen. Alexander opposes wind energy, but he shouldn’t be opposed to building new infrastructure and most importantly he should not be opposed to lower costs for TVA customers. He must have missed the fact that this project will add zero debt to TVA.”
Roland said the converter station to be built in his district would be a $300 million private investment, create 100 jobs, and bring in $36 million in new tax revenue in its first 10 years of existence.
He said the project would help “our country realize President (Donald) Trump’s vision” for more infrastructure here.
Something magical happened in our federal government last week. Huffington Post said it “will make you believe in politics again.” Time called it “The Future of Bipartisanship.”
The story got national coverage, but it might have been overshadowed. It easily could have been buried under some unfounded wiretapping allegations, defunded meals for homebound seniors, or the threat of nuclear war with North Korea. Every day is a new adventure, after all. Last Tuesday, while America was waiting for Rachel Maddow to freakin’ hurry up with the tax returns before the popcorn runs out, two congressmen from Texas did something Democrats and Republicans just don’t do anymore.
They rode in a car together.
When their flights to Washington were canceled, El Paso Democrat Beto O’Rourke and San Antonio Republican Will Hurd rented a Chevy Impala and hit the road for a “Congressional Cannonball Run.” The pair streamed the trip on Facebook Live and Periscope, answering constituents’ questions and taking song requests. They ordered drive-thru Whataburger. They spent the night in Tennessee’s beautiful Ninth District and stopped at a fine donut establishment called Gibson’s. They were greeted with Texas flags when they arrived at the Capitol, just in time to vote. Later they co-sponsored each other’s bills and even exchanged gifts! Gifts! Between a Republican and a Democrat! Can you believe it?
During the 1,600-mile drive, they “came to some common ground,” O’Rourke told NPR. After bonding over their shared love of velociraptors and John Stamos, they turned to each other and asked, “Did we just become best friends?” Hold on, maybe that was Step Brothers. But you do have to admit this sounds an awful lot like a buddy comedy.
You’re allowed to roll your eyes if, like many of us, you’ve survived a work trip with someone you hated. But this is where we are now. Is it comforting to know that, in these polarizing times, two men from opposing parties can set aside their differences long enough to enjoy a nice long drive? Or is it depressing that elected officials have to be stuck in a Chevy Impala together for 30 hours to prove they can agree on things? No matter where your politics lie, I think we can all agree this is an opportunity for some fun #democracy #content.
Imagine if the boring old presidential debate format — the podiums, the goofy backdrop, the moderators — were replaced by a cross-country road trip. “Uber Presents: The 2020 Constituent Carpool Presented by Facebook.” Candidates would drive together from California to Maine, along the way picking up constituents with questions. Viewers at home could submit questions via Facebook Live. Not only would we learn more about candidates’ policy ideas, we’d find out things that really tell you what you need to know, like what music they listen to and who drives like a jerk. Bernie Sanders seems like a guy who would stay in the left lane the entire time. Ted Cruz definitely wouldn’t use turn signals. He would probably hog the stereo, too. “Driver’s choice!” And then, when he’s riding shotgun: “Focus on the road! I’ll man the tunes!”
A road trip would really spice up confirmation hearings. Load some senators into an SUV, and watch democracy work. “Well, Betsy DeVos did bring some pretty good snacks. However … her answers proved that she doesn’t know anything about education. Also she doesn’t know the words to ’99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall,’ and that’s the real dealbreaker.” Jeff Sessions and Al Franken in a car together. Think about it.
C-SPAN could expand its programming and appeal to a broader audience with a new game show, Don’t Make Me Turn This Car Around. It’s like Cash Cab but with legislators. “After the break, the final question. Will Mitch McConnell and Elizabeth Warren split the grand prize? Or will they … turn this car around?” Spoiler alert: They turn the car around because Mitch won’t answer the question until the people have their say.
The politicians-in-cars concept could pick up speed locally, too. Surely Nashville has enough pedal taverns to accommodate the entire Tennessee legislature, though Mae Beavers would certainly object. County commissioners could bond in the early morning mess on I-40. Maybe the school board can meet in a school bus. Who wouldn’t want to see two City Council members ride a tandem bike across the Big River Crossing?
Forget reaching across the aisle. America, it’s time to reach for the wheel.
Jen Clarke is an unapologetic Memphian and a digital marketing strategist.
As a tourist on the Dickinson Delta Musical Expedition, the decision of where to stop on your journey will be a difficult one. Baylor University? East Memphis? Muscle Shoals? West Memphis? Miami? Hollywood? Where will you climb out of that “canary-yellow Ford Torino with racing stripes, a full race cam, and three on the tree” to walk around and stretch your legs a bit?
Linger. Take in the sights. But get ready to move again, because your road map is Jim Dickinson’s long-awaited memoir I’m Just Dead, I’m Not Gone (University Press of Mississippi; with Ernest Suarez), and it is a Benzedrine-fueled romp with one hell of a soundtrack.
I first came to know of Dickinson as the pianist on “Wild Horses” off the Rolling Stones’ 1971 album Sticky Fingers. I knew that he produced The Replacements’ 1987 album Pleased to Meet Me at Ardent Studios.
But I knew little else until I jumped on the ride that is this book.
Though he was born in Little Rock and grew up mostly in the Berclair and East Memphis neighborhoods of Memphis, Dickinson’s musical journey took him through the dusty notes of Texas blues as a student at Baylor where his interests lay in the theater arts, in drugs and alcohol, and in chasing down the ghosts of heroes and legends such as Blind Lemon Jefferson. “There was no doorway to the past,” he writes. “No Rosetta Stone to unlock the blues’ secrets.” Yet, it was in chasing those specters that he came to know himself and what it was he was passionate about.
He spent his formative years in Texas and at then-Memphis State University avoiding the Vietnam draft and honing a craft he wasn’t yet sure how to utilize. Like so many young men and hopeful musicians from his era, it was a folksy Jewish boy from Minnesota who would turn Dickinson’s world on end. Bob Dylan completed what Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Furry Lewis had begun. His education began in earnest at places such as the Plantation Inn in West Memphis and even closer to home. “I discovered a burgeoning bohemian scene at the Cottage Coffee House in Midtown. The Cottage served coffee, featured poetry readings, and flamenco guitar music. There was a chess game in the corner. It was a great place to hang.”
Dickinson’s book is a history of white-boy blues, folk, and rock-and-roll in Memphis. He paid his dues at the Cottage Coffee House, the OSO, and the Bitter Lemon and spending time with other misfits at Beatnik Manor. He conceived of the Memphis Folk Festival and the Memphis Country Blues Festival, both at the Overton Park Shell.
He made his bones recording with Larry Raspberry and the Gentrys at Chips Moman’s American Sound Studios. It was the gig that opened his eyes to the possibility (the magic) of producing records. His big break came as a producer at Criteria Studios in Miami for Atlantic Records. It was there that he put together the house band the Dixie Flyers and recorded such acts as Aretha Franklin, Delaney & Bonnie, Sam the Sham, and Carmen McRae alongside industry legends Jerry Wexler and Tom Dowd.
Dickinson would later return to Memphis, where he was most at home, with jaunts to Los Angeles and New York as his talents were needed. What we learn from the journey is that it isn’t so much the locations but the people who populate them. This singer/songwriter/producer/misfit knew everybody, and if you recognize half of the names, then you’re probably in the book as well. A companion tome with bios and discographies of all the names Dickinson drops would serve the reader well. But no matter how many colleagues and compatriots he mentions, there’s one that’s the most important and that shines through chapter after chapter: Mary Lindsay, his wife and partner in crime. Their marriage was the one adventure that ever really mattered to him.
The adventure ends too soon. Dickinson died in 2009 at the age of 67 following triple bypass surgery. With him, he took a wealth of music history and knowledge, but what he left — the music, the stories, the rambling good times — will keep us entertained forever.
Disney’s 1991 production of Beauty and the Beast was a success by any measure. It was a huge box-office hit, earning 16 times its budget, a fact made even more remarkable because it was an animated musical with an original score. Those songs, including classics “Be Our Guest” and “Beauty and the Beast,” swept the musical categories at the Academy Awards. But one scene in particular stands out as historic. When Belle and the Beast waltz together for the first time, the camera swooped and soared through the beautiful, cavernous ballroom with a freedom never before seen in animation. The ballroom was modeled by a computer in 3D, using techniques and technology developed by Pixar, which at that time was a technology company started by Steve Jobs. The scene signaled a seismic shift in animation away from hand-drawn images to increasingly sophisticated computer renderings. Four years later, Pixar’s first feature, Toy Story, which was entirely 3D-rendered, closed the door on the classical era of animation.
In a way, Disney has come full circle with its “live-action” remake of Beauty and the Beast. I used the quotes because there is very little in this beast that hasn’t felt the touch of the cursor on a monitor in California. The CGI modeling techniques introduced in 1991 have become so sophisticated that they are virtually indistinguishable from “live-action” images. The production’s most astonishing accomplishment is Cogsworth, the fussy old head of the Beast’s household who has been transformed by the Enchantress into an ornate clock. Voiced by Ian McKellen, the incredibly detailed creation features layers upon layers of moving clockwork, and yet has enough expression and movement to do physical comedy with Lumière, the enchanted candelabrum voiced by Ewan McGregor.
Cogsworth is just one element in a rush of onscreen visual wonders, and it would be easy to miss his awesomeness. And that’s the biggest problem with this Beauty and the Beast — if I had to choose one word to describe the movie, it would be “cluttered.” The 1991 version often exploded into a riot of movement, especially in the centerpiece “Be Our Guest” dinner party sequence, but the minor abstractions introduced by traditional animation tempered the visual impact of those sequences. This time around, when the army of china comes whizzing at you, they’re fully rendered plates glinting in meticulously modeled candlelight. Beauty and the Beast is a frequently beautiful film, but it’s also sometimes hard to watch.
Fortunately, Emma Watson’s Belle is never hard to watch. Of the group of exceptional actors who came out of the Harry Potter franchise, Watson is the most talented. For the generation who grew up with her as “The Brightest Witch of Her Age,” she has come to represent millennial feminism. She’s the perfect choice for the live-action adaptation of the heroine who inspires the simple townspeople of her not-very-French village to sing “what a puzzle to us is Belle.” Seeing as she was about 18 months old when the original movie came out, she likely grew up watching the cartoon version of the bookish commoner who is ultimately wooed by the size of the Beast’s library. Her singing voice, while not the equal of Paige O’Hara’s work in the original, is more than adequate to the task. She commands the screen without ever really seeming to break a sweat.
Watson’s Beast is Dan Stevens, who gets considerably more screen time in this version of the story, which leans heavily on the Broadway adaptation. His shutter-rattling, no doubt enhanced baritone serves to flesh out the motion-captured character. Even better is Luke Evans as the anitheroically square-jawed Gaston. He is the very picture of toxic masculinity, ready to go full demagogue at the drop of a hat and lead the torch-waving visitors to go all Frankenstein on the Beast.
Much better than last year’s Jungle Book remake, Beauty and the Beast almost justifies the enormous expense poured into it. It reinforces the contention that Disney is the only contemporary studio that knows how to make a good movie. With her effortless brush-off of Gaston’s boorish advances, Watson’s Belle is coded as appropriately woke. But one wonders at the feminist subtext of a kidnapped woman who falls in love with her captor and changes the brute into a handsome prince by sheer force of her womanly charms. Amid all the ballyhoo and singing, its corporate perfection often feels flat. With all rough edges rounded off, this version of Beauty and the Beast is just another girl meets anthropomorphic water buffalo, girl loses man-buffalo, deus ex machina makes everything OK story.
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When it comes to honoring African-American heroes, Memphis has had its own awkward moments as witnessed by text on the original Tom Lee monument erected in 1954. But this is next level stuff. Key bit from The Tennessean:
“On Wednesday, families and children, city officials and the mayor joined descendants of Frederick Douglass in the grassy park bottom where the famed abolitionist visited more than a century ago.
Together they unveiled the new sign that rectified a mistake that for many years left the park with the wrong name — Fred Douglas Park.”
Douglass is, as noted by President D.J. Trump, an, “example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more.”
Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander urged Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) board members on Wednesday not to buy electricity from a proposed project that would bring wind energy here from Oklahoma and Texas.
Clean Line Energy Partners want to build a $2 billion wind-energy network (called the Plains and Eastern Clean Line) that would begin with wind farms on the plains of Oklahoma and Texas and end in converter stations in Pope County Arkansas and Millington, Tenn. Between the two points would be 720 miles of overhead electrical lines.
Sen. Alexander
Alexander took to the Senate floor Wednesday to tell TVA board members that buying that renewable energy would raise energy rates here.
“A contract with Clean Line Energy Partners could cost TVA ratepayers more than $1 billion over the next 20 to 30 years, the typical length of such an agreement,” Alexander said in a floor speech. “TVA would be disregarding its mission to provide low-cost power to the region if it were to contract for power the region doesn’t need, regardless of the source of electricity.”
Alexander further criticized the project, noting it would come with “giant, unsightly transmission towers” that would “carry comparatively more expensive, less reliable electricity to Tennessee and other southeastern states.”
Also, Alexander criticized the project because it involves the use of federal eminent domain “over the objection of the state of Arkansas and both the state’s senators to acquire the land necessary for the transmission line.”
Alexander said Clean Line and its supporters have urged the TVA to agree to a long-term power purchase agreement. He said that’s because federal subsidies for wind power end after 2019.
However, Alexander called it a “big, expensive decision” and should not be made quickly.
“So last December, I wrote to TVA saying ‘there should not be a rush to approve any proposal from Clean Line Energy Partners,” Alexander said.
Further, Alexander said TVA doesn’t need to buy anymore power, citing a TVA statement. For more evidence, he pointed to the fact that the agency recently sold its unfinished Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant.
“So why would TVA announce that it doesn’t need new power for the next 15 years, sell a nuclear power plant capable of producing reliable baseload power for the next 60 years, and then turn right around and buy unreliable wind power that might only be available for 20 or 30 years assuming the turbines don’t break down?” Alexander asked.
He said TVA is on the “right path,” pointing to many projects including the under-construction, $975 million natural gas plant in Memphis.
Sen. Alexander’s full remarks are below:
Today I come to the floor to express once again my opposition to the possibility that the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) might raise our electric bills and waste more than $1 billion buying electricity the region does not need by agreeing to purchase power from the Clean Line Energy Partners’ proposed Plains and Eastern wind power transmission project.
Congress has a responsibility to conduct oversight of TVA’s decisions and also ensure that TVA is fulfilling its mission as defined by the TVA Act.
Although TVA does not receive any federal funding from Congress, TVA is a federal corporation and its Board members are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the Committees responsible for oversight of TVA, have held hearings to discuss TVA’s budget and policies.
So as a United States Senator, I’m here today to exercise my oversight responsibilities.
Clean Line Energy Partners, a Texas-based company, is proposing to build giant, unsightly transmission towers from Oklahoma through Arkansas to Tennessee – known as the Plains and Eastern Clean Line – to carry comparatively more expensive, less reliable electricity to Tennessee and other southeastern states.
For the first time ever, federal eminent domain will be used – over the objection of the state of Arkansas and both the state’s senators – to acquire the land necessary for the transmission line.
In order to move forward with construction of the single 700-mile high voltage direct current transmission line, Clean Line Energy Partners must find utilities in the southeast willing to purchase the power produced by an Oklahoma wind farm and transmitted by the Plains and Eastern Clean Line.
TVA would be disregarding its mission to provide low-cost power to the region if it were to contract for power the region doesn’t need, regardless of the source of electricity.
In recent years, according to TVA, power demand throughout the Tennessee Valley has declined.
In 2013, TVA began working with its customers to develop a long-term plan to meet the region’s power needs through 2033.
In 2015, when TVA completed its Integrated Resource Plan, that plan concluded “there is no immediate need for new base load plants after Watts Bar Nuclear Unit 2 comes online and uprates are completed at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant.”
As a result of this conclusion, because TVA did not need the power, TVA decided last year to sell the unfinished Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant.
For the foreseeable future, TVA has said it doesn’t need any new baseload power and does not plan on any major capital construction projects.
This is good news for ratepayers because it means TVA can reduce debt and keep electric rates low.
So why would TVA announce that it doesn’t need new power for the next 15 years, sell a nuclear power plant capable of producing reliable baseload power for the next 60 years, and then turn right around and buy unreliable wind power that might only be available for 20 or 30 years assuming the turbines don’t break down?
TVA is on a good path. Its leadership has made sound decisions that will benefit ratepayers and our region. To fulfill its mission to provide “safe, clean, reliable and affordable power for the region’s homes and businesses” it has opened the first nuclear power reactor in the 21st century. It is placing pollution control equipment on all its coal plants, and it is completing new natural gas plants.
TVA has done this while reducing its debt and reducing electric rates, which is good news for jobs and economic development in the region.
Even if TVA did need more power – which it has said it does not – TVA should not agree to buy more wind power which is comparatively unreliable and expensive.
A look at TVA’s previous experience with wind power illustrates how unreliable wind power can be, especially in our region.
In 2001, TVA opened the first commercial-scale wind project in the Southeast. It is generous to say it has been a failure. This project on Buffalo Mountain near Knoxville has the capacity to generate 27 MW of electricity.
However, according to TVA, in 2016, the Buffalo Mountain wind turbines only provided 4.3 MW on average. This is just 16% of their rated capacity.
In other words, these turbines – which cost as much as $40 million to build and must cost millions over the life of its contract – produce little electricity and little value for TVA’s ratepayers.
Wind usually blows at night when consumers are asleep and don’t need as much electricity.
And until there’s some way to store large amounts of wind power – a utility still needs to operate nuclear, gas or coal plants when the wind doesn’t blow.
Take for example a recent TVA peak summer day. On July 26, 2016, the Tennessee Valley homes and businesses consumed 29,512 MW of electricity – nearly all of TVA’s capacity of 33,000 MW of electricity.
Part of TVA’s capacity on that day included contracts for nearly 1,250 MW of electricity produced by wind power.
However, at the peak demand during the day, when power was most urgently needed, those wind turbines with a rated capacity of 1,250 MW actually delivered only 185 MW of electricity.
So on a day when the Tennessee Valley needed power the most, wind turbines provided less than 15% of their rated capacity and less than 1% of the total electricity needed to power our region’s homes and businesses.
Not only is wind power unreliable, it can be more expensive than nuclear – which also produces zero emissions – or natural gas – which is low emission.
TVA is currently completing a new 900 MW natural gas plant for roughly $975 million that will improve air quality in Memphis and be one of the most efficient natural gas plants in the world.
Natural gas plants usually operate for at least 30 years, and according to TVA can provide power in as little as 20 minutes to meet peak demand during hot summer afternoons and cold winter nights.
Last year, TVA opened the country’s first nuclear power reactor in the 21st century, Watts Bar II, at the cost of approximately $5 billion.
Watts Bar II will safely provide 1150 MW of power more than 90 percent of the time for the next 40, 60 and possibly even 80 years.
The point is: TVA has concluded that it doesn’t need more power for the foreseeable future. Therefore, its board should resist obligating TVA’s ratepayers for ANY new large power contracts, much less contracts for comparatively expensive and unreliable wind power.
Instead, TVA should continue to provide low-cost, reliable power to the region that boosts economic development throughout the Tennessee Valley.
Hattiloo’s twelfth season opens with a Pulitzer Prize winner and climaxes with a musical version of A Raisin in the Sun.
Aug. 11-Sept. 3, 2017 Ruined
by Lynn Nottage
This Pulitzer-winner almost didn’t happen. Ms. Nottage was planing to focus her formidable talents on America’s misadventure in Iraq, when Civil War in the Congo caused her to pause. There was another war going on there too, a war against women. The weapon of choice being rape. With Ruined — set in a bar where soldiers from all factions gather — Nottage Reincarnates Mother Courage and Her Children, and brings her into the latest bloody century.
Sept. 15-Oct. 15 Fetch Clay, Make Man
by Will Power
Hattiloo has had good success with The Meeting, a show about Martin Luther King and Malcom X; and also with Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting which brings baseball giant Branch Rickey together with Jackie Robinson, Paul Robeson, Bill Robinson, etc. So Fetch Clay, Make Man about Muhammed Ali’s friendship with Stepin Fetchit makes perfect sense.
Sept. 29-Oct. 22 Sassy Mamas
by Celeste Bedford Walker
Older girlfriends in Washington, D.C. decide to date young.
Nov. 24-Dec. 17 Take the Soul Train to Christmas
A musical review compiled with a book by Ekundayo Bandele.
Christmas soul, history, and seasonal message.
Jan. 12-Feb. 11, 2018
Sunset Baby by Dominique Morisseau The personal and political collide in East Brooklyn when former the wife of a former black revolutionary dies, and he struggles to reconnect with his estranged daughter.
Feb. 23-Mar. 18 Selma: A Musical Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
by Tommy Butler
Songs for MLK.
April 20-May 13 Jitney
by August Wilson
“You just have to shake off that ‘white folks is against me’ attitude. Hell, they don’t even know you’re alive.”
August Wilson’s plays don’t just show us the black 20th-Century. They show us an America becoming what it is today. This talky, storytelling show is set inside a pre-Uber gypsy cab company. It’s Wilson channeling Arthur Miller, making working class drama swing like jazz and ring like prophesy.
June 8-July 1 Raisin
Book by Robert Nemiroff and Charlotte Zaltzberg, Music by Judd Woldin, Lyrics by Robert Brittan.
Michael Vadon 
Emily Yellin 
