Black Lives Matter – Virtual Protest

BMP is hosting a BLACK LIVES MATTER VIRTUAL COVID CONSCIOUS ARTS PROTEST on Thurs. June 4th at 9pm.
Many BMP artists, TOP TEENS and various visual artists, activists and allies will be joining in on our zoom call and will be streaming live via Beth Marshall Presents You Tube, FB and other social media outlets.
During this: We all will have 15 minutes of silence wearing masks while various videos and art by black artists are shown mixed in with protest footage and this will lead into names being read. More live art happening and signage in peaceful solidarity will also be in the mix. After that- anyone that wish to speak can do so. You may come as an arts leader, artist or rep from your theatre. Please respond to meand let me know if you would like to speak or have representation.
I am usually out there in the mix of the front lines of activism but given my auto immune issues, I can’t be in that mass of people for any lenght of time.
As you all know a huge part of BMP is call to action art activism. The adult black artists and young teens of BMP are leading the way in this venture.
 
Here is a list of resources that we have compiled from multiple sources that might be usual for your arts orgs as you speak in solidarity. I hope all of you will join us.

Immediate Action for George Flloyd:

Call (612) 324 4499 (during business hours) to demand justice for George Floyd.

Follow prompt with organizer, Shaun King. Use script below:

“Hello my name is __________ and I am calling to advocate on behalf of George Floyd who was murdered in broad daylight by police officers abusing their power. I demand accountability in this case and I think that the firing of the four officers is only the first step. I am calling on County Attorney Michael Freeman to use his power to arrest and charge these four men for an innocent man’s murder. To return my call my number is _____. Thank you, goodbye.”

Petitions to sign:

Donate to George Floyd’s Memorial Fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd…

Immediate Action for Breonna Taylor:

https://www.standwithbre.com

Immediate Action for Ahmaud Arbery:

 https://www.runwithmaud.com

BailBonds/Lawyers make specific note to Orlando Fl.
I would love the time line of dates that The Root has noted here in some rolling crawl:
List of resources BMP would like to promote:
SUGGESTED RESOURCES
National Bailout Fund: http://nationalbailout.org
Black Visions: https://www.blackvisionsmn.org/about
Color of Change: https://colorofchange.org/about/
NAACP Legal Defense Fund: https://www.naacpldf.org/about-us/
The Bail Project: https://bailproject.org/
Black Lives Matter: https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/
Reclaim The Block: https://www.reclaimtheblock.org/home/#about
Communities United Against Police Brutality (CUAPB): https://www.cuapb.org/what_we_do
Bail Out Fund Links: https://docs.google.com/…/1X4-YS3vFn5CLL9QtJSU0xqmTh_…/edit…
George Floyd Memorial Fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd
Justice for Tony McDade: https://www.change.org/p/black-lives-matter-activists-justi…
Justice for Breonna Taylor: https://justiceforbreonna.org/
I Run With Maud: https://www.gofundme.com/f/i-run-with-maud
Orlando Black Owned Resturants:

For Protestors: (Live Protests)

Create A Safety Plan:

  1. Charge your phone
  2. Bring a portable charger
  3. Wear comfortable shoes
  4. Write the National Lawyers Guild number on your arm (NYC Number: 212-679-6018)
  1. Find your nearest chapter here
  2. Find their contact number
  3. Write in on your arm
  1. Cover your face
  2. Do not wear contacts if you can help it. Wear eye protection.
  3. Bring (whole) milk: it will neutralize the acidity of pepper spray if you come into contact
  4. Go with a partner, use the buddy system
  5. Create a rally point if you to get separated
  6. Make sure someone NOT attending knows where you are going
  7. Locate your nearest hospital in case of emergencies
  8. Stay hyper-vigilant

        Resources:

  • Legal Services:

Donate to Organizations like:

  1. ACTION PAC: https://theactionpac.com
  2. BLACK LIVES MATTER: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_blm_homepage_2019
  3. Black Visions Collect: https://www.blackvisionsmn.org
  4. Color of Change: https://colorofchange.org/
  5. Communities United Against Police Brutality: https://www.cuapb.org
  6. NAACP: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/naacp-1
  7. THE INNOCENCE PROJECT: https://www.innocenceproject.org/donate/…

People/Groups to follow on Social Media:

Color of Change @colorofchange
Grass Roots Law @grassrootslaw
Layla F. Saad @laylafsaad
Rachel Cargle @rachel.cargle
Shaun King @shaunking
The Conscious Kid @theconsciouskid
The Great Unlearn @thegreatunlearn

Essential Reading:

“Ain’t I a Woman” by Bell Hooks.
“Between the World and Me” by Ta-nihisi Coates.
“How to be an Antiracist” by Ibrahim X. Kendi.
“Me and White Supremacy” by Layla F. Saad.
“Natives” – Akala
“The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander.
“White Fragility” by Robin Divello.
“White Rage” by Carol Anderson.

Articles

Music

  • Albums:

TV/Film:

For Parents / Children:

Books:

Articles:

TV/Film:

Additional Resources (Websites, Videos, etc):

*Know Their Names*:
TRAYVON MARTIN (Walking home with iced tea and Skittles. Shot by George Zinneman, who was found not guilty.)
KEITH SCOTT (Sitting in car, reading. Shot by a police officer, who was not charged.)
ATATIANA JEFFERSON (Looking out her window, shot by police officer, who is still under indictment for murder.)
JONATHAN FERRELL (Asking for help after an auto accident. Shot twelve times by police, case ended in mistrial.)
JORDAN EDWARDS (Riding in a car. Shot in the back of the head by police officer, who was found guilty of murder.)
STEPHON CLARK (Holding a cellphone. Shot 8 times, 6 in the back. Officers not charged.)
AMADOU DIALLO (While taking out his wallet, officers fired 41 shots by four officers, who were all acquitted.)
RENISHA MCBRIDE (Auto accident, knocked on door for help. Homeowner was found guilty of second-degree murder.)
TAMIR RICE (Playing with toy gun, shot by police officer arriving on scene. Officer was not charged.
SEAN BELL (Hosting a bachelor party, 50 rounds fired by police officers, who were found not guilty of charges.)
WALTER SCOTT (Pulled over for brake light, shot in the back by a police officer, who pleaded guilty to civil rights violations.)
PHILANDO CASTILE (Pulled over in car, told officer he had a legally registered weapon in car. Officer acquitted of all charges.)
AIYANA JONES (Sleeping, accidentally shot by officer in a raid on the wrong apartment. Officer cleared of all charges.)
TERRENCE CRUTCHER (Disabled vehicle, shot by police officer, who was found not guilty of manslaughter.)
ALTON STERLING (Selling CDs, shot at close range while being arrested. No charges filed.)
FREDDIE GRAY (Beaten to death by officers while being transported in a police van. All officers involved were acquitted.)
JOHN CRAWFORD (Shopping at WalMart, holding a BB gun on sale, police officer was not charged.)
MICHAEL BROWN (Shot by twelve times by officer, including in the back. No charges filed.)
JORDAN DAVIS (Killed because he was playing loud music. Shooter found guilty of first-degree murder.)
SANDRA BLAND (Pulled over for traffic ticket, tasered and arrested. Suspicious “suicide” while in jail. No charges.)
BOTHAM JEAN (Shot at home, which police officer mistook for her own. Officer found guilty of murder.)
OSCAR GRANT (Handcuffed and face-down, officer shot him in the back. Officer found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.)
COREY JONES (Waiting by his disabled vehicle, was shot three times by police officer, who was found guilty of murder.)
AHMAUD AUBREY (Jogging, shot by two men who claimed they suspected him of burglaries. Both men charged with murder and aggravated assault” Chyna Smith
BREONNA TAYLOR (Sleeping in her bed, police officers began shooting from outside her home for a drug raid of an individual they already had in custody that lived in a completely different neighborhood)
GEORGE FLOYD (Handcuffed and face-down, 4 officers applied pressure to his entire body specifically his neck, until he lost consciousness and finally was killed)
Spoiler alert: These 10 plays, presented in New York over a mere five years, intend to unnerve. Oftentimes, the most outrageous of plot twists are what make that happen.
[How these black playwrights are challenging American theater | A radical moment in theater | Broadway on race]
In an invigorating act of theatrical demolition, Mr. Jacobs-Jenkins resurrected — and exploded — Dion Boucicault’s dusty 19th-century melodrama about a doomed romance on a slaveholding plantation. This artfully layered play uses meta-theatrical monologues, strategic colorblind casting and an avalanche of cotton balls to explore the crippling absurdity of conventional ideas of race, then and now.
Four of the white O’Mallery siblings gather by picnic tables for a party that is actually a decoy to the lure the crack addict fifth to an intervention. Ten minutes of low-rent hilarity later, after a blackout, the scene continues, but now the O’Mallerys are black. How that does and doesn’t change our view of them is the first of several detonations set off by this booby-trapped comedy.
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The show that proposes that we all might need a “safe word” when it comes to discussing race. This production from the innovative Lightning Rod Special begins as a middle school history lesson about the underground railroad. What follows is a boundary-crossing, id-plumbing portrait of an interracial love affair between the class’s teachers — Ms. Kidwell is black and Mr. Sheppard is white — that reminds us that theater still has the power to shock.
This haunting, grief-steeped work, inspired by the shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice by a Cleveland police officer, imagines an afterlife in which the spirits of young black men try to comprehend how and why they died. The answers do not come easily, if at all. A choral tone poem of a play in which current history becomes an endless, cyclical nightmare.
The winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, this is a play created expressly to discomfort, and turn the tables on, its audience. A show that begins as a domestic sitcom reminiscent of “The Cosby Show” annotates, rewrites and ultimately dismantles itself, while asking acute and troubling questions about how the African-American experience is framed, contained and shrunken by the white gaze.
Described by its author as both “an anger spittoon” and a means of creating “a space in the theater that is unrepentantly for and about black people,” this singular work combines song, dance, ritual, satirical sketches and monologues of mourning to conjure the mortal fear and loathing that rule black American lives in the era of Trayvon Martin and Sandra Bland. A jubilant and scary exercise in catharsis.
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Continue reading the main story

For Moses and Kitch, poor young black men in a modern American city, the warm greeting “Yo, kill me now” is always answered with a reassuring “Bang bang.” That’s no metaphor; death, hovering so closely around them, may be the only thing they can confidently expect to achieve. If their rituals recall Beckett’s tramps in “Waiting for Godot,” they also reference plantation America and biblical Egypt; this is a tragedy too big for any one era to encompass.
What at first seems like absurd plantation porn featuring slaves and overseers is soon revealed to be sex therapy role-play for contemporary interracial couples. Though the therapy focuses on the white “blind spot” in which black partners feel they disappear, the play as a whole is looking at something bigger: the dysfunction of the interracial partnership of America.
Ralph, who’s white, and Leo, who’s black, have been pals since college, each thinking he is somehow beyond race. But when Leo is assaulted by police officers, hairline cracks in his sense of self gape open. To close them, he makes a shocking suggestion: that he become, for 40 days, Ralph’s slave. The experiment not only revises the relationships between the two men (and also their girlfriends) but our idea of how far past the past really is.
Peaches is the boarding agent for African-American Airlines flight 1619 — the one taking all black citizens of the United States on a one-way trip to Africa. The shocker is that the exodus is so eagerly embraced, for reasons demonstrated in this anthology of mostly satirical sketches about racism run rampant. “If you stay here,” Peaches says, “you only got two choices for guaranteed housing, and that’s either a cell or a coffin.”
Spoiler alert: These 10 plays, presented in New York over a mere five years, intend to unnerve. Oftentimes, the most outrageous of plot twists are what make that happen.
‘An Octoroon’ by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (2014)
In an invigorating act of theatrical demolition, Mr. Jacobs-Jenkins resurrected — and exploded — Dion Boucicault’s dusty 19th-century melodrama about a doomed romance on a slaveholding plantation. This artfully layered play uses meta-theatrical monologues, strategic colorblind casting and an avalanche of cotton balls to explore the crippling absurdity of conventional ideas of race, then and now.
Four of the white O’Mallery siblings gather by picnic tables for a party that is actually a decoy to the lure the crack addict fifth to an intervention. Ten minutes of low-rent hilarity later, after a blackout, the scene continues, but now the O’Mallerys are black. How that does and doesn’t change our view of them is the first of several detonations set off by this booby-trapped comedy.
‘Underground Railroad Game’ by Jennifer Kidwell and Scott R. Sheppard (2016)
The show that proposes that we all might need a “safe word” when it comes to discussing race. This production from the innovative Lightning Rod Special begins as a middle school history lesson about the underground railroad. What follows is a boundary-crossing, id-plumbing portrait of an interracial love affair between the class’s teachers — Ms. Kidwell is black and Mr. Sheppard is white — that reminds us that theater still has the power to shock.
This haunting, grief-steeped work, inspired by the shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice by a Cleveland police officer, imagines an afterlife in which the spirits of young black men try to comprehend how and why they died. The answers do not come easily, if at all. A choral tone poem of a play in which current history becomes an endless, cyclical nightmare.
The winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, this is a play created expressly to discomfort, and turn the tables on, its audience. A show that begins as a domestic sitcom reminiscent of “The Cosby Show” annotates, rewrites and ultimately dismantles itself, while asking acute and troubling questions about how the African-American experience is framed, contained and shrunken by the white gaze.
Described by its author as both “an anger spittoon” and a means of creating “a space in the theater that is unrepentantly for and about black people,” this singular work combines song, dance, ritual, satirical sketches and monologues of mourning to conjure the mortal fear and loathing that rule black American lives in the era of Trayvon Martin and Sandra Bland. A jubilant and scary exercise in catharsis.
ADVERTISEMENT

Continue reading the main story

For Moses and Kitch, poor young black men in a modern American city, the warm greeting “Yo, kill me now” is always answered with a reassuring “Bang bang.” That’s no metaphor; death, hovering so closely around them, may be the only thing they can confidently expect to achieve. If their rituals recall Beckett’s tramps in “Waiting for Godot,” they also reference plantation America and biblical Egypt; this is a tragedy too big for any one era to encompass.
What at first seems like absurd plantation porn featuring slaves and overseers is soon revealed to be sex therapy role-play for contemporary interracial couples. Though the therapy focuses on the white “blind spot” in which black partners feel they disappear, the play as a whole is looking at something bigger: the dysfunction of the interracial partnership of America.
Ralph, who’s white, and Leo, who’s black, have been pals since college, each thinking he is somehow beyond race. But when Leo is assaulted by police officers, hairline cracks in his sense of self gape open. To close them, he makes a shocking suggestion: that he become, for 40 days, Ralph’s slave. The experiment not only revises the relationships between the two men (and also their girlfriends) but our idea of how far past the past really is.
Peaches is the boarding agent for African-American Airlines flight 1619 — the one taking all black citizens of the United States on a one-way trip to Africa. The shocker is that the exodus is so eagerly embraced, for reasons demonstrated in this anthology of mostly satirical sketches about racism run rampant. “If you stay here,” Peaches says, “you only got two choices for guaranteed housing, and that’s either a cell or a coffin.”