Players by the Sea is proud to present Gem of the Ocean, a powerful drama laced with mischievous humor written by August Wilson, considered to be one of the most important American playwrights of his generation.

Join us on Thursday  nights, November 11 &  19th when our sponsor JENKINS QUALITY BARBECUE will be serving up their famously delicious goodies before the  show. (Arrive early!)

It is 1904, Pittsburgh.  At 1839 Wylie Street in the Hill District is the home of Aunt Ester, a 285-year-old former slave, who is a keeper of tradition and history for her people and a renowned cleanser of souls.

An incident at the local mill has ignited the African-American community. A black man was wrongfully accused of stealing a bucket of nails. Rather than confessing to a crime he didn’t commit, he jumped into the river and drowned. This has made him a martyr to his co-workers, who have gone on strike and are rioting. Caesar, the local law enforcement official, has arrested many of his own people and shot one.

Against this turbulent backdrop, Aunt Ester guides Citizen Barlow on a spiritual journey aboard the slave ship Gem of the Ocean to the mythical City of Bones. There, Citizen comes to understand the story of his ancestors and faces the truth about his crime and the man he wronged.

Described as, “a swelling battle hymn of transporting beauty,” by Ben Brantley of the New York Times, Gem of the Ocean is set in 1904 in the HIll district of Pittsburgh. It centers around the home of Aunt Ester, the 285 year old wise matriarch, whose healing powers are legendary. When Citizen Barlow arrives at Aunt Ester’s house seeking to get his soul washed Aunt Ester takes him on a spiritual journey to the mythical City of Bones. There Citizen finds redemption as he comes to understand the story of his ancestors.

With the completion of his extraordinarily ambitious ten-play cycle, August Wilson secured his place as one of the most important American playwrights of his generation. Critic John Lahr of the New Yorker cited, “No one except perhaps Eugene O’Neil and Tennessee Williams has aimed so high and achieved so much in the American theater.”

Fences, Wilson’s second Broadway play, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and also set a new Broadway record for the highest-grossing non-musical, bringing in $11 million in its first year, 1987. When Wilson died October 2, 2005 after a bout with liver cancer it was the first time a Broadway theater has been named for an African-American.

Read more >http://www.playersbythesea.org/Performances/Upcoming.aspx

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New Smithsonian Exhibit Exposes Gullah Language

Doing the Ring Shout in Georgia, ca. 1930s Members of the Gullah community express their spirituality through the “ring shout” during a service at a local “praise house.” Courtesy of Lorenzo Dow Turner Papers, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution

On a long stretch of remote islands that extend from the northern tip of South Carolina to just past the Florida border lives the majority of Gullah people. This unique African-American subculture, whose lineage traces back to the slave trade, has long been defined by their peculiar language, which was shrouded in mystery for many years.

“Word, Shout, Song,” a new exhibit that opened Mon., Aug. 9, at the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, in Southeast, is a tribute to linguist Lorenzo Dow Turner, whose life’s work exposed the secrets of the Gullah dialect which was hidden beneath several generations of slavery.

Lorenzo Down Turner

The exhibit is also a celebration of the Gullah people who continue to thrive, despite years of oppression. “They are very proud of their culture,” said Alcione Amos, curator of the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, who continues to study the culture.

Gullah dialect, which sounded silly to most people outside of the Sea Islands, became Turner’s obsession when he first heard it in 1929 at South Carolina State College at Orangeburg. Statements such as “All a we hab cajun fuh meet um,” which means, “We are glad to meet you,” would baffle visitors who traveled to the Southeastern coastal regions of the United States.

By 1930, Turner was well on his way to making a brilliant connection: Gullah was a mixture of more than 21 native African languages combined with English and was not “baby talk” or bad English like many of his contemporaries dismissed it as being.

Until his death in 1972, Turner, a fourth generation free African-American, was a pioneer in the study of what would later be defined as Creole languages (an amalgamation of African and English dialects).

Turner, a dedicated academic, first earned a Bachelor’s degree from Howard University in 1914, went on to get a Masters from Harvard University in 1917, and continued, to become one of the first 40 African-Americans to receive a doctorate, at the University of Chicago in 1926. The “Word, Shout, Song” exhibit, which will be on display until March 27, documents Turner’s adventures in his quest to legitimize the language and culture of the African Diaspora, a brave expedition that took him all over the world.

Musical instruments, audio recording devices, photos, costumes, and crafts are just some of the artifacts that are on display as part of this unique collection, which is composed almost entirely from 35 boxes donated to the museum by Turner’s widow, Lois Turner Williams.

Read more on the Smithsonian Gullah Exhibit >

Read more about Lorenzo Dow Turner >

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July 21^st, 2010

Blacksonville.com
editorials@blacksonville.com

Jacksonville, FL — The Northeast Florida Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Committee and “Collaborative Partners” within the City of Jacksonville will host the Annual Gullah/Geechee Nation International Music & Movement Festival 2010™, a four day, internationally renowned travel and cultural event.  Jacksonville, Florida is the passageway of the Gullah Geechee Nation that extends upward to Jacksonville, North Carolina.  Each year the annual festival migrates to different parts of the African Diaspora in observance of the unique and diverse Gullah/Geechee culture.  This year, delegates, commissioners, and tribal representatives from various cultures will link up in South Carolina, S. Georgia and Fort Mose, St. Augustine along the route to Fort Lauderdale, and the Grand Bahamas Island.

AGENDA

On Thursday August 19^th, 2010 at 12:00pm, chieftess QUEEN QUET, along with many distinguished dignitaries will revisit the First Coast region in support of this year’s theme – “The Gullah/Geechee Seminole Maroon Reunion.”   

Itinerary