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Drama Women Authors

The Negroes Are Congregating

by (author) Natasha Adiyana Morris

Publisher
Playwrights Canada Press
Initial publish date
Jan 2023
Category
Women Authors, Canadian
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780369103918
    Publish Date
    Jan 2023
    List Price
    $18.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780369103925
    Publish Date
    Jan 2023
    List Price
    $13.99

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Description

In this unapologetic and sharp-witted perspective about the evolving Black experience in Canada and around the world, a rhythmic fusion of spoken word, satire, and soulful dialect emerges steady as a heartbeat through a journey of raw truths and deep-rooted questions. How does a racialized group teach their future generations to unlearn internalized self-hatred? What is the essence of Blackness beyond skin colour? Is it possible to be free living in present-day systemic racism? Designed to ignite necessary conversations, this powerful collection of engaging scenes that range from church to Black Twitter to Africville aims to construct an understanding of what it means to be Black.

About the author

Natasha Adiyana Morris is a soft-spoken, dramatic storyteller. Born in Winnipeg and raised in Toronto’s West End—in the most encouraging and full’up Jamaican household—being (h)extra is in her blood. Recognized for founding PIECE OF MINE Arts, an initiative that presents works in progress by Black play creators, she owes a great deal to the esteemed tutelage of b current, anitafrika! dub theatre, Obsidian Theatre, and Volcano Theatre. Her debut production The Negroes Are Congregating (PIECE OF MINE Arts, Theatre Passe Muraille) was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play. She is honoured to be a Soulpepper Academy and York University (Sociology B.A.) alumni.

Natasha Adiyana Morris' profile page

Awards

  • Winner, Contra Guys Award for New Performance Text

Excerpt: The Negroes Are Congregating (by (author) Natasha Adiyana Morris)

Scene 4

 

We are transported to South Africa. It is 1993 and WINNIE MADIKIZELA-MANDELA (57) is addressing the country in her first presidential bid, running against Nelson Mandela. This is a fictional speech that reimagines a different outcome for South Africa’s future post-apartheid regarding the process in which apartheid related crimes were treated through the factual Truth and Reconciliation Commission that took place from December 1995 – 1998. Winnie is sharp, witty and a natural public speaker. The speech is broken up into three parts over the course of the play that is intended to continue right where it ended.

WINNIE

Many believe I love to fight, that I wake up and say, “Please Lord, grant me my daily bread and an extra serving of combat on the side.” No, no, no. I have had enough beatings from this current government and media to last me ten lifetimes. But what I can say is, I am a woman who is not afraid to fight, and, if I decide to fight, I fight to win.

I come before my people to run for president of South Africa, to establish a political party that serves and protects the freedom of our people, our right to be sovereign. The direction in which my former husband has chosen to lead is his own undertaking, but I, myself, have experienced and witnessed far too much cruelty to accept a mere game of ‘Never Have I Ever.’

The leaked decision of Mr. Mandela to enact a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, as one of the first orders of business, is the common grave mistake of our people. We are in a self-sabotaging habit of coddling our enemy. Rather than stand our ground to Afrikaaners who may pout and cry for the consequences they deserve, we are quick to forgive and absent-mindedly forget.

But consider how the white man has treated his own. Most Nazi war criminals swiftly committed suicide before they could be tried for their crimes, and those who were caught had been hanged or imprisoned. And here we are, with a leader who is willing to provide amnesty...AMNESTY for a simple confession. Not even a slap on the wrist.

Scene 5

 

We listen to an unconventional commencement speech, in which MVP rejects the label of being the ‘first Black’ attached to his accomplishment. He proudly lays claim to his African heritage rather than an assigned/loaded colour.

 

 

MVP

I am not Black

I am African

I am not dark

This be melanin

I am brown-brown

Brown stew, brown view

Bronze chin, gold win

Learned to float in the deep end

I am not a ‘POC’

Person of colour

Dash wey minority, visibly or other

That National Geographic anthropology

Don’t need a next label like the ones from the past

Nigger, Negro, Coloured

Let Black be the last

I may not know my roots, but I mos def know your design

Box me into social housing without batting an eye

From Flemo to Tanridge to Oakwood & Vaughan

Suspensions, carding, and raids before dawn

Bet. You’d never thought in a million years

Adversity. I still walk cross the stage of Queen's University

Throws graduation cap up in the air.

Editorial Reviews

“A poetic yet scathing deep dive into racism in Canada and around the world . . . this play asks certain questions that will stick with you.”

Amanda Parris, CBC Arts

The Negroes Are Congregating is a relentless, in your face, mélange of sketch, vignette, and spoken word that takes you to church and into the Black psyche living with anti-Black racism, all without missing a beat. The play is intricate, funny, contemplative, and incredibly fast-paced.”

Rosey Edeh, byblacks.com

The Negroes Are Congregating will be eye-opening for some and cathartic for others. It is a much-needed wake-up call on the realities of Black existence in a society we fondly think of as progressive for everyone.”

Keira Grant, Mooney on Theatre