Playwrights From The United States

"It’s a good feeling to be empty-handed, to feel naked as if a whole life was blown off my back by a storm. (Chapter 5, p105)"

"The people her own age had not ever recovered from the war. The older people are still in the pain of history. (p64)"

"resurrection ferns that wait for a rain like dead things and then open up new and green and beautiful like they are doing right now out on the hurricane felled trees, like they didn’t know it was catastrophe that gave them life. Maybe, I think, I am like those ferns. Ama’s like the rain. (Chapter 5, p101)"

"Whatever has ended, whatever has begun, is strong in the air. (Chapter 3, p73)"

"It is also honest land. It doesn’t lie or hide anything. Neither does Ama. Everything she is, everything she is about to do, is clear in her face and in her movement and in her words. The way everything is open to view when sunlight comes down through the hold where all life entered this world. (Chapter 3, p55)"

"I can hear everyone in the living room watching TV. They are together, as if to show that now I am outside this family. I am the source of their problems. I have brought them closer together, joined them in their judgement of me. (p94)"

"bacteria and enzymes grow new life from decay out of darkness and water. It’s into this that I want to fall, into swamp and mud and sludge, and it seems like falling is the natural way of things; gravity needs no fuel, no wings. It needs only stillness and waiting and time. (p95)"

"...I hate the smell of school, but I’ve been good at it, this world where we study war and numbers that combine to destroy life. (Chapter 5, p105)"

"At night, alone, the world is a river in me."

"Blessed are they who listen when no one is left to speak."

"Writing begins for me with survival, with life and with freeing life, saving life, speaking life. It is work that speaks what can't be easily said. It originates from a compelling desire to live and be alive. For me, it is sometimes the need to speak for other forms of life, to take the side of human life, even our sometimes frivolous living, and our grief-filled living, our joyous living, our violent living, busy living, our peaceful living. It is about possibility. It is based in the world of matter. I am interested in how something small turns into an image that is large and strong with resonance, where the ordinary becomes beautiful. I believe the divine, the magic, is here in the weeds at our feet, unacknowledged. What a world this is. Where else could water rise up to the sky, turn into snow crystals, magnificently brought together, fall from the sky all around us, pile up billions deep, and catch the small sparks of sunlight as they return again to water?"

"Between earth and earth's atmosphere, the amount of water remains constant; there is never a drop more, never a drop less. This is a story of circular infinity, of a planet birthing itself. ("Stories of Water" p106)"

"Two worlds exist. Maybe it’s always been this way, but I enter them both like I am two people. Above and below. Land and water. Now and then. (Chapter 4, p97)"

"I think again of breath, and how we Taiga people have that word -Oni- for breath and air and wind. It is a force. Oni is like God, it is everywhere, unseen. I think I heard this word spoken in the rush of weather. I’m sure of it. The wind said it’s own name, “Oni”. (Chapter 2, p41)"

"at school I have learned there’s no room in sky for my mother’s heaven; there’s no room at the center of the earth for hell, either. It is new worlds I will have to look for. (Chapter 5, p106)"

"The people, are watching Ama, studying her. She’s a curiosity. She is a human being of a different kind. She makes them doubt, I see that. (Chapter 5, p134)"

"Nick Griffin and many viewers, I’m sure, would have wanted, even expected, me to come across as an abrasive, point-scoring, shouty, finger-pointing black woman. That would have played into Griffin’s game plan, because that is the view of his party. The BNP portrayed me as a "black history fabricator" on its website. There was no way that I was going to live up to any negative mental pictures that it would have had about me, or of any other black woman. Even at the risk of looking "ineffective"."

"The last time I saw him was at the Columbia medical centre. I walked past this room and saw a guy who looked about 75 and really sick — all shrivelled up, with no hair or teeth. It took me a moment to realise it was Ivan. His body looked lifeless, like there was no blood or sweat in him. But even when he was this bag of bones that could hardly move, he still said that all he needed was rehabilitation and he would get better. Inside I was screaming and thinking: "How could this happen?" But on the outside I was saying: "Yeah, we’ll see what we can do." After the funeral I left for London. The theatre scene in New York had been decimated, and with so many people dying around me I felt it was important that I made the most of my life. I needed to escape the shadow of death."

"[On the early years of the AIDS crisis in New York City.] It was 1982 when we figured that something was really wrong. It was terrible — a kind of plague. I was 33 and the average age of the guys I knew was 36. Between 1979 and 84, about 35 of them died. All in the most horrific way. What was so awful was that everyone thought it was contagious, so they weren’t allowed in the hospital. People stopped shaking hands or kissing when they saw each other. Ivan got ill in 1983. That’s when the lesions started showing up on his face and people would run from us in the street."

"Too often, America - the Atlantic model - is cited in policymaking for black Britain. Aside from our similar racial origins, however, black America and black Britain have less in common than meets the eye. Black America is largely monolithic and our roots tend to be Southern Baptist and rural. We have roughly the same accent as a result of segregation and its consequent restriction of movement. We have lived continuously on American soil, most of that time in slavery, for more than half a millennium. (These, by the way, are some of the elements that make Barack Obama seem alien to many black Americans.) Black Britain, on the other hand, is international. It is urban. It has no rural history in this country. Within the living experience and memory of all black Britons are other countries, other cultures. And ironically, because of the impact of biraciality, the term "black" may not define black Britain in the future at all. Therefore, black Britain should concentrate on life as lived here."

"If you become stressed out on stage, your audience becomes stressed with you. It’s important for us to remember that our energy as performers dictates the energy of the room. That said, we can’t take ourselves so seriously."

"Mistakes might happen, but honest music supersedes all of that."

"My childhood dream was definitely to be a singer, but as a little girl I thought it was just that, a dream. In the African culture, as you know, it’s very rare to encourage a child to become an artiste. Since I was always involved in the arts, I simply looked at it as a way to be better rounded."

"I also enjoy vegetarian cooking, writing/reading prose, and spending time with family and friends. Honestly, like anyone who works for themselves, it gets difficult to find balance - especially with my international travel schedule."

"I will, however, say that one of the main lessons I’ve learned from such artistes who inspire me is this: Know yourself, listen to your heart, and take risks. Individuality is the best thing anyone has to offer."

"I don’t have a particular favourite musician. There are so many that have inspired, taught, guided, and grounded me."

"And since there were no professional artistes in my immediate or extended family, I didn’t know what the path would be. That said, I’m thankful for New York City and the courageous community of dreamers who have helped me understand that my dreams can be lived out loud."

"One of the greatest blessings of my journey as a professional artiste has been the unconditional love and support of family."

"Of course I had to answer a lot of questions when I announced I wanted to be a professional singer, changed my graduate school focus, and initially struggled as a waitress to pay my bills."

"My mother has a beautiful singing voice that she shares generously around the house and in church! (I always consider her my first voice teacher.) And my brother Itonde has a lovely voice and plays a bit of piano and violin."

"No one in my immediate family is a professional musician, although the love of music is definitely prevalent."

"I’ve loved music for as long as I can remember, but didn’t consider making it a career choice until my early twenties. I studied the cello from the time I was eight years old through college and I write my songs on the piano. My primary instrument is my voice."

"The best word I can use to describe how I feel when performing for an audience is FREE."

"What we have to realise is that those questions and occasional resistance to our heart’s pursuits are usually coming from a place of love. Once I realised that, it gave me more room to cultivate and channel positive energy towards accomplishing my goals as a professional musician."

"In recent years I am trying to be more conscientious about work/life balance. It’s a work-in-progress."

"There is something about performance that both humbles and strengthens you simultaneously. It is where I am happiest and most liberated. My first performance was terrifying but totally thrilling."

"Know yourself, listen to your heart, and take risks. Individuality is the best thing anyone has to offer."

"Thank you to my family and all who have supported, cheered, inspired, and loved me through my journey. Thank you to the Recording Academy for this honor ….and to the glorious Frankfurt Radio Big Band for making this project a reality. I am so, so, so grateful! Indeed, the journey is a Holy Room (oh, and I cut off my locs!)."

"Today I was nominated for my very first Grammy Award in the Best Jazz Vocal Album category. I am so overwhelmed with gratitude (and can’t stop crying!)"

"I was born in Champaign, Illinois. My father, the late Dr. Ibalaimu Kakoma was completing a post doctoral fellowship at the University of Illinois. He was a Rwandan although he grew up in Uganda. My mother, Elizabeth Nyarubona Kakoma, is a Ugandan."

"In many ways, Illinois is just as much my home as Africa because I spent the majority of my formative years there."

"I completed my undergraduate degree in Cultural Anthropology and African Studies also at the University of Illinois. After college, I spent a year and a half doing research in Kenya and Tanzania with plans of becoming a Medical Anthropologist."

"I am the sixth of seven children. We moved to Zambia when I was three years old and when my father began working for World Health Organisation, we returned to Champaign where he worked as a professor of Veterinary Medicine and Immunology and my mother worked as an oncology nurse."

"At this time it's being considered as a natural death,she was always around town, She always stopped and talked to people. She was very pleasant."

"Don't be helpless, don't give up, don't kill yourself, don't look for trouble. Stuff gets in your way, kick it under the rug. Stay well, stay with it, make it come out..."

"Her strength was always tremendous, tremendous theatrical expertise. She knew more about the theater than anybody that I ever encountered in my life. And she, being a very great actress, could recognize the strengths and the weaknesses in a role, so that she wouldn't allow a part in any of our films to be anything less than a wonderful acting part."

"Kanin, Ruth's husband describe her role as an actress in 1837."

"Ruth exulted in life, Her blazing professionalism and generosity of spirit made it obvious to me that we had in our midst one of the greatest of them all."

"Her warmth and humanity shone like the first patch of sun on a dark and wintry day, The world will be a colder place without her enthusiastic, elegant and adorable countenance."

"The biggest limitations are the ones we place on ourselves, and opportunities rise up to meet the unique offerings of people."