This week, the Contemporary Drama Working Group - which I co-founded in 2012 with my friend and colleague Takeo Rivera - closed out its second season of new play readings with Ricardo Bracho's The Dweller. I could not be more pleased at everything we've been able to accomplish, and how much our phenomenal students have grown over the course of our time together. Many thanks to them, to Takeo, and to Caitlin Marshall, our amazing co-director for this year. Keep your eye on CDWG's website over the summer as we plan our 2014-2015 season!
Eugene Ionesco's "Rhinoceros"
I am very pleased to announce that I have been selected to direct Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros as part of the U.C. Berkeley Department of Theater, Dance & Performance Studies' 2014-2015 season. The show will run for two weeks in November. More details to follow!
Essay in Blunderbuss Magazine
In January 2014, I attended the Dallas Safari Club's annual big game hunting convention in order to learn more about the organization and its plans to auction off the right to "bag" a critically endangered black rhinoceros in Namibia. Blunderbuss Magazine has just published the essay, "A Roomful of Shooters and Nothing to Shoot," that I wrote about my experiences. Enjoy!
Upcoming Presentations in Nairobi and Johannesburg
I'm very pleased to share my work with some of my Africanist colleagues at two exciting venues this month and next.
On Wednesday, March 26th, at 2PM, I'll be lecturing on "The Politics of Animality in Kenyan Cultural Production, 1933-1991" at the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies at the University of Nairobi, where I am an affiliated researcher.
And then, on Wednesday, April 9th, at 1:30PM I'll be presenting my work on Ebrahim Hussein, Julius Nyerere and the politics of the uncanny at the African Literature Association's 2014 conference in Johannesburg. My panel is "Ghosts, Zombies and the Uncanny," and I can hardly imagine a better forum in which to explore my ideas.
Takeo Rivera's GOLIATH - West Coast Tour
The amazing poet-playwright Takeo Rivera - who just so happens to be a friend and collaborator of mine - is bringing his award-winning play Goliath back home to the West Coast. Check it out on January 27th at Stanford, January 28th at U.C. Berkeley and January 29th at U.C. Santa Cruz. More details here.
AT BUFFALO at C.U. Boulder
At Buffalo, the new musical I'm working on with Amma Ghartey-Tagoe Kootin and Khalil Sullivan, was just given a splendid workshop production by the students of the University of Colorado, Boulder. Thanks and congratulations to everyone involved!
An Extraordinary Weekend at LAND
I was absolutely bowled over by LAND at the Gordon Institute for the Performing and Creative Arts in Cape Town this weekend. Such an amazing assortment of artists and scholars, all doing such amazing work! I shared a bit about my research in East Africa, but the real highlight of the weekend was exploring the many amazing installations that GIPCA had set up all over the city.
To experience LAND vicariously, check out GIPCA's website. They were filming throughout, so hopefully there will be video soon.
Support Mad Noise
Mad Noise, a superb Bay Area band that counts several of my closest friends and collaborators among its members, has finished its first album. Help finance their West Coast tour by donating to their indiegogo campaign. Your ears will thank you.
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mad-noise-debut-album-release-west-coast-tour
Old News: New York Magazine
Here's the New York Magazine piece about my novel Live To Tell Me So, then called The Window House . I was so young and forbidding-looking!
Old News: Kinjeketile Write-Up
A 2011 feature on my work with Tanzanian playwright Ebrahim Hussein in the run-up to my production of Kinjeketile at Berkeley: