Yankee Bajan by Linda Parris-Bailey MDC's Koubek Center, in collaboration with Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator and Parris-Bailey Arts Inc., is proud to present Linda Parris-Bailey's Yankee-Bajan at Lehman Theatre - MDC North Campus, November 3rd and 4 th . Directed by Dahlak Brathwaite, Yankee-Bajan features an African-American and Barbadian cast (Bajan is the familiar moniker for Barbadians) and features original and traditional Barbadian music by composer/music director H. Stefan Walcott, Set in the times of the previous administration, indelibly marked by the COVID pandemic and the murder of George Floyd, Yankee Bajan is a play with music that explores the experience in the United States of an African-American family with ancestral roots in Barbados. Hugh and Keryl have two teenage children and are fed up with the violence and racism in the country. Looking for a place with a Black majority and leadership, they try Atlanta, Georgia. But the dangers of the day come home when their son Xavian is the victim of a racially motivated attack after joining the "Black Lives Matter" Movement protests. For Hugh and Keryl, it's time to leave the United States and try to settle in Barbados. But the pandemic complicates the move, and then, once on the island, they must navigate cultural, economic, educational, and generational challenges. Through the live performance and musical references from Brooklyn to Barbados, Yankee Bajan takes the audience along as the family dreams of a Bajan past and a Barbadian future. "What has been going on in the U.S. regarding racial relations and even the COVID crisis has impacted us all. I wanted to offer an opportunity to look at an experience outside the white gaze, " says playwright Linda Parris-Bailey, whose grandfather and grandmother were immigrants from Barbados. "I wanted to have this family explore that experience for people to understand that we have options and choices, and none of the options we pursue will be perfect. So the question becomes an examination of what's most important to you regarding your family, your culture, and your purpose." Music, both original songs written for the play and traditional Bajan music, is a vital part of the play as a backdrop and connecting tissue. "Well, looking over my career as a playwright, almost all of my work tends to be plays with music, not musicals, but plays with music," notes Parris-Bailey. "I just think music is such an important part of African and African-American culture — and it was a pleasure to work with Stefan Walcott, who introduced me to the unique Barbadian music forms and the traditional songs. And the cast is very well versed in the traditions of Barbados and the traditional dances, some of which appear in the play." WHAT: Yankee Bajan by Linda Parris-Bailey. A co-production of the Koubek Center, Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator, and Parris-Bailey Arts Inc. WHEN: November 3rd and 4th at 8 p.m. WHERE: Lehman Theatre -MDC North Campus 11380 NW 27th Ave Room 1315, Miami Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator Since its inception in 1996, Diaspora Vibe has functioned as a laboratory to promote, nurture, and cultivate the vision and diverse talents of emerging artists from the Caribbean Diaspora and other artists of color or from immigrant experiences. Yankee Bajan, de Linda Parris-Bailey, es una obra con música que explora la experiencia de unos expatriados afroamericanos en Barbados, la tierra de sus orígenes familiares. "Bajan" es un término usado para referirse a los nativos o habitantes de Barbados. ¿Puede uno volver a casa a un lugar que nunca ha sido su hogar? ¿Florecerán los jóvenes de la familia al alcanzar la mayoría de edad como "bajanes", o su cultura "yanqui" será un problema con amigos y familiares? ¿Qué bagaje cultural y colonial se lleva a una experiencia así? En el proceso, Yankee Bajan examina las circunstancias en Estados Unidos que llevarían a una familia a considerar la posibilidad de convertirse en expatriados. A través de actuaciones en directo y referencias musicales de Brooklyn a Barbados, Yankee Bajan transporta al público a la sabiduría de los Héroes de Barbados, un selecto grupo que incluye a luchadores por la libertad, pioneros sindicales y defensores de los derechos humanos, la experiencia de expatriados y, finalmente, al retorno a una isla caribeña independiente.

A piece about legacy and the importance of the things and values that we pass on to the next generation. Flushing is a puppet piece for adult audiences created by Linda Parris-Bailey, Playwright/President & CEO of Parris-Bailey Arts, and Eric Bass, Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Sandglass Theater. Directed by Kathie DeNobriga. Puppets by Ines Zeller Bass.

Yankee Bajan, is a unique collaboration between Barbadian artists and Barbadian descendants in the US. Yankee Bajan, is a play with music written by Linda Parris-Bailey and directed by Dahlak Brathwaite. The original play focuses on an African-American family’s response to racism and violence in the US and their sojourn to repatriate to their ancestral home in Barbados. Rhythmic Bajan music, by composer/music director H. Stefan Walcott, soul stirring songs, vivid dreamscapes by media/set designer Russell Watson, and real challenges engage the audience in the family’s journey to find home.

Open Channels is an annual online meeting/festival for Popular Theater artists, researchers, students, teachers and enthusiasts of Caribbean culture and entertainment to discuss ideas, share work, and meet and highlight artists from the region.

Yankee Bajan is the story of migration, expatriation, and immigration stimulated by the current state of the state in the United States. In many communities across America after the 2016 election, families of color are reviewing their options, particularly those who are first- and second-generation Americans. Read more: https://creative-capital.org/projects/yankee-bajan/ Video by Intrinsic Grey.

Conceived and written by Linda Parris-Bailey and Eric Bass Performed by Linda Parris-Bailey, Eric Bass, and Kirk Murphy Directed by Kathie deNobriga Puppets by Ines Zeller Bass Original songs by Linda Parris-Bailey and Eric Bass Additional recorded music by Julian Gerstin Technical support by Jerry Stockman Choreographic support by Shoshana Bass

NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR DIRECTING & ENSEMBLE CREATION A Pangea World Theater & Art2Action collaboration This 14-minute video gives you an inside look at an 8-day intensive, peer-exchange convening of theater directors and ensemble leaders from around the U.S. and North America. It includes interviews with Dipankar Mukherjee (Pangea), Nobuko Miyamoto (Great Leap), Steve Sapp (UNIVERSES), Kamilah Forbes (Hip Hop Theater Festival), Dora Arreola (Mujeres en Ritual), Ed Bourgeois (Alaska Native Heritage Center), and much more!! The pilot intensive gathered a focus group of theater artists with the intent of visioning and participating in a curriculum development process to create a National Institute on Directing & Ensemble Creation... Stay tuned to Art2Action & Pangea World Theater for information on further convenings in 2015, and the public launch of the NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR DIRECTING & ENSEMBLE CREATION in Summer 2016!! FILMED @ Pangea World Theater & Intermedia Arts Minneapolis, MN Pilot Intensive, December 2012 Organized & co-facilitated by Pangea World Theater & Art2Action Inc., with the generous support of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and the McKnight Foundation. National partners included the National Performance Network (NPN), Alternate ROOTS, the Network of Ensemble Theaters (NET), the Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists (CAATA), the National Association of Latino Arts & Culture (NALAC), and Native Arts @ NEFA.

An original play with music, Speed Killed My Cousin is rooted in the story of an African American female combat soldier and her struggle with post-traumatic stress diagnosis upon her return home from Iraq. A third generation soldier, the central character courts death by vehicular suicide.

Thank you for watching this production sampler of Dark Cowgirls and Prairie Queens, an original work of Carpetbag Theatre, Inc.. This 2018 production at the University of Tennessee Carousel Theatre was made possible by the Roy Cockrum Foundation. ABOUT DARK COWGIRLS AND PRAIRIE QUEENS Dark Cowgirls and Prairie Queens is the story of a little known facet of American History. Filled with vivid images, captivating stories and harmonious song, “Cowgirls brings to life seven of the most colorful Black women to emerge from the American West. The play is an imaginative dramatization of the lives of Mary Fields (Black Mary), Biddy Mason (Grandma Mason), sculptress Edmonia Lewis (Little Wildfire), Mary Ellen Pleasant (Mammy Pleasant) of underground railroad fame, and Julia Boulette (fondly remembered as the Queen of Virginia City). This production is part of an original series that has been funded by the Roy Cockrum Foundation in celebration of our 50th Anniversary in 2019; a foundation which enables theaters to reach beyond their normal scope of activities and undertake ambitious and creative productions. This play has been presented in many venues throughout its 35 year history, including the New Victory Theater, a Broadway theater. It was featured at the closing of the Free Southern Theatre (1963 - 1985) in New Orleans, Louisiana and the beginning of the first National Black Theater Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Dark Cowgirls has roots at the Alternate ROOTS Festival in Atlanta, Georgia and its story still lives in communities from Mississippi to California, and from Massachusetts to Florida. It has been performed for women (at the Women in Theater Festival in Boston and the Foot of the Mountain in Minneapolis) and men (the Black Cowboys of Northern Alabama and Northern California). Dark Cowgirls owes its longevity to the many small stubborn sponsors who believed that it was important to tell stories of empowerment and to celebrate the forgotten lives of Black women. “The production is well written in conversational down-home language, and well acted in storytelling style...It’s as if a touring history pageant had come to the local school and the players turned out to be amazingly talented...The stomping dance to ‘Did You Feed My Cow?’ brings to mind the best aprts of ‘Bring In da Noise, Bring In da Funk.” - Anita Gaines, The New York Times ABOUT THE CARPETBAG THEATRE, INC. The Carpetbag Theatre, Inc. was founded in 1969 and chartered in 1970. We are a Knoxville-based professional, multi-generational ensemble company dedicated to the production of new works. We work in partnership with community artists, activists, cultural workers, storytellers, and leaders to create original, theatrical works. Our mission is to give artistic voice to the issues and dreams of people who have been silenced by racism, classism, sexism, ageism, homophobia and other forms of oppression. Our artistic vision is rooted in the practice of revealing, reframing, and reclaiming the hidden stories of our communities. We begin by listening deeply to the each other's narrative. We believe that this process is what reveals the beauty of our collective experiences. Listening to each other deeply creates space for us each to embrace the hardest parts of our stories while leaning into the freedom of healing in spite of them. We believe that this process also has the power to reframe our experiences and provide the kinds of healing it takes to release us from strongholds that have held us hostage over time.