With support from Heritage Lottery Fund.  We at Nu century Arts are making a film.

 Beyond the Drum is a journey through 190 years of Black theatre in Britain. It is a journey that will ultimately focus on the rich heritage of Black British Theatre from the 19th Century (1824) until the present day. (2011) This project will chart that heritage from Ira Aldridge, one of the most famous Shakespearean actors of his time. Also known as the African Roscius, his career on the British stage spanned 30 years. He performed in the UK and in Europe as the star in melodrama, romantic drama, operetta, comedy and Shakespeare, with his most famous role as Othello at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden. He rose to become one of Europe's leading performers and more honours were showered upon him than any other actor, breaking racial barriers during a time when many of his black American contemporaries were still enslaved.  

We here at NuCentury would just like to give a big, big thank you to PRS for Music Foundation, who have just awarded us a Beyond Borders grant.

This award now allows us to put an international creative team together including awards winners Don Kinch (Writer - UK), Soweto Kinch (Composer - UK), L’ Antoinette Stines (Choreographer – Jamaica) and Cliff Moustache (Director - Norway via Seychelles) to begin the development of Don's thrilling new play, "In Search of my Father".

This fantastic team will be getting together in Birmingham from 19th May to form fresh ideas and content, all of which will be brought to the public for a showcase on the 26th May @ the Drum Arts Centre (7.00PM)

In April 2012 we will be crossing the borders into Derry-Londonderry, Belfast and Dublin with a full blooded production of the play before coming back to Birmingham for the 2012 celebrations of both the 50th Anniversary of Jamaican independence and the exciting arrival of the Jamaican athletic team who will be hosted by Birmingham City Council.

So be sure to keep a close eye on this, and an ear to ground for the host of activities that will be taking place right here in our very own Birmingham!

Warm regards from all of us here at the NuCentury Team!

Not Quite Gospel.  will be performed at the International First Born Church, 453 Dudley Road, B18 4HE on the 14th 15th, 16th October 2010 @7.30PM. Tickets £8.00 and £6.00 from 0121 523 5551

REVIEWS
As a confirmed Pan-Africanist from the moment of conception - Guyana in 1956 was that kind of place! - who came to closely examine the tenets of Marxism in the course of my own personal rites of passage, I have the saying "All Property is Theft" seared into my consciousness. That same thought came to mind as I sat watching the unfolding of Don Kinch's provocative new work 'Not Quite Gospel'. The relationship between the church, land and the people is the secular analysts' dream. In this play, the people are divided - by age, sex, ambition, desire and greed! Deeply-felt sentiments are wonderfully expressed in song and word. 
 
It is a healthy state of affairs when our community is able to discuss matters religious in the public domain without the extreme reactions witnessed elsewhere. And this is a serious discussion, believe me. The current phenomenon of the charismatic church leader is one which we should address. It used to be the union leader in an otherwise industrialiised landscape. 
 
'Not Quite Gospel' opens a page of enquiry which asks the audience to assume the role of jury. Take your role seriously and make sure you see this play. 
 
Ra Hendricks 
December 2009 
 
NOT QUITE GOSPEL 
 
Although I have long moved beyond this restriction, I grew up in a church environment where going to the theatre was frowned upon. Cinemas and theatres were thought unholy places, unbecoming for any respectable follower of Christ to be seen in. So, there was for me a sense of 'eating the forbidden fruit' as I joined others at the Custard Factory to enjoy this well-written, well-produced and well-acted play 'Not Quite Gospel'. Meeting the writer/producer and actors at the end and sharing some good food and drink was a sort of icing on the cake of a lovely evening. 
 
As a seasoned church person, I found the storyline easy enough to pick up and follow; but I am not certain how easy it would be for those unfamiliar with this genre. Many of the themes resonated with my experience and I was often applauding and smiling knowingly, sometimes laughing out loud - and I was not always on my own! Sub-plots like the new pastor living in the shadow of an illustrious predecessor; divided loyalties between those who want to move on and those wanting to fossilise how things used to be and must never change; the former pastor's son's jealousy of the relationship between his dad and his would be successor, which the son feels has robbed him of a proper father/son relationship; single-parenting and girlie rivalry; not to mention the bigoted sister who thinks young people are nothing but spoilers of church purity and are to be avoided at all cost. These and more were well portrayed in 'Not Quite Gospel'. 
 
Two young people I spoke to during the break thought that the play's portrayal of young people was somewhat stereotypical. They pointed to the single parenting and promiscuity issues raised in it. I feel it would be surreal if the play did not raise these and other issues precisely because these are prevalent within the church, in spite of whatever views people may hold about them. 
 
If anything, I think the play was not radical enough. I hope Don Kinch will push the boundaries a little more in a part two of Not Quite Gospel; exploring, for example, issues such as prosperity, classism, sexuality, racism and identity, sexism particularly in leadership, the feminisation of church, and some of church's quirkier teachings and customs. 
 
This is not to detract from a play that provided me with an evening of great enjoyment. I have recommended it to my friends and will continue to encourage people of faith and no faith to go see and enjoy. Placing the Black Church in its once forbidden space of the theatre is, for me, a wonderful irony! 
--------------------------------------------------------- 
Dr J D Aldred 
Secretary, MECA, Churches Together in England; 
Presenter, 'The Perfect Saturday Night Conversation' on BBC WM 95.6FM, DAB and online atwww.bbc.co.uk/wm 
 

8 Miles Away

The Drum rumbles with an unexpected collaboration of hip-hop and jazz music, hosting Battle in the Box- the open mic. rap night. Audience members were called to battle; freestyling on topics that ranged from Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace prize to Marge Simpson featuring on the front cover of Playboy, under the effortless hum of the band, consisting of a drummer, bass and keyboard player. Host Soweto Kinch also employed other gimmicks, such as hats and buzzwords (often of political content) to focus the musical wit, avoiding the tedium of ‘your mum’ lines. The audience, which started ‘small but perfectly formed,’ grew both in size and confidence as they were called upon to rate the MCs in each battle, using a flawless scientific scale of 1-4. Audience participation was paramount to the running of this show and encouraged with a catchy chorus; “Skipped on down to the live box: to the L, to the I, to the V, to the E.”

The night was funny, witty, politically informative and not to forget musically invigorating. The effortless bass playing was particularly remarkable. The Live Box is a completely unique performance concept and is a melting pot of talent. Whilst improvisation was at its core, talent and charisma sprawled out of it’s limbs. The winner of the battle won recording time, as sponsored by NU Century Arts. Whether a budding MC, this weekly Birmingham event is not to be missed. Shows rotate between the Hare and Hound, The Drum and The Y Centre. Nicole Zandi Red Brick

In May 2009 with the support of The Heritage Lottery Fund we launched the project from the Margins to the Mainstream.  This project aims to highlight and to share the major contribution that black writers, actors, directors, dancers and producers made and continue to make to British theatre. 

When Amiri Baraka (Previously Leroi Jones) coined the phrase “Black Theatre during the 1960’s he sought a sharp distinction between those artists who were involved in theatre and those who sought consciously and deliberately to create a theatre that drew on the cultural traditions of African Americans and to create a theatre that reflected the concerns, experiences and aspirations of African Americans.   At the same time a similar development was taking place in the Caribbean with the work of Derek Walcott (Trinidad Workshop) and later Dennis Scott (Jamaica school of Drama).   It was to the Caribbean that artists in Britain looked to for their references.  During the 1940’s Robert Adams the Guyanese actor started the Negro Repertory Arts Theatre, one of the first professional Black theatre companies in Britain. Errol John’s “Moon on Rainbow Shawl’ (1950’s) played to big houses and received numerous awards.  Jamal Ali’s (Black feet In the Snow made it on to the TV screens during the 1960’s but it was during the 1970’s and 80’s that saw a string of companies taking up the mantle.  Companies such as the Dark& Light Theatre of Brixton, Black Theatre Cooperative, Temba, L’Overture, Keskidee Centre, Double Edge, Staunch Poets and players, and Talawa producing and presenting the work of writers such as Alfred Fagon, Edgar White, Caryll Phillips, Mustapha Matura, Farouk Dhondy Amani Napthali, Don Kinch and others.  Today Roy Williams and Kwame Kwei Armagh are regulars on the main stages of British theatre.

This project though will focus on what was happening in the Midlands during that time.   We will be hosting a number of events during the year, ranging from lectures to exhibitions.  At the end of the project we will produce a magazine and a DVD.   So keep your eyes on this Space.

We are also looking for any material you have in your desk, cupboard it could be an leaflet, a poster, a review, a photograph anything that will shine some light on that period and on the work of the artists.  Please send it to us. If we are not able to use it we will send it on to the Central Library to be archived.

Soweto Kinch has forged a successful international career by bridging two very different musical genres – Hip Hop and Jazz.

Now he has been tasked by creative writing project Evolving Words with bringing together two quite individual disciplines – art and science.

The Mercury Prize nominated saxophonist has been commissioned by them to produce a new piece of music inspired by Darwin, father of evolutionary science.

It’s all part of a national drive to mark the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his ground breaking book, On the Origin of Species.

In six cities across the UK - Liverpool, Manchester, Cambridge, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Newcastle- Evolving Words are collaborating with young people to develop 21st Century responses to 19th Century science.

Spearheading the Birmingham end is Canadian Poet Kimberly Trusty.  She explains:

“Evolving Words is a poetry writing and performance project.Participants work with a poet and a science educator in each of the six cities to produce poetry to read, perform, film and share online. The central theme is Darwinian science and its impact on today’s world.  The project is being produced by Elizabeth Lynch in association with the Wellcome Trust.”

Supported by Mark Pallen - Professor of Microbial Genomics at Birmingham University and author of the acclaimed best-seller Rough Guide to Evolution - Kimberley has been working with 10 young poets, 13-22 years old,

Their work, and Soweto Kinch’s musical take on evolutionary science, are to be unveiled at the Drum Arts Centre, Aston during the 4th October Live Box concert - to be headlined by singer songwriter Sparhla Swa.  On 15 November, the performers will again appear at Live Box - this time supporting London poets Patrick Neate and Gemma Weekes.

Evolving words will have its Grand Finale at the Wellcome Collection, London, when in November, a special selection of written work, film and live performances will be showcased.  Soweto Kinch’s musical commission would be the headline performance.

Kimberly Trusty: “So what do you get when you cross evolutionary science with savvy, outspoken teens? Wise cracking baby dinosaurs, the imagined thoughts of a young Darwin, altruism & the struggle for existence in a post-apocalyptic world, human peacocks, a family history of attraction and much, much more.”

Evolving Words national partners are: National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive), Centre for Life Newcastle, World Museum Liverpool, University of Liverpool, Manchester Literature Festival & Manchester Museum, University of Birmingham and  Cambridge Darwin Festival.

Arts partners include North Edinburgh Arts, Customs House, South Shields, Young Identity, Manchester, NU Century Arts, Birmingham and The Junction, Cambridge.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT

Elizabeth Lynch, Director, Evolving Words

07876 353232

elizabeth.lynch@btconnect.com

www.evolvingwords.org