News
Monday, 03 October 2011
Black History Month at Pegasus
2011 is The United Nations' International Year for People of African Descent. Pegasus, in its annual celebration of Black History Month, is taking the opportunity to highlight Black and African culture and history by telling the stories that have shaped the modern world in its immense diversity.
Throughout October, the traditional month for celebrating Black history and heritage, Pegasus will be going beyond the theatrical to include documentary art and even African Caribbean culinary treats in a feast for all the senses.
Photographer Adrian Arbib opens his exhibition of pictures, taken in Kenya, Ethiopia and Sudan, of a way of life that is heading towards extinction. Pastoralist Herders in East Africa shows a detailed documentary of an existence that is slowly being eroded by modern technology and the progression of development. The free exhibition opens on 3rd October and continues to 28th October.
Music theatre production Araba’s Song – a Slave’s Story comes from Yaw’s House Productions, the group that brought Me, Marley and I to Pegasus earlier this year. Araba is a young woman taken from her West African village home 300 years ago. Her story of survival is handed down through generations of women – from mothers to daughters – to the present day. Araba’s Song runs for three performances from Friday 7th to Saturday 8th October at 8.00pm with a Saturday matinee at 1.30pm.
Black History is not generally taught in schools, but Gazebo Theatre Company's powerful performance Rivers to Cross aims to tell a 170 year long story in less than an hour and a half. The play is a multi-media journey from Imperialism, the Civil Rights Movement and the Windrush era right through to the modern day, examining the experiences of noted Black male icons including the English composer Samuel Coleridge Taylor (1875-1912), Walter Tull, a professional English footballer who died in the Great War (1888-1918), the American singer Paul Robeson (1898-1976) and the current US President Barack Obama. Rivers to Cross plays at Pegasus on Friday 14th and Saturday 15th October at 8.00pm.
In counterpoint, The Backside Monologues brings together three Black women who both individually and together share with the audience the many ups and the few downs of their life journeys. A cultural response to the renowned Vagina Monologues, the three actors use poetry, prose and song to show that beyond the body and racial stereotypes, they are not so different after all. The Backside Monologues will be performed on Saturday 22nd October at 8.00pm and there will be a post show talk.
Tickets to all Black History Month shows are £12 full price, £8 concessions, £6 under 18's. For more information visit the Pegasus website.
