Robert Moses-Civil Rights Activist

Robert Moses started actively working as a civil rights activist in 1960 when he became the field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. By 1964 Moses became co-director of the Council of Federated Organizations and a leading figure in the Freedom Summer of 1964. His leadeship did not stop there, he later moved to [...]

Bridge to Freedom

In the description of the setting for Bourbon on the Border Cleage states that one can see the Ambassador Bridge connecting Detroit, Michigan to Windsor, Ontario, Canada through the apartment window in May’s apartment. This bridge serves as a symbol throughout the piece. Here is a gorgeous picture of the bridge at sunset:

Recurring Characters

As I have been reading through several of Cleage’s novels, starting with What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day and recently finishing Babylon Sisters. I was amazed and slightly caught off guard when characters from prior novels kept recurring. Crazy and I Wish I Had a Red Dress use a prominent character in both [...]

you call them plays?

As I try and wrap my head around trying to write a play a day for a year and what kind of extreme exercise that would be as an artist I love the section from one of this weeks play below. From 365 Days/365 Plays, August 21st, “The Bear” Woman: I dunno. I feel very-insignificant. [...]

Pearls of Wisdom

In many of her works Cleage takes a woman that is “in a bad way” and takes a journey with her into a better place in life. The following are examples of this journey. Late Bus to Mecca displays Ava making her way down to Atlanta to get away from her bad place and make [...]

SLP on 365

“[Writing 365 Plays in 365 Days] it became this prayer, almost.  To theatre. To life. To the art process.” -Parks in the New Yorker  regarding 365 Plays/365 Days

Suzan or Susan

Tidbit of the week: Suzan Lori Parks was born as Susan Lori Parks. What’s with the change? Parks spells her name with a ‘z’ due to a misprint that happened early in her career. You can read more about that and Parks in this interview.

Ava’s Travels

Traveling coincidences? In the Eclipse’s current production of Cleage’s Late Bus to Mecca the character Ava Johnson is beginning a journey from Detroit to Atlanta to possibly open her own hair parlor. In Cleage’s novel What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day the character Ava Johnson takes a journey from being a hairdresser in [...]