2/16/2012 Fresh Fruit

Guests: Carlyle Brown, Tish Jones, Andrea Assaf

Carlyle Brown, playwright, actor, Artistic Director of Carlyle Brown & Company

Carlyle is known for his historical works about African Americans. One of his new plays, “Are You Now or Ever Been…” is a fictional account of the demons and dilemmas faced by Langston Hughes while attempting to write a poem the night before his appearance before the United States Investigation Committee on Un-American Activities, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy that opens May 4, 2012 at the Guthrie Theater and another new play “American Family” opens March 16, 2012 at the Park Square Theatre. Brown has received innumerable fellowships, awards and commissions, and has worked as museum exhibit writer/story consultant for the Charles Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit and the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage in Louisville.

Tish Jones, poet, spoken word artist, educator, activist

Tish is the Community Engagement Director for the Saint Paul Almanac Her upcoming project is "Soul Sounds", a weekly community open mic night at the Golden Thyme Coffee & Cafe in St. Paul. (tish@saintpaulalmanac.org). Tish Jones speaks to communities through her lyrical art about controversial topics concerning life, African-American and LGBT experiences. She is the founder, executive, and artistic director of TruArtSpeaks and teaches performance art and creative writing in schools, libraries, art centers and prisons throughout the Twin Cities. Tish was a 2009 recipient for both Intermedia Arts' VERVE Grants for Spoken Word Poets, and the MN Urban Griot Award for Female Spoken Word Artist Of The Year. Tish also collaborated with filmmaker Rachel Raimist on a spoken word and film project, “State of the Cities”.

Andrea Assaf, writer, performer, director and cultural organizer

Andrea is a Founder and Artistic Director of Art2Action that creates, develops and produces new theater & interdisciplinary performances that support women artists, artists of color, queer & trans-identified artists, and creative allies. Her newest project is “Outside the Circle”, co-written with Samuel Valdez and directed by Dora Arreola. The piece looks at a straight man with cerebral palsy and a queer woman whose parallel and interweaving tales of unrequited love reveal the illusions of normalcy and the liberation possible when choosing life…outside the circle. It is co-presented with Pangea World Theater Teatro del Pueblo and Intermedia Arts Runs: March 15–March 17, 2012, 7:30pm at Intermedia Arts