JCTC’S TALK SERIES “BLACK SPACE” WITH ASHLEY NICOLE BAPTISTE CONTINUES IN MAY
The Jersey City Theater Center (JCTC) presents the fourth installment of the new talk series
Black Space
an ongoing series of intimate and candid conversations exploring the experiences of black artists in the world today
WHEN: Wednesday, May 5, at 7:30pm
WHERE: Facebook Live and on Zoom webinar.
For details, visit www.jctcenter.org.
The series' first interview was with with Jersey City visual artist K. Brown, which took place on Wednesday, March 31.
Baptiste’s next guest is the hip-hop recording artist, songwriter and poet Ibn
Sharif Shakoor on Sunday, May 16, at 2pm. Shakoor, who is a JCTC resident
artist, talks about growing up amid drugs and violence on the mean streets of
Jersey City, and his path into music and songwriting to process, cope with and
overcome adversity.
A graduate of Ferris High School, Ms. Mary (left) is not only a well-known longtime
fixture on the stage of Moore’s Lounge (where she performs regularly) but she
is also a devoted teacher and role model having worked with local youth for
over 50 years in countless schools, day cares, libraries, and churches.
She was the style columnist for the Jersey City magazine From Dusk Til Dawn, she’s
taught modeling, puppetry, storytelling, sign language, acting and singing to
students of every age. A keen-eyed witness to both the changes,
durability and extraordinary diversity of Jersey City, Ms. Mary is a
self-described “mom to all,” whose motto is “you treat people how you want to
be treated, and they will treat you well!”
Baptiste (left), an actor and a veteran youth theatre educator with the JCTC Youth Theatre and the Stories of Greenville initiative, was born in San Francisco. “I want to create an intentional safe space where black artists from around the world can come together and have a human-to-human exchange about art, race and life,” she says. “This series is about expansion, and pushing past pre-conceived notions of blackness.”
“As our city gentrifies while retaining its diversity, and indeed as the world is changing in fundamental ways, being right in the middle of these conversations is essential,” says JCTC’s artistic director, Olga Levina. “For us as a theatre company dedicated to sparking conversations that lead to deeper respect and understanding, we know we need to create a safe place to listen and learn and collaborate.”