Night of Amiri Baraka
An Evening of Art
A Night of Amiri Baraka (2014) was put together to reflect on the legacy of this brilliant and controversial New Jersey native. A program was formed including the poetry of Lamont Dixon, a production of The Dutchman (Directed by the great Connie Norwood), and a public obituary from the memoirist and historian Turiya Abdur-Rahee. I devised and spearheaded the overall evening
Artists
Connie Norwood
Directed The Dutchman
CONNIE NORWOOD (Director) is proud to be directing for Chrysalis Staging premier. Connie is a resident
of Philadelphia and a graduate of Temple University, working in theater since 1968 as a director and performer. These includes According to Plan, Welcome Home Eddy, Tom, Dick, and Harriet and Back to the Old Landmark
and most recently Hothouse’s production of Sartre’s No Exit. She has directed several of Rev. Johnny Thompson’s Productions, including Anointed to Sing the Gospel, Grand Ole Night, Master, I Want to live, and the one-woman shows Black Sistah with a Capitol B. She has had the pleasure to work with some of the best directors in Philadelphia including: Walter Dallas, Bob Hedley, and Jan Silverman. She served as Guest Artist of Temple University Main Stage Productions from 1998-2001. She served as Associate Artistic Director and as Director of Youth Productions of the Point Breeze Performing Arts Center from 1993 - 2001. She has served continuously as Director/Dramaturg/Actress for the Philadelphia Young Playwrights Festival/The Philadelphia Company from 1989 to the present and for the Temple Reading Series 1989-Present. She is a member of South Camden Theatre where she has directed Kingdom Come, Suddenly Last Summer, and will be directing their upcoming production of King
Hedley II
Lamont Dixon
Poet
LAMONT DIXON (Presenter) aka Napalm Da Bomb, is a Philadelphia based poet as well as a performance
and teaching artist. He has been a prominent presence on the jazz-poetry scene for many years. As a
teaching artist, Lamont demonstrates “vibepoetics” – an eclectic mixing of multiple artistic genres to
provide dramatic Language Arts education. As a performer, Napalm frequently collaborates with
dancers, visual artists, rappers, storytellers, vocalists, as well as with his band, the The Jazzpoetics.
Napalm’s poetry has been published in numerous magazines, including Essence and African Voices. He
appears on various CDs: Awaiting the Spirit (Barry Sames), The Po-Jazz Connection (Warren Oree),
African Rhythm Tongues (Khan Jamal), and In ‘07, he debuted Pigments of My Imagination, a CD of music and poetry. The National Black Authors Tour presented Lamont Dixon with the “2014 Philadelphia Black Poetry Honors” – certificate and medal – for “20 Years of Poetic Excellence” within the “Philadelphia Poetry Circuit and Community”.
Turiya Abdur-Raheem
Memoirist
TURIYA ABDUR-RAHEEM (Presenter) was born and raised in Atlantic City, New Jersey. She loves to describe her neighborhood as “the other Atlantic City,” because it was not the casino-resort mecca most people know today. After graduating from Hiram College with a B.A. in the Sociology of Communications, Turiya worked briefly as a copy editor at the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Washington Post newspapers. She received her Master’s in Education in 1996. As a certified English teacher in the state of Maryland, she taught at public, private and alternative schools in the Washington, D.C.-suburban Maryland area. In 2008, Turiya and Hassan relocated back to her hometown of Atlantic City, New Jersey where she caught the attention of HBO and appeared on two of its documentaries
in association with the Boardwalk Empire series. Today, she enjoys teaching English at Atlantic Cape
Community College, reciting her poetry and writing an online column for acweekly.com, called What
else? The Other Atlantic City.