Black History Month, Women's History Month, Stand-up Comedy Show

This past Sunday, I attended an Uptown Hall at the Apollo Theatre.  Inside, it looks palatial.  I've watched Amateur Night at the Apollo on tv, but I'd never been there.  I was there for an event that intrigued me.  I invited my adult students to join me before we went on a week's break.  Several made sure to be there, and one brought her daughter.  I was very pleased.  

https://www.apollotheater.org/event/apollo-uptown-hall-trial-jury-case-n-word/

It was well worth the time.  Enriching FREE events happen all the time all over New York City.  I like when I step outside of my routines and experience something different. I was honored that several students joined me.  One went through so much to make it happen -- taxicabbed to her mother's who would take care of the baby, etc., etc.  

.....

I fantasized about this when I was 18 years old.  Though there were consciousness raising groups all over, women were still too alienated from each other back then.  It took years of freeing our minds and an orange anal orifice to make it happen.  Herstory in the making!

http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/02/womens-strike-march-8.html

I fucking plan to be there.

.....

With all that's going on, we also need to make time for fun and laughter.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017 at 9pm 

Mindy Matijasevic

performs stand-up comedy 

in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn 

https://www.facebook.com/redwhitebrewbklynny/

No cover & no minimum

Red, White & Brew

8910 Fifth Avenue

Brooklyn, New York

(R train to 86th Street Station in Bay Ridge)

Hope to see your smiling faces and hear your laughter!

I Am Black History by Rhonda Hansome

I am Black History and Women's History, thanks to Director Debra Robinson's film 

I Be Done Been Was Is 

Last night, I was at the Brooklyn Academy of Music for the Black History Month Film Festival, 

One Way Or Another: Black Women's Cinema, 1970-1991

Complete Disclosure: I'm also the poster gal of the festival!

Photo credit: Charles James Whisnant

Last night at the (newly scheduled due to high interest & snowstorm) third and final screening of Debra Robinson's comedy documentary, in which I'm featured with the iconic

                                                                  Marcia Warfield 

I felt like part of history!

Did I mention I'm also NARRATOR of  I Be Done Been Was Is? 

(Blushes & tucks toe in dirt)

I'm grateful to Nellie Killian and Michelle Materre for inviting me to be part of the Q & A following the screening. I appreciate everyone, friends, co-workers and new fans, who attended. 

              Thanks Gordon Balkcom for this photo of me with my long time pal Eric Vetter at BAM.

My understanding is that the ONLY 2 EXISTING COPIES of the film are in the Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library. I hope intentions for the preservation of this, Women's History, Black History and Entertainment History, doumentary come to fruition.

Because I'm trying to get through the day without mentioning Detritus Prumt*, here's more about me.

       7 PM Tonight Friday 2/24 New Women Space 188 Woodpoint Rd. Brooklyn NY 11211 

                                               LAWL - Ladies And Women Laughing

Arti Gollapudi, Producer

                  7 PM Sunday 3/5 Brooklyn Commons 388 Atlantic Ave. Brooklyn NY 11217

                                                              Between Hoyt & Bond

                                   No cover for Randy Credico's Comedy Music & Rhetoric Show

Oh shucks I was trying to avoid mentioning Detritus Prumt! 

Thanks to Randy Credico's show that effort is gone with the wind.

* Your current US president

Yet Another First

For the first time ever, I saw part of a comedy show where the one in charge heckled his own performers.  It was very puzzling. 

 

On one hand, I wondered if he was just behaving as an acting director at a rehearsal.  What he was claiming to want sounded understandable, but it seemed most of the performers had no idea this was what happens at this event.  Those who had been there before, and accepted the scenario, giggled at the whole thing.  New people, like myself, looked in wonderment. 

Some left.  I decided early on that I was not going to get on stage.  Another comic I know just decided to leave.  I stayed, out of curiosity, and then left halfway through the event. 

I can't say I wouldn't go again.  It was bizarre enough to spark my curiosity though not every brand of strange is compatible with mine.  Maybe if there is a next time, I'll get up.  I need to know what I'm getting myself into.  And I'd have to be in a particularly adventurous mood.  

Black History Month Tonight! By Rhonda Hansome

Director Debra Robinson's 1984 documentary, I Be Done Was Is profiles four women comics: Marcia Warfield, Jane Galvin Lewis, Alice Arthur and me; seen above in the poster for the BAM Rose Cinemas' Black History Month Film Festival,

One Way Or Another: Black Women's Cinema, 1970-1991. 

I was the mother of a toddler and a new comic when this film was made. Last Saturday was my first in-theater screening of this exploration of women in comedy. The Brooklyn Academy of Music theater was packed. I was delighted to be in the company of thirty or more friends, family and fans who'd responded to my last minute invitation. If I hadn't seen a random post on the Women of Color Women of Comedy Facebook page, I'd never had known about the festival, nor the showing of I Be Done Was Is, a historical work in which I'm featured.

#IBeDoneWasIs - Schedule Alert: 

9 PM tonight, Thur. Feb. 9th, is NOT THE LAST SCREENING of  #IBeDoneWas Is. 

Kudos and thanks to BAM Cinematek Programmer Nellie Killian for inviting my participation 

at the new I Be Done Was Is screening 9:30 Thu. Feb. 23rd.

  Join me 2/23 at BAM Rose Cinemas for the laughs and for Black History.

When & Where To See Me

BTW,  I Also Direct & This Reading Featuring Dominic Marcus Is Free

And Some Storytelling