by Jasmine Conner

The Joyce Gordon Gallery will host a reading by the Journal of Pan African Studies women poets from 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday, March 19. The Academy of da Corner Reader’s Theatre will perform also with authors Jerri Lange, Aries Jordan, Tureada Mikell, Jasmin Conner and Phavia Kujichagulia, Singer Mechelle LaChaux.

Featured artist is poet, playwright, actress, producer and director of West Oakland's Lower Bottom Playaz, Ayodele Nzingha, who is considered one of the premier theatre persons in the Bay Area. In her own words, she is, “a renaissance woman with something to say in every medium she can,” whether poetry, drama, directing, producing.

In spite of raising seven children as a single mother, Nzingha obtained a Masters of Arts and a Masters of Fine Arts and is currently a Ph.D. candidate. She will be perform Opal Palmer Adisa’s play "Bathroom Graffiti Queen," which she has adapted into a one-woman show.

The play is about woman’s exploration of sexuality, femininity and who we are as people. Nzingha describes her character, Queen, as “Complex, wounded and perhaps broken. Yet she has a driving force to fix the world, and finds a way to go on. She has a purpose in life. She’s following her own cause.”

This speaks to every woman. We are taught from infancy that we have the responsibility to uphold and keep everyone around us on course. We are expected to disregard our personal struggles/issues in favor of the greater need, as if our personal needs are without merit. We are expected to take care of our families and community - and once that job is done, we can then take care of self. And that job is never done.

"Bathroom Graffiti Queen" is thus a womanhood rite of passage. Playwrights Marvin X (Nzingha’s mentor since 1980 when she directed his play "In the Name of Love" and later his classic "One Day in the Life" -1997-2002) and Ishmael Reed give high praise to Nzingha’s dramatic talent.

"Her acting is orgasmic," Marvin X says. "She enjoys herself on stage as much as the audience."

As a womanhood rite of passage, Nzingha expressed great enthusiasm for Opal Palmer Adisa’s play.

“Society becomes unraveled because of the treatment of women," Nzingha says. "We reach a level of tolerance. We get used to the statistics that every six minutes a woman is beaten. Entertainment offers a disguise. People come to a play to be entertained but the audience will be different when they leave the theatre. The play directs attention to the condition of women globally, but in particular to my sistahs here in North America.”

My interview allowed me to to hear the juicy insights of Nzinga’s expressions. In anticipation of the performance, I’m inspired by the far reach of our role as women.

Cross-posted from First Poet's Church of the Latter-Day Egyptian Revisionists.