In a positive story about black culture, photos of area teens dancing and distignished African ladies hit the commercial appeal for coverage of the africa in april festival.

Yesterday, I saw The African Company Presents Richard the Third., and it made me think about how art can be a method of gaining freedom. In the play, the characters talk about how their play gives them the ability to let people dream. Jimmy does a scene in which he describes being heckled for doing Hamlet and told to sing possum in a gum tree. He performs it, but even though I don't know the history of the song, the dramatic way in which it was performed, certainly shows him subverting that racist image.

At the end of the play, the characters decide to take what they have learned from the drama of Shakespeare, and create characters that they themselves can be. I liked how the drama of Richard the Third in the play was both universal and quite specific. The way Ann and Jimmy's characters in the play and their real relationship meshed was beautiful.

In other news, Collierville finally provides drainage for mostly black area.