 |
| Photo credits: HowlRound Theatre Commons |
Be an inspiration is a must-see video of Kwame Kwei-Armah, the British and Afro-Caribbean actor, playwright and broadcaster. He talks about how he is inspired by simply observing the choices his role model makes in life and business.
This video is a must-watch because it shows us the impact of positive influence. In the video he talks about the effect he had on a person who saw a play of him about why black men weren't reading.
Be an inspiration (text)
"My name is Kwame Kwei-Armah. I am an actor, playwright, and a broadcaster. I have a role model, and he's slightly from afar even, actually, we don't even meet every day or every month. But I look at what he does, and I say: I love the way you inspire me with your choices.
And so, I think it's really important to have someone there who you trust—and not only trust, but actually admire the choices they make in their life and in their business.
I was doing a talk once, and this really moved me. It was supposed to be like a kind of big retrospective of my work at the British Film Institute, and about six people turned up. But out of those six, there was this one woman.
When I was asked why I write, I said: "Well, I write to be a catalyst for a debate. I write because I want to inspire people to talk about the issues that I've raised in my plays."
And this one woman stood up and said: "Well, I’d just like to say that I went to see your second play at the National, called Fix Up, which was about why Black men, in particular, were not reading. And it really struck me. At the end of the play, I went and bought the script. I went through all of the books that you mentioned in the play, and I bought them. I read them all. And now, I make sure that I read a book a month, and I make sure that my younger brother does too."
For me, that was one of the greatest things that I could have heard. It was better than awards. It was better than... well, yeah, it was just marvelous—that one person.
I think it's really important that young people see that there are successful Black people who have negotiated the system, who have survived the vagaries of the system, and not only are still standing, but actually want to give something back.
I think it's really important not just for them to see people who look like them succeeding, but for them to see people who look like them, talk like them, and think like them giving back.
That's terribly important for me."
----
About the play Fix UP
It's Black History month but you wouldn't know it in Tottenham where Revive PLC plan to turn Kwesi's All Black African Party hotbed into luxury flats, and it looks like Kiyi's 'conscious' bookstore will soon go the same way. And then a beautiful visitor shows up in their midst and life goes from bad to worse.
Set against the inexorable march of progress in contemporary London, Kwame Kwei-Armah's second play for the National explores race and roots with verve and wit.
"Being around too much white folk. I seen the bluest of blackest men get too much exposure bam, they lose their rhythm. Put on a James Brown tune and they start doing the Charleston to ras!"
Black Plays Archive - Listen to a part of Fix UP: Recording of a scene from Kwame Kwei-Armah’s play Fix Up