Performances, Symposia, Residencies, Films

In October 1999, we had "Making the Spirit of 20th & 21st Century Culture: Placing Black Popular Culture & Performance". The Spirit website is http://www.stanford.edu/group/Spirit

CBPA/Drama plays and CBPA productions afford learning opportunities in acting and technical production in shows such as August Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" (94), and the EPAP plays (95).

The CBPA has presented groundbreaking symposia, such as "Black Theatre: Moving Toward the 21st Century" (1987), the first statewide black theatre conference; Professor and actor Avery Brooks' keynote address on the State of Black Theatre and acting Master Class for the Bay Area College and University Black Theatre Conference (1991);"The Black Avant-Garde and the Concept of a Black Aesthetic" (1992), a day-long symposium of professional artists, scholars and critics; and "Blacks in Hollywood" (1993), presenting panels of film industry executives, producers, directors and actors;

Residency activities such as the two by the Katherine Dunham Dance Company (1989 & 1990) afford students the opportunity for intensive study with a professional artist, and enables artists to work within adjacent communities.

The CBPA has sponsored residencies with Katherine Dunham and Charles OyamO Gordon. Our "Flicks of Black Folk" film showings are popular events, and "Nights off the Farm" provide opportunities for students to travel to other Bay Area locations to see performances.

"Dreams of a City: The East Palo Alto Project" (EPAP)

From 1992 through 1996 the CBPA in collaboration with Academic Software Development and the Department of Drama worked with the government and citizens of East Palo Alto to create two one-act plays, a video documentary and an archive of the history of East Palo Alto.