Poets & Playwrights presents Fishing in Brooklyn by LaTonia Phipps

Event Date

Wednesday, March 17 2010 : 6:00pm – 9:00pm

Location

The Center

Description

Thursday, March 17, 2010
Reception 6PM, Program 6:30PM
Poets & Playwrights presents Fishing in Brooklyn by LaTonia Phipps

Join us for this brilliant spoken word solo performance project, written and performed by LaTonia Phipps that follows a young woman, Tia Lite, on the road to self-discovery. Through the eyes of 12 characters, that including the inquisitive yet sassy Tia, a 10 year-old girl who, while watching her mother die of cancer, manages to bring a sense of light to the world falling down around her. The remaining characters met along the way, all serve as matriarchs for the impressible Tia, providing her with the tools needed in order to complete her journey.

The audience is then taken on a voyage into Ghana, West Africa, through Kingston, Jamaica and finally Puerto Limon, Costa Rica exploring the lost but found Afro-Latin Diaspora. With a little Brooklyn “flavor,” Fishing in Brooklyn takes the audience back to the days when everything was simple even when it was hard when you were in 'los brazos de tu Madre,' your mothers’ arms.

LaTonia Phipps (Actress, Spoken Word Poet, Playwright):
An artist who gives a new meaning to the phrase triple threat. Raised in Bedford -Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, LaTonia dove head first into the arts at the tender age of 10. Upon receiving her Masters Degree in Acting from Brooklyn College she went on to participate in the production of The Colored Museum at The Crossroads Theater and Wait Until Dark, by Fredrick Knott at The Ivoryton Playhouse, playing the role of Suzy Hendrix. She was later introduced Freedom Train Productions, a theater company for emerging artists and playwrights, where she participated in two readings, "Black Tale" and "Dirty Little Black Girls" both by Patricia Ione Lloyd.

Following this experience Phipps was instantly bite by the playwriting bug. Fishing In Brooklyn, is her first debut into the world of playwriting, which began as a childhood memory and then blossomed into a full-length play. She is currently working on a project titled, 'She Who Struggles,' A Two-Act play that follows JoAnne Chesimard before she becomes Assata Shakur, as she deals with issues of our time; understanding gentrification, war, friendship, lesbian love and loss.