Serving Black Futures; Loving Black Artists

Hosted by Keno Evol & Black Table Arts

Featuring the  Work of and Performances by 

 Lester Batiste, Donte Collins, Antonio Duke, Sarah Ogitu 

Videography by Fred N. Cheng

Produced  by  Illusion Theater

August 2020

Minneapolis Mn

Selections

 Introduction
Keno Evol 

 A Song from the Front Porch
Lester Batiste

The Birds

Gardens
Keno Evol

King Hedley from Seven Guitars by August Wilson
performed by Antonio Duke

 What Does Your Body Remember
Donte Collins      

 After the Storm
Sarah Ogutu

 Attitude Era Latino Heat
Lester Batiste

 Sympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar
performed by Antonio  Duke

Audre Lorde Quote
Sarah Ogutu

 Stem-Filled Frenzy
Lester  Batiste

Tears of Moon
written and performed by Antonio Duke

Hurt people
Sarah Ogutu

A Little Glimpse
Keno Evol
dedicated to the movement for George Floyd

 Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing
Traditional Arrangement & Soundscape by Michael Keck
Sung  by Aimee K. Bryant and T Mychael Rambo
Lyrics by James Weldon Johnson
Music by John Rosamund Johnson

Photographs/Video of Street Art by Regina Marie Williams

With gratitude to be able to share the powerful, beautiful inspiring George Floyd Art found on the streets of Minneapolis

About the Artists

Keno Evol is a poet, educator and independent scholar based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He serves as the Founder and Executive Director of Black Table Arts. Keno Evol is editor of A Garden Of Black Joy: Global Poetry From The Edges of Liberation And Living. At his core he is a facilitator of empathy and imagination.Black Table Arts is a Minnesota based art organization that asks black communities what futures do they want to create and how much imagination would it take to get us there? Black Table Arts was mentioned by actress and comedian Issa Rae as a long term initiative to support. Keno Evol's work hones in on the literary arts and the black radical tradition as curriculum for the future.  Evol has received the Verve Grant, the Beyond the Pure fellowship, The Emerging Writers Grant and The Spoken Word Immersion Fellowship for his work.

Donte Collins- is a Black, queer American poet. Named the inaugural Youth Poet Laureate of Saint Paul, Minnesota, they are the recipient of the 2018 McKnight Artist Fellowship for Spoken Word and winner of the Most Promising Young Poet Award from the Academy of American Poets. They are the author of the poetry collection “Autopsy” (Button Poetry, 2017) a finalist for a Minnesota Book Award. Collins is the recipient of the Mitchell Prize in Poetry from Augsburg University and an alum of TruArtSpeaks, a non-profit arts organization based in the Twin Cities cultivating literacy, leadership, and social justice through the study & application of Spoken Word and Hip-Hop culture.

Antonio Duke - is a Twin Cities actor and playwright. He follows in the tradition of the Griot: West African storytellers whose blessed with keeping their communities history. He's inspired by myths from the black spiritual canon that derive from the Yoruba, Santeria, and Voodoo deities. He has three solo performance pieces under his belt, Ashes of Moons (Pillsbury House Theatre's Naked Stages Fellowship), Tears of Moons (Guthrie Theatre's Solo emerging Artist Celebration), and Missing Mississippi Moons (Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant) He's currently a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow. He's an alumnus of the Guthrie B.F.A Actor Training Program.

Sarah Ogitu is an African American daughter of immigrants. Born in Milwaukee and raised in the suburbs, Sarah moved to the Twin Cities for college and never left.  She is a creative who's current work explores generational trauma and its impact on the psyche.

Lester Batiste is a savage writer living in color. Born in Chicago, IL, he holds an M.F.A from the University of Southern Maine, and teaches English literature classes at an independent high school in Minneapolis, MN.

Fred N. Cheng is a videographer, a teacher, an improv artist. He has also performed in the mainstage troupe of Stevie Ray’s Comedy Cabaret at the Chanhassen Dinner Theater and taught improv at the Brave New Workshop and Stevie Ray’s.