Artist and social justice advocate Amanda D. King’s debut, solo exhibition, God is Anti-racist (GiA-r), composition no. 1, will be displayed in the George L. Forbes Gallery at Karamu House from September 10 - October 22, 2021. The Gallery will be open Monday - Friday, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. On Wednesday, hours are extended until 7 p.m. No tickets or registration is required; however, COVID-19 rules still apply.

It's 1927 and Ma Rainey, the "Mother of the Blues," is recording new sides of old favorites in a rundown studio in Chicago. Fiery and determined, Ma Rainey fights to retain control over her music, while her cocky trumpet player Levee dreams of making his own name in the business. More than music goes down in August Wilson's riveting portrayal of rage, racism, self-hatred and exploitation.

"His tone has that intimate, elusive, near-tragic, near-comic sound of the Negro blues, and is equally defiant of analysis" is how a critic described this work by Langston Hughes, who mentions Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman as his main literary influences. As a young man, Hughes participated enthusiastically in the activities of the Karamu Players in Cleveland, and later he was to found Negro theatres in Harlem, Los Angeles and Chicago. He wrote a number of plays and musicals before creating what he calls "the Gospel Song-Play" … which is Black Nativity.