Playwright Reshanda Henderson

Tyler Perry is not the only black playwright in America! Chicago playwright Reshanda Henderson's "What Every Woman Wants in a Man" shows March 6 and March 7. The play features Christan Keyes from Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail, What's Done in the Dark and The Diary of a Mad Black Woman.

Check out a trailer of another play she wrote and produced, "The Mr., the Mrs. & The Lover".



In a male dominated industry, woman voices are often overlooked. I can't remember the last time I experienced a play. Some of the reason is my circle of experience, more of the reason is the marketing of plays staged in local and community theaters. If you can, support your local theater.

Reshanda Henderson is the C.E.O of Xpressyoself Theater Company. Show your support for Reshanda Henderson and other black women playwrights.

Check out an interview with her in a upcoming issue of Urbania Magazine.

If you know of other plays and playwrights that create plays that challenge ideas and are set in the urban city environment, please comment so that I can compile a list.

Response to Sean Delonas Cartoon

The Sam Stein response to the Sean Delonas cartoon in the New York was fair and balanced. However, the ideas that can be inferred from the perspective of an African American are unique.

The reference to the stimulus package was narrow. The history of the monkey and the comparison to African Americans by other races is wide, layered and politically charged. Not literal politics in elections, but the practical, figurative politics that is played in peoples private lives.

Calling African Americans monkeys and niggers is not a practice that takes place in public. It takes place in the homes and informal meetings of individuals who believe the idea of racism has credence. The New York Post cartoon spoke to these people. They will all laughed behind closed doors. But they are too coward to stand behind their ideas.

African Americans are not monolithic in thinking. However, the inference in the illustration suggest that the President Obama should be killed for signing the stimulus bill.

The above cartoon spoof illustrates the larger conversation about racism that the Sean Delonas and the New York Post will not participate in or stand behind. Instead, the New York Post blamed Rev. Al Sharpton for being a publicity opportunist. The latter may be true. However, the Rev. Al Sharpton has taken the correct stance on this issue.

There is room for an individual to hide behind their art, images, and cartoons. They should just have to explain words behind them.

If the point was to incite. Then the cartoonist did his job.

Kissed by the Devil by Deshawn Taylor

I completed a book review on Kissed by the Devil by Deshawn Taylor. I liked the book because the characters were criminal minded and witty. One of the street hustles in the book was a basic ponzi scheme used to generate money at the top. Just like in the real life Madoff scandal, everything attached to the scheme crumbles. In the book, the character involved in the scheme loses his life. Bernard Madoff lives in his penthouse while on house arrest.

Deshawn Taylor is the author of From Poverty to Power Moves and a finalist in the BET Ultimate Hustler Show.

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Getting Out the Game by Omar Powell

Getting Out the Game by Omar Powell was a book review that I wrote for The Urban Book Source. The book had the right motivation but lacked execution. I hope the book review will help people interested in urban literature. I think that If the book was nonfiction, it could have offered more value for the reader.

Make sure to support Omar Powell with other upcoming projects.