Latest news with #SpeakEasy
Scoop
13-05-2025
- Scoop
What Pay Equity Has To Do With Ending Sexual Violence
Wellington Rape Crisis - Latest News [Page 1] Unequal pay, insecure work, and economic dependence don't just create hardship. They create conditions where violence can thrive, and where survivors are forced to choose between safety and survival. More >> Wellington Rape Crisis Popup Service in Newtown Thursday, 7 June 2018, 11:29 am | Wellington Rape Crisis Wellington Rape Crisis is excited to be offering Whanau Manaaki, a pop up drop-in service to family and friends of survivors of sexual harm in Newtown Mall, every Thursday, from the 7th of June to the 30th of August. More >> Wellington Rape Crisis launches its 2018 Annual Appeal Monday, 26 February 2018, 5:21 pm | Wellington Rape Crisis Wellington Rape Crisis will hold its annual appeal this week, with street collectors throughout Wellington on Friday 2nd March and Saturday 3rd March. More >> Wellington Rape Crisis launches its Annual Appeal Tuesday, 28 March 2017, 10:35 am | Wellington Rape Crisis Wellington Rape Crisis' annual appeal is happening this week, with street collectors raising money on 30th March and sponsor events running through the week. More >> Speak Easy - A night of performance poetry and burlesque Tuesday, 5 July 2016, 9:53 am | Wellington Rape Crisis Speak Easy is a performance poetry and burlesque fundraiser show to raise money for Wellington Rape Crisis. It will feature some of Wellington's best poets, storytellers and burlesque performers all coming together under one roof, 8pm July 16th at The ... More >> Wellington Rape Crisis launches its Annual Appeal Tuesday, 29 March 2016, 12:38 pm | Wellington Rape Crisis Wellington Rape Crisis' annual appeal is happening this week, with street collectors raising money on 31 March and sponsor events running through the week. More >> Wellington Rape Crisis condemns pro-rape meetup Tuesday, 2 February 2016, 10:14 am | Wellington Rape Crisis Wellington Rape Crisis condemns pro-rape meetup and asks men to stand up to abuse More >> Time to take action over sexual violence Wednesday, 16 December 2015, 3:06 pm | Wellington Rape Crisis It is time for the government to take action to support the sexual violence sector, say key agencies for survivors in Wellington. More >> Wellington Rape Crisis launches its Annual Appeal Monday, 4 May 2015, 9:13 am | Wellington Rape Crisis Wellington Rape Crisis will hold its annual appeal this week, with street collectors throughout Wellington on Thursday 7 May and Saturday 9 May. More >> Sexual violence threats toward Taranaki journalist Monday, 26 January 2015, 1:15 pm | Wellington Rape Crisis Wellington Rape Crisis agency manager Eleanor Butterworth says, 'the sense of anonymity that people seem to feel when using forums like Facebook, Twitter and blogging has come with it a disturbing shift in what is considered normal when it comes to the ... More >> Rape Crisis calls for changes to criminal justice system Thursday, 30 October 2014, 12:11 pm | Wellington Rape Crisis Wellington Rape Crisis has added its voice to the public outcry following the announcement that there will be no charges in the teen rape gang case. Butterworth says the decision not to lay charges will not have been a surprise for many who work in this area, ... More >> Universities must do more to stop sexual abuse of students Wednesday, 8 October 2014, 1:40 pm | Wellington Rape Crisis Universities must do more in response to the abuse of their female students on social media, after another exploitative Facebook group has been discovered, says Wellington Rape Crisis. More >> Wellington Rape Crisis launches appeal week Monday, 31 March 2014, 3:09 pm | Wellington Rape Crisis Today Wellington Rape Crisis launches its annual appeal week that will see the service taking part in seven days of awareness raising and fundraising, culminating in their annual street appeal on Friday the 4th of April. More >> Wellington Rape Crisis statement on Roastbusters and police Thursday, 7 November 2013, 1:11 pm | Wellington Rape Crisis Wellington Rape Crisis (WRC) has been overwhelmed with messages of outrage from members of the public about the group of Auckland rapists calling themselves 'Roast Busters', as well as about subsequent media coverage. Concern for survivors of these rapes ... More >> Call for Herald to apologise for articles Wednesday, 2 October 2013, 4:24 pm | Wellington Rape Crisis The agency Wellington Rape Crisis is calling on the NZ Herald to cease the publication of articles that contribute to rape culture and to apologise for the damage done to survivors of rape and sexual assault. More >> People urged to submit to select committee inquiry Monday, 23 September 2013, 5:06 pm | Wellington Rape Crisis Wellington Rape Crisis (WRC) is urging as many people and organisations as possible to submit to the Social Services Select Committee Inquiry on Funding for Sexual Abuse Services. Submissions close on Thursday 10 October 2013. More >> Panel Discussion on Rape Culture featuring Louise Nicholas Thursday, 11 April 2013, 5:21 pm | Wellington Rape Crisis Wellington Rape Crisis (WRC) is hosting a discussion panel about rape culture and the effect that rape myths have on both the criminal justice system and survivors of sexual violence. This is a members event (non members can join on the door). More >> Wellington Rape Crisis joins call to end global violence Tuesday, 12 February 2013, 11:28 am | Wellington Rape Crisis On Thursday 14th February, Wellington Rape Crisis will support One Billion Rising Wellington, part of a global movement calling for an end to violence against women and girls. More >>
Boston Globe
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
In ‘Jaja's African Hair Braiding,' a day at the salon can be funny, invigorating, and a snapshot of immigrant life
As the child of parents from Ghana, she also understands the immigrant experience intimately. 'My parents and a lot of the people who I'm representing in this play had the dream of coming to America and wanting a better life for themselves. But then the characters are also facing the reality of what it's like to be an immigrant in America right now.' Indeed, when 'Jaja's African Hair Braiding' premiered on Broadway in fall of 2023 to warm reviews and five Tony Award nominations, it felt resonant and timely. Now, with Director Summer L. Williams at rehearsal. Taylor Rossi Photography 'We are watching people be left behind, abducted, and disappeared,' says Summer L. Williams, who's directing 'Jaja's' for SpeakEasy, alluding to the current administration's aim of 'mass deportation' and increased ICE raids without due process. 'It's totally changed how I've approached my thinking around the play and what I want it to do. The objective is still the same, but the intensity is shifted within me.' Advertisement A follow-up to Bioh's 'Marie and Jaja have the same kind of conflict that any 18-year-old daughter has with their mother,' Bioh says. 'They want to live their own life and they feel either burdened by or trapped by their parent. There's always this kind of push-pull of who knows best.' To write the two characters, she tapped into her dynamic with her own mother. 'I always felt like I knew better than she did and questioned a lot of her choices,' says Bioh, who's also worked as an actress both on and off Broadway. Advertisement Among the other hair braiders are Bea (Crystin Gilmore), a gossipy Ghanaian queen bee in her 40s who is always stirring the pot, and Bea's friend Aminata (Kwezi Shongwe), a Senegalese woman who's fed up with her turbulent marriage and wayward husband. Miriam (Marahadoo Effeh), a quiet recent immigrant from Sierra Leone who's hoping to bring over her young son, unfurls a dramatic story about leaving her lazy husband after she had a passionate affair. And Ndidi (Catia), a young firecracker from Nigeria, is the fastest and most in-demand hair braider, which raises Bea's ire. Along for the ride are a vibrant array of clients and several men who pop into the store to hawk their wares. Bioh's plays are known for toggling seamlessly between uproarious, gasp-inducing comedy, ebullient joy, and an undercurrent of pain, frustration, and pathos. The bellyaching humor, Bioh says, derives from the familiar human behavior that's unfolding onstage. 'We're laughing at the recognition of truth that we've all experienced, and sometimes that recognition is funny, sometimes it's heartbreaking, sometimes it's devastating or sad. That's always my center of gravity as a writer — to make sure that I'm always leaning into the truth, because that's where the comedy lives.' As the audience enters the world of Jaja's African Hair Braiding Shop on a hot summer morning in Harlem, Williams says she hopes 'to create a space where it feels like the rest of the world falls away. You're fully present and consumed by what's happening in the world of that shop.' With braiders fashioning the various hairstyles — from jumbo box braids and long micro braids to cornrows and an eye-popping Beyoncé-inspired look — the audience glimpses these hair maestros hard at work, and the cast has been doing regular tutorials to learn the craft themselves. '[The braiders] 'do something incredible for another woman, and it's magical,' Williams says. The customers, she adds, become 'fully transformed, get up out of the chair, and leave different, new, refreshed, excited.' Advertisement In crafting her play, Bioh wanted to highlight the diversity of stories within immigrant communities and to push back against the xenophobic narratives and negative stereotypes about immigrants fostered by certain politicians and media. 'I was just trying to humanize the people behind the policy, to humanize the immigrant story,' Bioh says. 'So that people who come to see the play, who maybe have their own implicit biases, could leave having even just the tiniest little blade of grass version of empathy for their stories and their community.' Williams says that she's opening the production with what she calls a 'grand gesture' and teases the possibility of an 'even grander gesture at the end of the show that could be absolutely devastating.' 'Do we need that devastation to make sure that this is firmly cemented in everyone's hearts and minds, so that they have to go and do something to prevent what's happening?' she says. The play's ending will leave audiences with 'basically a choice between feeling joy or pain, and the way those choices manifest, it's either hopeful or it's truthful,' Williams says. To survive this fraught era, Bioh says that community and solidarity are key, something she discovered when her older brother passed away unexpectedly a few weeks before rehearsals started for 'Jaja's' on Broadway. 'I was still very deep in grief dealing with the loss of my brother, and the way my community and everybody really jumped in to circle around and be there for me was powerful,' Bioh says. Advertisement 'At the end of the day, these women are like a chosen family. Many of them have found themselves in a new place that they're trying to make home. So regardless of whatever happened during the day, all of the nonsense, any fights and ill feelings, all of that goes out of the door when a member of this sisterhood, this community needs help — when you know you need to step up and be in service to someone in this family.' JAJA'S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING By Jocelyn Bioh, presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company. At Calderwood Pavilion at Boston Center for the Arts, May 2-31. Tickets from $25. 617-933-8600,
Boston Globe
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Dawn M. Simmons named new artistic director at SpeakEasy Stage Company
The nonprofit theater company, which begins its 35th season this summer, said Simmons was chosen after a national search, aided by the Advertisement 'Dawn understands SpeakEasy. She embodies our mission, she's familiar with our audiences, and she has an exciting vision for how to move the company forward at an undeniably challenging time for the theatre sector,' said SpeakEasy executive director David Beardsley. 'Dawn is the ideal person to take up our artistic reins.' Simmons is just the second artistic director at SpeakEasy, whose shows are staged at the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts. In 2016, she cofounded the Front Porch Arts Collective, with Maurice Emmanuel Parent, as a way to advance racial equity in Boston through theater. (In addition to 'Ain't No Mo'', the Porch, as it's known, co-produced the SpeakEasy shows ' Advertisement Daigneault announced his intention to step down last summer. He praised the board's selection of a successor, saying, 'I am confident Dawn's exceptional talents will propel the company to even greater heights.' For her part, Simmons said in an interview she has long admired SpeakEasy's determination to put on smart, provocative shows that challenge audiences, and she pledged to continue that tradition going forward. 'Paul built this. He wanted to put certain work into the world, to give opportunities to artists he loved who weren't getting those opportunities, and there's a kinship there with what the Porch has been doing,' Simmons said. 'This feels like a really lovely and logical next step. Being able to provide those opportunities with another organization is really exciting.' Mark Shanahan can be reached at
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Germania Maennerchor celebrates 125 years in Evansville
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) — Members of Germania Maennerchor in Evansville celebrate 125 years. The organization was first established in 1900 to sponsor and promote German speech, music and arts. The group has events and activities all year-round including the popular, Volksfest. Their next big event will be Speak Easy on February 15 where there will be a pork chop meal, raffles, best dressed contest, live music and more. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
