A searing solo theatre piece dramatizing the intersections between race, land and water in the urban United States, performed by Margaret Laurena Kemp (USA) & produced by The Mothertongue Project (Cape Town) for this South African run.

“A Negro Speaks of Rivers” is inspired by the tradition of African American slave memoirs and the unearthing of cowrie shells, amulets, toys, and other objects belonging to enslaved peoples from the ground of old plantations. The play preserves and brings forward the under-heard voices of Afro-Caribbean immigrants, and the natural and spirit worlds.

“A Negro Speaks of Rivers” poses important questions about how we want to treat our human and other natural resources in our present and future.

About Margaret Laurena Kemp:
Margaret Laurena Kemp, Writer/Performer, a veteran actor recently won international acclaim for her portrayal of Lena, in Children of God (release 2011 and soon to be screened at The Out in Africa Festival in August in Cape Town and Johannesburg), The Duchess of York in William Shakespeare’s Richard III at The Independent Shakespeare Company, Rose Rose in The Cider House Rules at Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, and Felicity in A Farndale Christmas Carol at Santa Barbara’s Ensemble Theatre Company.

Her television appearances include recurring roles on The Orlando Jones Show and guest appearances on the ABC Television shows In Justice and Commander in Chief. In 2006- 2007, she co-produced, along with T’Keyah Crystal Keymah, her first solo show Creative Instructions to sold out shows at Art Share in Los Angeles. Margaret is a Certified Fitzmaurice Voicework Associate and teaches and coaches voice at Pomona College, University of Southern California, California State University, Fullerton, privately in Hollywood. She is also Guest Artist at The Pacific Northwest College of Art, UC Santa Barbara. She holds a BS in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, and a MFA in Classical Theatre from the Shakespeare Theatre at The George Washington University in Washington, DC.

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