Kwame Kwei-Armah – författare

You can't just walk into dis bad man t'ing, you gotta learn the whole science of it. You step into that arena and you better be able to dance wid death til it mek you dizzy. The Yardies are burning up Hackney and Digger's offer of protection for the diner smacks more of threat than promise. How can Deli save his truanting, thieving son when temptation looms so large on Murder Mile?

It's Black History month but you wouldn't know it in Tottenham where Revive PLC plan to turn Kwesi's All Black African Party hotbed into luxury flats, and it looks like Kiyi's 'conscious' bookstore will soon go the same way. And then a beautiful visitor shows up in their midst and life goes from bad to worse. Set against the inexorable march of progress in contemporary London, Kwame Kwei-Armah's second play for the National explores race and roots with verve and wit. "Being around too much white folk. I seen the bluest of blackest men get too much exposure bam, they lose their rhythm. Put on a James Brown tune and they start doing the Charleston to ras!"

You can't just walk into dis bad man t'ing, you gotta learn the whole science of it. You step into that arena and you better be able to dance wid death til it mek you dizzy. Kwame Kwei-Armah’s ground-breaking play about British black male identity and gang culture premiered at the National Theatre in 2003 to unanimous critical praise. It later transferred to the West End, making Kwei-Armah only the second black British playwright to have a play staged there and the winner of the Evening Standard’s Most Promising Playwright Award. On Hackney’s Murder Mile, Deli is trying to make a living as an honest man and revive the fortunes of his mother's West Indian takeaway. His 19-year-old son Ashley has different plans and longs to follow in the footsteps of family friend and local gangster Digger. As Deli finds himself and his business pulled further into the world he so desperately wants to leave behind questions of family and gang loyalty rise to the surface, leading to a shocking and conflicted conclusion. Elmina's Kitchen is a thrilling, engaging portrait of a one-parent family struggling to stay within the law that takes readers behind the headlines and shows how easy it is to make the wrong choices when you’re struggling to survive. Elmina's Kitchen premiered at the National Theatre, London, in May 2003.Methuen Drama’s iconic Modern Plays series began in 1959 with the publication of Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey and has grown over six decades to now include more than 1000 plays by some of the best writers from around the world. This new special edition hardback of Elmina’s Kitchen was published to celebrate 60 years of Methuen Drama’s Modern Plays in 2019, chosen by a public vote and features a brand new foreword by Paterson Joseph.

2020 was a year in which global politics radically shifted, catalyzed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the #BlackLivesMatter movement.This book is a response to that year, asking: was it a moment or is it a movement, and what fundamental changes within the arts industry need to come out of this time?The book includes over 20 interviews with some of the most pioneering Black cultural leaders from a wide range of senior executive positions in the arts within the UK, Europe, US and Africa.It documents the sea of change in arts leadership at the height of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the pressure on organizations to confront and change their racial and ethnic make-up, and shines a light on the guiding ambitions, strategic plans and visions for the future to support the ongoing decolonization of arts organizations across the world.Learn from those who have walked the walk to support your vision for the future.

Some things we do for those we are responsible for, some things for ourselves, and some things we do for the ancestors.Today, it’s all three!1959. The first wave of independence is sweeping across Africa and Beneatha has left the prejudice of 1950s America for a brighter future with her Nigerian husband in Lagos. But on the day they move into their new house in the white suburbs, it doesn’t take long for cracks to appear, changing the course of the rest of their lives.Present day. Now a renowned Dean whose colleagues are questioning the role of African American studies for future generations, Beneatha returns to the same house in search of answers. Inspired by Lorraine Hansberry's ground-breaking modern classic, A Raisin in the Sun, Beneatha’s Place challenges today’s culture wars about colonial history and reckoning with the past. A razor-sharp satire from Young Vic Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah, about the power of knowing your history and the cost of letting it go, this edition was published to coincide with the London premiere at the Young Vic Theatre, in June 2023.

Alongside Bruce Norris's Clybourne Park, Beneatha's Place imagines a life for Lorraine Hansberry's characters from A Raisin in the Sun beyond the confines of her play. Beneatha moves from 1950s America to Lagos with her Nigerian husband and then, in the second act, set in contemporary America, has become a college Dean of Social Sciences. Through this journey, Beneatha’s Place challenges today’s culture wars about colonial history and reckoning with the past.This Student Edition, with an introduction and notes by Oladipo Agboluaje, offers a lens on the play's relationship to Hansberry's 1959 play and Clybourne Park; unpacks its engagement with the post-independence politics in Africa and pan-Africanism; considers how other plays to have dealt with these themes; and compares responses to the US and UK productions.The edition includes original interviews with Kwame Kwei-Armah and actor Cherelle Skeete, who played the character of Beneatha in the UK premiere of the play.

Kwaku Mackenzie, founder of a Black policy think tank, hits the bottle after his father's death. As media interest in the once dynamic Institute fades, his team grows fractious and then, disastrously, he favours a young Oxford scholar over his own devastated son. When, in a vain attempt to regain influence, he publicly champions division within the Black community, the consequences are shattering. Kwame Kwei-Armah's third play for the National Theatre opens in November 2007 and takes a punchy, provocative look at the Black British experience and the need, or not, for solidarity.

Few playwrights have been as successful as Kwame Kwei-Armah at bringing a distinctive new voice and examination of our culture to the stage in recent years. This collection of his work includes his trilogy of plays commissioned and produced by the National Theatre between 2003 and 2008, and Let There Be Love, first produced at the Tricycle Theatre, London, in 2008. Elmina's Kitchen won him awards for most promising new playwright and was described as 'a scorching drama about the black experience in Britain's inner cities...there is no mistaking its raw power, humanity and urgent concern' (Daily Telegraph). Fix Up explores race and cultural roots and heritage with verve and wit, setting heritage against the inexorable march of time and change. Statement of Regret explore tensions within the Black community amid changes in the team leading an influential Black policy think-tank. The final play, Let There Be Love, was presented at the Tricycle Theatre, London, in 2008: 'a smart and possibly noble exploration of what it takes to be human and happy' Evening Standard . The volume is introduced by the author and features a chronology of his work..

The Methuen Drama Book of 21st Century British Plays showcases five of the best new plays from the first decade of the twenty-first century. A perfect reminder of the relevance, vitality and innovation of British theatre, this collection represents some of the most exciting plays to emerge in recent years. Joe Penhall's multi-award-winning Blue/Orange was heralded as 'one of the best new plays in the National's history' (Sunday Times). Set in a mental hospital it provides a riveting exploration of racism, health and power, and was the winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Play 2001. Elmina's Kitchen by Kwame Kwei-Armah, about gun crime and the struggle to make a living on Hackney's Murder Mile, marked the emergence of a major new writing talent. 'An exquisite tragi-comedy for our times' (Herald) Neilson's Realism dramatises the everyday life and increasingly bizarre fantasies and thoughts of its protagonist with comic zeal and inspired inventiveness. Gone Too Far! explores a London community divided by race and prejudice.The first play to be written about the London 7/7 terrorist bombings, Simon Stephens' Pornography tells seven entwining stories of people's lives during the day leading up to the catastrophic event.

Not Black and White comprises of three new plays which examine the state of modern day Britain from the perspective of three leading black contemporary playwrights. Roy Williams, Kwame Kwei-Armah and Bola Agbaje tackle the prison system, the mayoralty and immigration in their respective plays. Category B: Roy Williams Saul runs a tip-top wing - the screws love him for it, especially Angela. Prisoners follow his rules, and it's all gravy. But Saul's number two position is vacant, new inmates are flooding in, so everyone's feeling the heat. No-one wants to go to Cat B, but the world on the outside is a different story. Seize the Day: Kwame Kwei-Armah Jeremy Charles could be London's first black mayor. He has the face to represent it - a well-spoken, good-looking Londoner, with an appetite for change. He's sold his pitch on reality TV, but can he be the real people's candidate? Detaining Justice: Bola Agbaje Justice is locked in a cold dark cell, his asylum application pending. His sister Grace would like to help, but has been told to leave it in God's hands.Crown Prosecutor Mark Cole has an infallible reputation for successful prosecutions - however he has had a change of heart - and job. His first case is for the defence of Justice - but, in his new role, is Cole the man to help? Published to coincide with the Not Black and White season at the Tricycle, where the three dramas played in rep Oct 8 -Dec 19 2009.