The Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum production of Alice Childress’ Trouble in Mind came to me as a theatrical revelation. It is a classic “the worm turns” tale: Manners (Mark Lewis) is a big shot white liberal Hollywood producer who is making his Broadway stage debut in order to make “serious art” with a play-within-the-play (likewise written by a Caucasian). Manners sincerely believes it’s a powerful, searing social statement about and indictment of racism. Trouble, which is set in the 1950s, also hints that Manners may have fled Tinseltown to escape what is euphemistically called “the investigation”: the Hollywood Blacklist and House Un-American Activities Committees’ purging of so-called subversives (like WGTB founder Will Geer, who was blacklisted).

Willetta (the venerable Earnestine Phillips) plays an African American actress who, in scene one, Act I, seems to pooh-pooh the notion of theater as high art with a mission, as advocated by enthusiastic Broadway newcomer John (Max Lawrence who also does a superlative job portraying the workaholic steed Boxer in WGTB’s Animal Farm).

Wednesday, August 30
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 30 W. Woodruff
Join us for a follow up to our past community conversation on how to better our community for Black LGBTQ+ people. This second conversation will be focused on bringing our minds together to action-plan and figure out what each of us can do to better our community.

If you are looking to figure out how to get involved in our cause, if you came to our community conversation on July 24 and wanted more time to work together and flesh out action items, and/or if you want to better yourself as an accomplice to LGBTQ+ people of color, we invite you to come out on Wednesday, August 30 to build with us. 

What to expect:
1. Short teach-in on the historical context of the #BlackPride4 and police brutality
2. Smaller team discussions grouped by skills and resources
3. Sharing our ideas and determining next actions as a group

Tempting as it is to isolate Donald Trump as the worst president in history (and “worst” is putting it mildly . . . more like the most narcissistically infantile, the most Nazi-friendly), doing so achieves nothing beyond a fleeting sense of satisfaction.

Yeah, he’s scary. His supporters are scary. But he comes in a context.

Whether or not he’s impeached, or removed from office via the 25th Amendment, his effect on the country won’t go away. Trump can’t be undone, any more than an act of terror — or war — can be undone.

But maybe Trump can be addressed beyond a sense of outrage. Maybe he can foment, in spite of himself, not simply change, but national transformation. Realizing this, and seizing hold of the moment he has created, may be a far more effective way of dealing with his unhinged presidency than merely exuding endless shock.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- A Supreme Court verdict on August 25 could
imprison former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra for 10 years for
alleged "negligence" after she paid multi-billion dollar subsidies to
rice farmers before the military toppled her government in a 2014
coup.
   Weeping, wealthy and worried, Ms. Yingluck, 50, said she was
innocent of all allegations.
   Ms. Yingluck's case has gripped this Southeast Asian country
because a ruling either way could determine Thailand's future
stability under a junta trying to justify its regime and control her
supporters and opponents.
   The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) charged Ms. Yingluck
for allegedly failing to stop massive financial losses after her
government paid farmers -- her key constituents -- much more than the
international price for 20 million tons of rice, to boost their living
standards.
   During her 2011-14 administration, Ms. Yingluck hoped to sell that
rice at a profit after predicting the international price would zoom
higher, but prices dropped.