Conversation with A kleagle

February is Black History Month, 美國紀念少數民族對美國的貢獻，所以這個月是美國黑人月，恰好美國一月剛誕生了第一位African American President, Obama和第一夫人Michelle受民眾歡迎之程度在每天的主要電視中都可以看到他們。黑人抬頭了，同事有感而言紐約街頭的黑人因為黑人總統變得有自信也更漂亮了。

語言中心剛好有一齣附近劇院贊助的票:Conversation with A kleagle
劇院很小，是我看過最破舊小劇院，連外百老匯的小劇場都不如 ....
但表演的演員陣容和表達的內涵真的很精彩，最後謝幕的是劇院的負責人，提到紐約不景氣很多小劇院無法經營下去，特別是6ave &13st 這精華地段，建商想要重建並拆掉舊劇院，因此他們的生計有了問題，也希望現場觀眾能捐款幫助他們籌錢打官司讓紐約的劇場文化能保存下來。
回家的地鐵中聽到長笛悠揚的演奏，竟是一位年輕女孩，靠著街頭演藝賺取小費為生，有點悲傷，我也破例的贊助她一元，紐約地鐵乞討或賣藝的方式太多了，我向來不喜歡乞討者，但這樣的生活竟然還能演奏出這樣歡笑的節奏，如同小劇場即將面臨倒閉危機，但演員們仍稱職的演出精采的劇本，覺得很不可思議。感覺能夠在有限的能力範圍下幫助紐約人，也許是另一個神要我來紐約的目的吧~學習慈悲和憐憫。

Conversation with A kleagle (3k-ku klux klan)
The play is based on the real story of Civil rights leader Walter Francis White in the late of 1920's,
Walter Francis White (July 1, 1893) was a spokesman for blacks in the United States for almost a quarter of a century as executive secretary (1931-1955) of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NAACP.

the main content is:
http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/showpgprint.php?t=conv7967
"
Rudy Gray's play Conversation with a Kleagle is based on events in the life of Walter Francis White, a journalist who eventually became Executive Secretary of the NAACP. One of the most striking things about the play is that it depicts the true heroic acts of a man who admits to us that he's not especially brave: it's a riveting and memorable profile in courage, and it tells a story that's important to our collective history and character.
John Watson—the fictionalized version of White who is the protagonist of Gray's play—is a very light-skinned African American; his features and coloring are such that he is able to "pass" for white. When we meet him, in the late 1920s, he is working as a reporter at a "colored" newspaper in Chicago. He decides to take advantage of his ability to "pass" to get an interview with Randy Monahan, the sheriff of a small town in Louisiana and also the kleagle of the local Ku Klux Klan organization. John's ploy works, and he gets his story—a story that eventually helps expose the nefarious activities of the KKK to the rest of the country. But it turns out that Monahan was not in fact taken in, knowing all the time that John is not a white man. After the interview, Monahan and his cronies have plans to lynch this "uppity" reporter. Only a warning from Tookie, the black man who shines shoes at Monahan's place of business, enables John to escape with his life.
Back home in Chicago, John learns that Tookie has suffered reprisals as a result of his actions, and he decides—against the advice of his editor—to return to Louisiana and confront Monahan.
Conversation with a Kleagle progresses in a linear fashion to tell this compelling story, with a couple of digressions that provide important background. One of these is a dream sequence, in which we see John imagine what could have happened to him had Tookie not tipped him off about Monahan's intentions. (We actually see these events echoed in harrowing fashion later in the play when John returns to Louisiana and Monahan's Klansmen taunt the reporter.) The other is a flashback to Watson's youth, during the Atlanta Race Riots of 1906.
Gray's focus throughout is on the insidious evil of racism, and its roots in poverty and ignorance. Both the flashback sequence and the main narrative of the play make it clear that lynchings and other aggressive acts against blacks are, at least in part, the result of whites' fears of losing their economic footing and/or opportunities.
This production benefits from tight direction by Kevin B. Ploth, and sports a large cast including Tim Weinert as the empowered everyman hero of the story and Mike Pirozzi, who is excellent as his menacing antagonist Monahan. Erroll W. Greaves makes a key contribution as the bootblack Tookie, showing us not only that he "knows his place" when dealing with his white boss, but also what each genuflection costs him.
The fact that we now have an African American President of the United States tells us that we have made a lot of progress in the century since the events depicted in Conversation with a Kleagle. But racism has not disappeared, and it is important for us as a society to confront its ugly roots. Rudy Gray's play, revived by 13th Street Repertory Company as part of their "Best of 13" Festival, offers a valuable look at one aspect of this shameful part of our national history."

I like the poem:
I saw a man black and red
Dead in my hands
And I realized I hurt the same
That race is not a game.

Sweetner in my coffee
Black with cream
And all you got was
Empty not steam.

My new four letter word is HOPE
This new word is a beginning rather than an end!