The Black Power Arts Celebration will kick off a series of events on Friday, September 30, 2022, at Riverside Methodist Church, 4920 Cullen Blvd. The Black Power Arts Celebration was created to acknowledge, learn, and celebrate the works in the Black community by the Black Panther Party and create a space where artists, civic leaders, and community members can adopt the BPP ideology in helping create solutions for the Black community today.

 

Friday: Events will include the Black Joy Playwright Class at 4pm, created and developed by ShaWanna to foster writers of all backgrounds to create Black leading characters and well-rounded Black stories. At 7:30pm, there will be a presentation of ShaWanna’s play Power to the Queendom: A play inspired by the Houston’s Black Panther Party and the night their leader, Carl Hampton, was assassinated. A talkback will follow immediate after the performance with the writer, director, actors, and members of the Houston’s BPP chapter.

 

Saturday: Events will start with volunteering at 9am to help serve families in need with community member Pastor Keith L. Somerville and Riverside Methodist Church. At 4pm the panel discussion starts featuring nationally known Black Panther members Gayle Dickson, Emory Douglass, John “Bunchy” Crear, and other active community members in Houston. The guest panel will be addressed with today’s issues facing our community and serve as a guide to find solutions by sharing their experience in the community, activism, and art. The evening will close with dinner and dancing to celebrate the work, past, present, and future.

 

Sunday: At 3pm the participants of the Black Joy Playwright Class will meet and share their work.