LA Play Reveals Black Civil Rights World War II Story

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NEW PLAY REVEALS LITTLE KNOWN STORY OF THE BLACK CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT DURING WORLD WAR II

Los Angeles, CA  -- The multi-award-winning team that brought you When Jazz Had the Blues returns with Playwright Carole Eglash-Kosoff's new original play. The Double V, directed by Michael Arabian, will be at the Matrix Theatre in Los Angeles.

Produced by Leigh Fortier, The Double V is about activism, a dramatization of true events. How a simple letter to a newspaper initiated a series of changes that gave Black Americans their first taste of equality in a society that had always denigrated them. The Double V campaign, early in the years of World War II, campaigned for both Victory in the war and Victory in the battles for racial equality in the United States.

THE TEAM:
Written by Carole Eglash-Kosoff
Directed by Michael Arabian
Senic Design by John Iacovelli
Produced by Leigh Fortier
Lighting Design by Jared A. Sayeg
Costume Design by Dana Rebecca Woods
Music Preparation / Sound Design by Christopher Moscatiello
Projection Design by Fritz Davis
Publicity by Kuker & Lee PR

ENSEMBLE CAST INCLUDES:
Nic Few* - Ira Lewis
Brie Eley - Marjorie "Madge" Evans
Preston Butler III - James "Jimmy" Thompson
Terra Strong Lyons - Annie Culver
Cary Thompson - Frank Bolden, Clem Thompson
Joe Coffey* - Charlie Simpson, J. Edgar Hoover
Jamal Henderson - Joe Bibb Chris Thompson
John Apicella - William "Biff" Trent

* Proud Member of Actor's Equity

The Double V opens at Matrix Theatre (7657 Melrose Avenue, 90046) on Friday, Oct. 25 through Sunday, Nov. 24. Performances are on Friday and Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 3pm. Running time: 100 minutes. The press is invited to review any performance. Ticket prices are $40 (VIP Reserved $50, Students $20 (groups of 8 or more email doublevgroup@onstage411.com).

Purchase tickets online at: www.OnStage411.com/doublev
Phone Reservation line is: 323-960-7776

See How Social Progress Gets An Unlikely Hip Hop Inspiration From Christian Rap

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While The Commercialized Music Industry Focuses On Gangster And Egoistic Versions Of Hip Hop Ironically Christian Rappers Lift Up A Social Message 

Rapper Derrick Minor In His Anti-Materialism 

By Kamau Austin, Publisher and Editor-and-Chief, The Black News Scoop and Scoop AMS Publications.

Back in the day, when pop music was the major commercial musical force - I welcomed the messages of hip hop music.  Pop icons Michael Jackson and Prince dominated the air waves.

However, to me the major media seemed to influence the message of the music largely toward eccentric opulence from these music icons.  However, I wondered where was the music of the masses of our people reflecting our harsh realities?

Hip Hop was in my discernment a reaction over against the political detachment of iconic driven pop music.  In short hip hop, spring-boarded in NYC, was a voice for young people in the inner cities.

Over the years into the 80's Hip Hop became a source of social commentary and critique.  Groups like Public Enemy, X-Clan, KRS-One, A Tribe Called Quest, and many others in a myriad of ways challenged the major media narrative towards positive messages of Black liberation and empowerment.  Since the rise of NWA and gangster or egoistic rap, progressive voices in hip hop, now largely a commercialized mainstream music, have been too often marginalized - enter Christian hip hop.

Ironically, Christian hip hop a sub-culture of rap, is picking up the mantle of progressive socially conscious rap.  Artists like LaCrae and Derek Minor are prolifically and profoundly making socially relevant music and lyrics with rhythmic poetic flourish.

They are - I dare say, the new social prophets with a powerful musical soul beat.  They call into question, unlikely mainstream Christian concerns like - police brutality, gentrification, and the prison industrial complex.  For instance listen to Derek Minor's rap "Free," below...