Metropolitan Playhouse
Virtual Playhouse
The Wednesday Alternative
Presents

METROPOLITAN IN METER
An Evening of Poetry

Featuring
TINA KELLEY, MICHAEL T YOUNG, SUSANNA RICH, PAUL NASH, & DENISE LENEVE

www.MetropolitanPlayhouse.org/metinmotion
Metropolitan Playhouse at YouTube.com

March 31, 2021 8 p.m.
Available online through April 3, 2021

This episode of Metropolitan Playhouse’s new series, “The Wednesday Alternative”, serves up a tasty platter of poems both new and old, reflecting social issues that linger on…and on.

Each modern poet first reads aloud a classic from the past, followed by one of his or her own creations. MICHAEL T YOUNG led off with “If We Must Die”, authored by Claude McKay in 1919 in response to the treatment of African-American GI’s returning from World War I. In YOUNG’s own poem, “Reading Langston Hughes”, he addresses 1947 racism from the viewpoint of white privilege.

SUSANNA RICH follows with “Aunt Chloe’s Politics” written by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper during the battle for women’s voting rights. RICH has written the perfect complementary piece: “I Am Shirley Anita Hill Chisholm”. “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair”. Priceless.

TINA KELLEY presented “Lines for a Hard Time”, written by Gena Ford in 1967 as a statement on the Viet Nam War. “We are all sick,” she says. KELLEY’s own “A National Monument Crosses Over” is a brilliant piece, echoing the same theme. Hiking up her skirts and stepping down from her pedestal, the Statue of Liberty turns her back on our hypocrisy and with giant strides crosses into Canada.

PAUL NASH and DENISE LENEVE close with “September 1, 1939” written by W. H. Auden as the great storm of war brews in Europe. “Monsters, Monsoons, and Radon Slippers From the Angry Red Planet” by NASH and LENEVE sum it all up. “We must love each other or die.”

Insightful work by very talented poets make this production both fascinating and enjoyable. Great food for thought on many levels.

-Karen D’Onofrio-