FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 2/21/2014
Mass Emphasis
Children’s History & Theatre Company
202-462-8356
A Celebration of the Life and Work of Obi Egbuna, Sr.
Late Leader of the Black Power Movement in Britain and Internationally acclaimed playwright
Washington, D.C.: Join Mass Emphasis Children’s History and Theatre Company as they pay tribute to the life and work of Obi Egbuna, Sr., the Founder of the Black Panther Party and Black Power Movement in Great Britain. He was the first African playwright and novelist to have a play performed on BBC TV and read on BBC radio. The play, Wind Versus Polygamy, was adapted from the book of the same title published in 1964. Wind Versus Polygamy was London’s submission to the First World and Arts Festival in Dakar, Senegal, in April of 1966.
Egbuna, Sr., was the director of the Writer’s Workshop in Nigeria and the director of ECBS television under the government of Murtala Muhammad. His other publications include Destroy This Temple, The Emperor of The Sea, The Anthill, The Minister’s Daughter, Black Candle For Christmas, The ABC of Black Power, The Murder Of Nigeria, The Rape of Lysistrata, and Daughters of the Sun.
Egbuna, Sr., is mentioned in Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s pamphlet The Spectre of Black Power. He is also credited with helping to convince Nkrumah to write Message to the Black People of Britain.
The tribute to Egbuna, Jr., is being organized by Mass Emphasis Children’s History and Theater Company, the Sankofa Homeschool Community, Southern DC Chapter of Mocha Moms, Inc., Roots Activity Learning Center, Roots Public Charter School and the Pan African Collective for Advocacy and Action.
The program will take place at Howard on March 1, 2014, at Howard University’s Rankin Chapel. Doors will open at 11 a.m. The program will be followed by a community reception held at the Festival Center, located at 1640 Columbia Rd., NW, in the heart of Adams Morgan.
For more information, please visit his Facebook Memorial page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Obi-Egbuna-Sr-Memorial-Page/649106988461369
