Arts and Culture

The Black Repertory Group Cites Broken Promises from City of Berkeley

On March 22, the Berkeley City Council passed its first phase of reparations to descendants of slaves. According to City Council, the reparations bill was passed to address past economic inequities to descendants of enslaved Africans.

Published

2 years ago

October 10, 2023

Oakland Post

The 2017 Wiz production at the Black Rep was attended by youth from Camp Sweeney, a juvenile detention facility. After release some of the youth came back to the theater and joined as volunteer help. Photo by Elise Evan.

Part 1

By Tanya Dennis

Led by City Councilmember Ben Bartlett, the reparations legislation was co-sponsored by Mayor Jesse Arreguin who said, “The time for reparations is long overdue. By beginning this process, Berkeley can become a leader in righting the wrongs of our history.”

Another co-sponsor, City Councilmember Sophie Hahn said, “We are overdue to confront the many ways our city has been active and complicit in discrimination against African Americans and launch a new path forward for the equitable future we all yearn for.”

Black Repertory Group owners Dr. Mona Scott and her son, Sean Scott, question the politician’s words when those speakers have ignored their commitment to fund the theater $25,000 a year for “maintenance and upkeep.” For 23 years the city has failed to keep its promise to the oldest black-owned theater west of the Mississippi located at 3201 Adeline Ave.

Sean Scott, grandson of theater founders, Nora and Birel Vaughn, says that the theater has been under assault by the city of Berkeley for years, and cites gentrification as the engine trying to drive them out of their location.

“The City Council general fund budget allocated the Black Rep $25,000 a year for upkeep and maintenance almost 30 years ago,” Scott said. “They haven’t kept that promise for 23 years, and don’t even pick up the trash from our location. Now they want to do a safety walk through to assure we’re compliant.”

Scott says this is not the first time they have experienced issues with the city, from whom they lease the building for $1.00. “They broke into our building last year, prying the side door open to assure we are ADA compliant. My grandparents built this facility to be ADA compliant and the city knows this. We filed a police report but have heard nothing. They’re coming back on Sept. 15 looking for a reason to shut us down.”

In 1993, the Scotts were told to suspend all plays, then the city reneged on the Rep’s mortgage, set the news against them, and attempted to give the theater to the Shotgun Players.

Berkeley Rep Executive Director Mona Scott says that there were times the city supported them: during Gus Newport’s term as mayor of Berkeley from 1979 to 1986 and Mayor Shirley Dean from 1994 to 2002.

“Since then, there have been major disparities in funding between us and white theaters. Berkeley Repertory in 2001 received $4 million from the city to build their theater, which they sold back to the city and the city even help them build an artist-in-residence facility. In contrast our theater survives through sheer grit and sacrifice.”

Mona, who is Sean’s mother, frequently uses her Social Security check to pay theater expenses, and Sean works two jobs and says he contributes a portion of his wages toward theater operations.

After explaining the large scope of plans for reparations, Bartlett responded to questions about Black Rep. “There are plans that the theater will remain a Black theater, we’re just not sure about the current owners with whom we’re currently in litigation because they have not paid certain fees and maintained the building.”

When asked if he was aware the city had not paid $25,000 a year for 23 years for maintenance, Bartlett says he had heard that but was not fully aware of the situation and understood that to be an issue in the litigation.

American playwright, novelist and poet Ishmael Reed, a Black Rep board member says, “the city bends over backwards for white theater groups while we get nothing. They even cut our free lunch program.

“We were feeding kids lunch and snacks, a federal program that paid the city $25 for each lunch. They cut us saying we didn’t meet census requirements and that if our kids wanted food they’d have to go to Strawberry Canyon, miles away from us. If that isn’t systemic racism, I don’t know what is.”

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Activism

New Oakland Moving Forward

This week, several socially enterprising members of this group visited Oakland to explore ways to collaborate with local stakeholders at Youth Empowerment Partnership, the Port of Oakland, Private Industry Council, Oakland, Mayor-elect Barbara Lee, the Oakland Ballers ownership group, and the oversight thought leaders in the Alameda County Probation Department.

Published

38 minutes ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Post Staff

Since the African American Sports and Entertainment Group purchased the City of Oakland’s share of the Alameda County Coliseum Complex, we have been documenting the positive outcomes that are starting to occur here in Oakland.

Some of the articles in the past have touched on actor Blair Underwood’s mission to breathe new energy into the social fabric of Oakland. He has joined the past efforts of Steph and Ayesha Curry, Mistah Fab, Green Day, Too Short, and the Oakland Ballers.

This week, several socially enterprising members of this group visited Oakland to explore ways to collaborate with local stakeholders at Youth Empowerment Partnership, the Port of Oakland, Private Industry Council, Oakland, Mayor-Elect Barbara Lee, the Oakland Ballers ownership group, and the oversight thought leaders in the Alameda County Probation Department.

These visits represent a healthy exchange of ideas and plans to resuscitate Oakland’s image. All parties felt that the potential to impact Oakland is right in front of us. Most recently, on the back side of these visits, the Oakland Ballers and Blair Underwood committed to a 10-year lease agreement to support community programs and a community build-out.

So, upward and onward with the movement of New Oakland.

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Arts and Culture

BOOK REVIEW: Love, Rita: An American Story of Sisterhood, Joy, Loss, and Legacy

When Bridgett M. Davis was in college, her sister Rita was diagnosed with lupus, a disease of the immune system that often left her constantly tired and sore. Davis was a bit unfazed, but sympathetic to Rita’s suffering and also annoyed that the disease sometimes came between them. By that time, they needed one another more than ever.

Published

3 weeks ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

Love Rita Book Cover. Courtesy of Harper.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: Bridgett M. Davis, c.2025, Harper, $29.99, 367 Pages

Take care.

Do it because you want to stay well, upright, and away from illness. Eat right, swallow your vitamins and hydrate, keep good habits and hygiene, and cross your fingers. Take care as much as you can because, as in the new book, “Love, Rita” by Bridgett M. Davis, your well-being is sometimes out of your hands.

It was a family story told often: when Davis was born, her sister, Rita, then four years old, stormed up to her crying newborn sibling and said, ‘Shut your … mouth!’

Rita, says Davis, didn’t want a little sister then. She already had two big sisters and a neighbor who was somewhat of a “sister,” and this baby was an irritation. As Davis grew, the feeling was mutual, although she always knew that Rita loved her.

Over the years, the sisters tried many times not to fight — on their own and at the urging of their mother — and though division was ever present, it eased when Rita went to college. Davis was still in high school then, and she admired her big sister.

She eagerly devoured frequent letters sent to her in the mail, signed, “Love, Rita.”

When Davis was in college herself, Rita was diagnosed with lupus, a disease of the immune system that often left her constantly tired and sore. Davis was a bit unfazed, but sympathetic to Rita’s suffering and also annoyed that the disease sometimes came between them. By that time, they needed one another more than ever.

First, they lost their father. Drugs then invaded the family and addiction stole two siblings. A sister and a young nephew were murdered in a domestic violence incident. Their mother was devastated; Rita’s lupus was an “added weight of her sorrow.”

After their mother died of colon cancer, Rita’s lupus took a turn for the worse.

“Did she even stand a chance?” Davis wrote in her journal.

“It just didn’t seem possible that she, someone so full of life, could die.”

Let’s start here: once you get past the prologue in “Love, Rita,” you may lose interest. Maybe.

Most of the stories that author Bridgett M. Davis shares are mildly interesting, nothing rare, mostly commonplace tales of growing up in the 1960s and ’70s with a sibling. There are a lot of these kinds of stories, and they tend to generally melt together. After about fifty pages of them, you might start to think about putting the book aside.

But don’t. Not quite yet.

In between those everyday tales, Davis occasionally writes about being an ailing Black woman in America, the incorrect assumptions made by doctors, the history of medical treatment for Black people (women in particular), attitudes, and mythologies. Those passages are now and then, interspersed, but worth scanning for.

This book is perhaps best for anyone with the patience for a slow-paced memoir, or anyone who loves a Black woman who’s ill or might be ill someday. If that’s you and you can read between the lines, then “Love, Rita” is a book to take in carefully.

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Activism

Faces Around the Bay: Author Karen Lewis Took the ‘Detour to Straight Street’

“My life has been a roller-coaster with an unlimited ride wristband! I was raised in Berkeley during the time of Ron Dellums, the Black Panthers, and People’s Park. I was a Hippie kid, my Auntie cut off all our hair so we could wear the natural styles like her and Angela Davis.

Published

3 weeks ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

Karen Lewis. Courtesy photo.

By Barbara Fluhrer

I met Karen Lewis on a park bench in Berkeley. She wrote her story on the spot.

I got married young, then ended up getting divorced, raising two boys into men. After my divorce, I had a stroke that left me blind and paralyzed. I was homeless, lost in a fog with blurred vision.

Jesus healed me! I now have two beautiful grandkids. At 61, this age and this stage, I am finally free indeed. Our Lord Jesus Christ saved my soul. I now know how to be still. I lay at his feet. I surrender and just rest. My life and every step on my path have already been ordered. So, I have learned in this life…it’s nice to be nice. No stressing, just blessings. Pray for the best and deal with the rest.

Nobody is perfect, so forgive quickly and love easily!”

Lewis’ book “Detour to Straight Street” is available on Amazon.