The Mountaintop by Katori Hall

Great theater can emerge from a simple yet evocative question: What if? Katori Hall, winner of the Blackburn Prize for outstanding women playwrights, asks the question: What did Martin Luther King Jr. do the night before he died? Who did he talk to? What did he say? Her play attempts to answer these questions, albeit in an imaginative rather than realistic way. The Mountaintop took home Englands Olivier Award for best play. In fall 2011, the plays poignant message resonated on Broadway, starring featuring Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett. About the Playwright Born in 1981, Katori Hall is a young, vibrant new voice in modern theater. Much of her work derives from her experiences in her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. According to her official website, her major works include: Hoodoo Love (Cherry Lane Theatre)Remembrance (Womens Project)Saturday Night/Sunday MorningWHADDABLOODCLOT!!!The Hope WellOur Lady of KibehoPussy Valley Her most recent work (as of 2012) is Hurt Village; set in a housing project in Memphis it depicts a returning Iraq veterans struggle to find a position in his disintegrating community, along with a place in his daughters wounded heart. (The Signature Theatre). However, Halls most renowned work to date is the historical/spiritual drama, The Mountaintop. The Plot The Mountaintop is a two-person drama about the last day of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The entire play is set in the Lorraine hotel room, the evening before his assassination. King is alone, trying to create yet another powerful speech. When he orders a cup of coffee from room service, a mysterious woman arrives, bringing much more than a late-night beverage. What follows is a reflective, often funny, often touching conversation in which Dr. King examines his achievements, his failures, and his unfinished dreams. Other Plays About Martin Luther King, Jr This is not the first time that a speculative drama has explored Dr. Kings amazing legacy. The Meeting, by Jeff Stetson, explores the contrasting methods and the common dreams of two dignified civil rights leaders (Malcolm X and Dr. King) who sacrificed their lives fighting for justice. Theme Analysis of The Mountaintop: SPOILER ALERT: Its not easy to analyze the messages of this play without revealing surprise elements of The Mountaintop. So, reader beware, I am about to ruin the big surprise in the play. The mysterious woman who seems to be a hotel maid is named Camae (short for Carrie May -- which might be code for carry me). At first, she seems to be a perfectly normal (beautiful, outspoken) maid, who is in favor of social change, but not necessarily in favor of all of Dr. Kings methods. As a storytelling device, Camae allows the audience to witness a more personal and irreverent side of Dr. King, one that the cameras and public appearances rarely captured. Camae is also willing to debate with the reverend on social matters, strongly and eloquently expressing her own views on racism, poverty, and the slowly progressing civil rights movement. It soon becomes clear, however, that Camae is not what she appears. She is not a maid. She is an angel, a recently created angel, in fact. Her first assignment is to inform Martin Luther King, Jr. that he is going to die very soon. Here the play shifts its focus. What begins as a behind-the-scenes look at one of Americas greatest leaders (in all his frustration and frailty), ultimately becomes a struggle to accept ones mortality and prepare for a journey into what Hamlet calls the undiscovered country. As one might expect, King isnt happy to find out that he is going to die. In some ways, his dialogue is reminiscent to Everyman, the morality play from 15th century Europe. The key difference, however, is that Everyman represents an average person who has failed to live a saintly life. Dr. King doesnt profess to be a saint (in fact, both the angel and King mention his extra-marital affairs), but he does rightly argue that he has been fighting a just cause and that he is the best person to continue the struggle for equality. During the last half of the play, King experiences the different stages of coping with death: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. Arguably the best part of these stages is the bargaining portion when Dr. King actually gets to talk to God over the telephone. If The Mountaintop sounds morbid, theres actually a lot of humor and whimsy throughout this play. Camae is a feisty and foul-mouthed angel, and she is proud to announce that her wings are her breasts and that God is a woman. The play concludes with not only acceptance but joy and celebration for what has been accomplished, as well as a firm reminder of the dreams that have yet to come to fruition.

Macroeconomic as/Ad Framework - 1687 Words

1) Use the AS/AD framework to show the separate effects on GDP, inflation and public sector borrowing on any single national economy of: a) cut in public spending b) an increase in the rate of VAT (sales tax) c) a slowdown in the GDP growth of less developed economies. (Make sure that you include clear and appropriate diagrams for this question) According to Begg and Ward (2009) fiscal policy is the government’s decisions regarding taxation and spending to influence level of demand for goods and services. Cut in public spending and increase in the rate of VAT are instruments of contractionary fiscal policy in order to slow down economy, reduce inflation and deficit. a) Cut in public spending†¦show more content†¦43.390 5,1 14,8 –7,3 2008. 47.766 2,2 13,2 –8,9 2009. 45.667 –6,0 14,9 –5,0 2010. 45.920 –1,2 17,4 –1,0 2011. 45.923 0 18 –1,0 2012. forecast 45.799 –1,0 18 ,5 0,3 2013. forecast 47.708 1 18,3 0,9 Table 2 Croatian macroeconomic statistical indicators (Croatian National Bank) As a conclusion we can say that contractionary fiscal policy is showing effects on a long run (reduces deficit, and balanced ratio of government spending and revenue), however in short run it is causing recession and increased unemployment. c) Slowdown in the GDP of less developed economies from perspective of exporting country to LDE will lead to the reduction of export (part of aggregate demand) to the LDE country because their output and consumption will be reduced. Consequently expenditure and production in exporting country will be reduced which results in increased unemployment and decreased output. Since government income from taxes has been reduced government will need to increase borrowing in order to cover deficit. Export to LDE is quite unique since such countries are mostly agriculture oriented. According to UNDP most of LDE import is based on basic food stuff (wheat and rice) and projections for 2015 are suggesting that this dependency will continue to increase. Also, according to UNDP export of LDE are heavily dependent on weather conditions which shift LDC country from deficit to surplus situation. 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Emerging Adulthood and Sexuality in Latin American...

The main idea of this paper is to discuss the sexual and reproductive health of Latin American immigrants in Madrid, briefly approaching three different questions: do they believe that there are differences about sexual and reproductive health issues between what they lived in their countries and Spain?; are they having different behaviors in Spain than in their origin countries and, if so, which ones?; and finally, what do they perceived about sexual health services and access in Spain? Regular Latin American immigrants sexuality in Europe has been rarely addressed by researchers. Even the known importance of irregular migration sexuality studies, because of the risks and vulnerability to which migrants are exposed, we should ask†¦show more content†¦The Ecological Theory is not being probed in this research; it is limited to be an organizing tool. The interview guide that we use tried to include all the systems in the theory (macro, micro, meso, exo, and crhono5), and their probable relations through different issues, which will correspond to one or more systems. However, even the theory would not define the study, it contributes to the design. Grounded theory interprets data from the reality of the individual, and it can be understand under the social construction of reality, according to Berger and Luckman6. Also, it is directly related with the concept of sexuality as a social construction. Weeks3 emphasis, when talking about the social construction of sexuality, that sexuality is not a given fact, it is a product of negotiation, struggle, and human actions(pp 30). Emerging adulthood was proposed in 2000 by Jeffrey Arnett,2 to described the group of people aged 18 -29 years old. The theory basically includes 5 principles that can change between countries due to cultural backgrounds: instability (work, love, education); exploration of identity; Self-focus on personal goals; feeling in between (adult-adolescent); high hopes for the future, positives ideas. It has been argued that not all young people can live this stage because not everyone in the world has the chance to decide about their

Gun crimes free essay sample

There is a great deal of media stereotyping related to rap music, hip-hop culture and the economically deprived areas In which these art forms were born. Campbell explain, The common sense selection process of news organizations often dictates coverage of negative minority news, whiles positive stories about progress and success in minority communities tend to be shelved due to what Journalists consider a lack of newsworthiness (C Campbell, 1995, p. 0) Recent growth in gun crime, and gun culture has turned attention to reasons behind this trend. Hip- hop has been an ass target for groups who associate this music scene as a negative Influence over those who listen to It. In 2003 nearly 350,000 people In the USA where victims of murders, robberies or aggravated assaults where the perpetrator carried a firearm (Brady et al. 2004). It was in this year that rapper 50 cent released his first studio and breakthrough album, Get rich or die trying. The record went to number one in the US and number 2 in the I-J. The record sold 11 million copies worldwide. Many critics linked his lyrics with the glorification of gun violence, but as Jay Enrolled of the sectional review highlighted accent was certainly not the first to rap about such matters, however he does think there Is a correlation between rap and guns, stating, many rappers sing of guns with almost lascivious glee Serious explorations of the link between gun violence and rap music are not as common.While the subject is good for alarmist news reports, a serious exploration of the subject would require some understanding of hip-hop culture and the capability to analyze both the statistics and the human elements of the situation. What Roding Abacuses and Christian Parses deliver In the book Enter the Babylon System, Is a book-length exploration of the link between urban culture and firearms. Unpacking gun culture from Samuel Colt to 50 Cents is written in a documentary style with insight into the hip-hop music industry, as both authors are co-owners of Pound Magazine Canadas largest hip-hop and urban culture magazine (R. Abacuses and C. Pearce 2007). Their purpose in the book was to challenge the prevailing view that hip-hop music causes crime and to deepen their readers appreciation of a larger crisis with respect o guns. The mall purpose of this work was to focus attention on the gun Industry and to mount an argument that powerful Individuals and corporations are more responsible for the explosion of guns in our society than the hip-hop culture.This book reminds its readers that gangs has been around for centuries, as Jonathan Swift reveals in his diaries for 1711 that gangs of young men known as Mocks were terrorizing the streets of London. Enter the Babylon system refers to oppressive and a sense of Injustice within the current system and carry a message that guns and angst have not been dealt with In a comprehensive manner by police, politicians or the public.The authors suggest that rap and the gangs-rap lifestyle have become a scapegoat for the gun violence young black men are waging against t hemselves, but should not be used as defense for the growing prominence guns have in what the authors call trigger-happy gangs rap music (R. Abacuses and C. Pearce 2007). A portion of their book explore the Canadian gun Industry and highlight how much money Is being made through the production and sale of weapons, Rappers might ND C. Pearce 2007).The authors address the growing worldwide influence wielded by weapons manufacturers. A particular interest is their interaction with Canadas only maker of handguns, Torsos Para-ordnance, under the heading Para-nod. According to Enter The Babylon System, the authors requests for an interview and tour of the factory prompted a letter from Para-ordnance stating it would be handing this matter over to legal counsel for any civil action that we may be advised to pursue against you and your employers. (R. Abacuses and C.Pearce 2007) It is stubbing to learn that the Provincial Weapons Enforcement Unit of the Ontario Provincial Police has found 224 Para-ordnance handguns at crime scenes since 1992. When gun manufacturers are unable to protect the sanctity of their stock from diversion by company employees, society has a problem. When these guns meander into the hands of young street gang members Anyone that sincerely believes that hip-hop is the reason for gun violence needs to go to Oakland, Baltimore, New Orleans and stay a week there and then come back and tell me that hip-hop is the problem Res no way they could because youd realize what the conditions are in some of these communities. (R. Abacuses and C. Pearce 2007). Whiles gun manufacturers may protest the fact that some rappers cite their products, and that attention from rappers is inevitable. The authors quote Tom Ditz, Making a Killing: The Business of Guns in America, When you have an industry that just pours this pollution into our culture, its going to start showing up in lots of different ways.. . Abacuses and Pearce offered a refreshing openness when outlining the magnitude of the gun crisis. Although relevant statistics and data are worthwhile in helping us understand the immeasurable greed that fuels the weapons industry they deliver it in an entertaining style mixing statistics, news reports, hip-hop lyrics, artist interviews and well-penned tatterdemalion to capture the reader attention Conclusion Enter the Babylon System succeed in raising some of the serious issues that orbit when it comes to finding ways to create wealth.Enter the Babylon System is a lively, entertaining, enraging book written from a Canadian perspective, the authors did not attempt to excuse facilitators of gun violence, but instead turn our gaze away from the provocative lyrics of hip hop artists to the system of weapons production that has become a multi-billion dollar industry. They raised a flag of warning that U. S. A represent a dynamo in the manufacture of weapons and has become a Mecca for g un ownership. The fact that ordinary citizens can acquire an AK-47 rifle or a semi- automatic pistol has become a fundamental issue. Its difficult to come away from the book, for instance, without feeling that the NEAR is a borderline psychotic association hat has taken a pro-violence mandate that goes far beyond protecting gun owners rights. The United States is quite naturally blamed for the influx of illegal gun in Canada, but one of the books surprises is an exploration of Canadas homegrown gun makers.Utterly knowledgeable about hip-hop culture, the authors often assume the same understanding from their readers. And, as entertaining as the authors style can be to read, some transitions feels forced and deliberate dampening the reading experience. Even with those minor issues, Enter the Babylon System is a brilliant ice of investigative Journalism. Its a truly compelling read about a distasteful subject.