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Newspaper Articles 
Brown's timely 'Beggars' Strike' relates to writer's past 
Star Tribune
Published: January 18, 2002
By Rohan Preston
Tony Kushner's Afghanistan-focused new play, "Homebody/Kabul," is one of the hottest tickets in New York, partly because it's topical and timely.
He is not alone in having such a current work. Twin Cities playwright Carlyle Brown's musical satire, "The Beggars' Strike," premiering today at the Children's Theatre, is about one of the essential elements of Islam: charity.
The rich and powerful, no matter how arrogant, still have to have someone to whom to give alms, if they are to be true to their Islamic creed. But when beggars in such a society refuse offerings, that puts some souls in danger of eternal damnation. What do you do?
"Strike," a tale of arrogance and mistaken identity, pulls back a curtain on a West African culture at a crossroads between traditional and contemporary values -- a place where there is little distinction between the spiritual and the secular.
"I suppose it is a great time to have this story being told -- because of the tragedy of Sept. 11 -- but I'm fascinated by this story for a number of reasons," Brown said during a recent breakfast interview. "It's about power and poverty, about the past and the present, but it's also about the meeting of cultures -- how a powerful, but younger, Western culture deals with an old culture."
Public official vs. beggars
Adapted from a novel of the same name by Senegalese writer Aminata Sow Fall, "Strike" centers on the struggle between an ambitious public official who wants to make the town tourist-friendly by clearing out the beggars, and the beggars themselves. In the process, he would sacrifice the essential notion of charity, resulting in the creation of a de facto secular society.
"Strike," which features a book and lyrics by Brown, has music composed by Kysia Bostic, and a 19-member cast that includes such noted local lights as Shawn Hamilton, Monica Scott, James Austin Williams, Gavin Lawrence and Greta Oglesby.
Working on the play has meant a dredging of experiences for the playwright, an avid sailor and raconteur who was born in Charleston, S.C. Brown was reared in New York by his grandmother, his mother and aunt -- all of whom attended different churches.
"My family wanted me to make an intelligent choice about my religion so I was always in church," he said. "I would go to a Catholic service, an African Methodist service and an Episcopalian service."
He tired of that religious rigor. So, when he turned 15, he did something to spite his family. "I went to a mosque -- I became a black Muslim," he said. "Of course, that didn't last long, since they banned secular interests, like girls."
In 1981, Brown spent four months in West Africa -- traveling to Senegal, Gambia, Mali and Sierra Leone.
He had gone to Africa with romantic notions of ancestry and Motherland. "But I found out the balance on either side of the Afro-American hyphen," he said.
In one adventure, he was trying to get to Guinea from Senegal. He paid his fare for an overland transport on a flat-bed truck, which then was loaded with goods -- an hours-long process. Brown grew impatient and began screaming at the driver, asking for his money back. His fury drew a crowd. Someone sent a boy off to fetch something to mollify the irate foreigner.
"The kid came back, walking and looking at me as if I was a mad dog," he recalled. "He shoved both hands out -- like a starveling from 'Les Miserables.' In one hand, he had a pack of cigarettes. In the other, it was a bottle of Coke. I was so embarrassed."
Brown, who was a student activist at New York University, wanted to be a novelist. But he got sidetracked and instead found his way by writing plays.
From good-bye gift to play
Penumbra Theatre Company brought him to the Twin Cities in 1986 when it put on his first produced play, "The Little Tommy Parker Celebrated Colored Minstrel Show." He returned for a production of "The African Company Presents Richard III." He decided to stay.
He was asked to adapt "The Beggars' Strike" by CTC artistic director Peter Brosius, who had received the book as a good-bye gift when he left the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.
"This book is hugely popular all over Africa," Brosius said. "That this work takes place inside an Islamic community was always intriguing to us. It gives us a chance to look at a culture that's often maligned and misunderstood.
"This play speaks to how to give to each other and learn from each other's differences. It also gives us an opportunity to look at the human need for dance, song and prayer."
More about THE BEGGARS' STRIKE»
Copyright 2002 Star Tribune. Republished here with the permission of the Star Tribune. No further republication or redistribution is permitted without the express approval of the Star Tribune.
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