A Black History Month Special
At The Black British Theatre Awards @thebbtas Sunday October 26th 2025 Young, British-Jamiacan Female Actor Cash Holland Won The Award For Best Supporting Female Actor In A Play @Ca$h_Holland. The Play Was The Iconic A Raisin In The Sun. It Was Written By African-American Civil Rights Activist Lorraine Hansberry. She Became The First Black Woman To Produce And Stage A Play On Broadway, When The Show Debuted In 1959. It Chronicles The Struggle Against Racism, Police Brutality And Poverty of The 1950s.
The Fact That It’s Still Relevant Today Tells Its Own Story In Itself!
Notwithstanding The Great Historical Moment That Was The Election of Barrack Obama In 2008, The Fact That ‘A Raison In The Sun’ Is Still Relevant Today, Over Sixty Five Years Later Tells Its Own Story In Itself! His Administration Oversaw Two Successful And Successive Presidential Terms Which A Majority of Millions Loved, And President Barack Obama And The Former First Lady Michelle Obama Remain Ever Popular. However A Minority Racist Cohort Hated Them And Their Success. Chief Amongst The Haters Was Donald Trump, Whose Late Grandfather Was An Austrian Immigrant, And Whose Late Father Was Arrested A Klu Klux Klan Rally In The 1960s. The Man-Child Is By His Own Admission A Vengeful, Nationalist, Dictator. And Some Might Argue He Is Also Clearly Plagued By An Identity Crisis. And Others Are Paying For It. Typically!
Observers Can See The Blatant White Nationalist, Supremesist, Elitist, Billionaire Behavioural Bias of The Current White House, The Economic Misery Caused To Millions of Families By Current Government Shutdown As Part of Its So-Called “War On The Poor” As The Chicago Major Calls It, The Overly Aggressive And Unprofessional ICE Arrests And Detentions, Plus Their Abductions And Disappearances of Predominantly Black And Brown People To See That The Fundamental Issues Raised In ‘A Raisin In The Sun ‘Were Never Effectively Resolved And That In Fact That In Some Ways The Problem Has Only Got Worse. Currently That Is A Direct Result of The Hateful Obama Backlash (Which Began With Trump And Birther Movement – Claiming That Obama Was Not Even American – And Is Manifesting In The Cruel, Callous Implementation of Project 2025, Devised By The Heritage Foundation.
LaTanya Richardson Jackson (Samuel’s L. Jackson’s Actor Wife) Plays Bible Clutching Mother ‘Lena Younger’ (In The 2014 Revival of ‘A Raisin In The Sun’). Directed By Kenny Leon It Won A Best Revival of A Play Tony Award That Year. @ltjackson_
British-Irish-African Actress Sophie Okonedo Won A Tony Award (In 2014) For Playing Walter Lee’s Young Wife ‘Ruth Younger’ (Image On The Left And Above). hamiltonhodell.co.uk/talent/sophie-okonedo British-Jamaican Actress Cash Holland Won A BBTA For The Same Role (In 2025) @Ca$h_Holland
Anika Noni Rose Plays ‘Beneatha’ (Walter Lee’s Younger Sister) In The 2014 Production. @anikaaroundtheworld
Double Oscar Winner And A Previous Tony Award Winner Denzel Washington Is Son, Husband, Brother ‘Walter Lee’ In Kenny Leon’s Award-Winning 2014 Iteration of ‘Raisin’
The Play Tells The Story of A Struggling African-American Family Led By A Matriach Whose Husband Has Recently Had His Last Earth Day. A Life Insurance Policy Cheque Is Soon On Its Way And The Widow Is Subsequently Looking To Move Her Family To A Better Neighbourhood With The Policy Payout. The Said Neighbourhood However Is Predominantely White And Unwelcoming. Eventually Her Would Be Entreprenuerial Son Doesn’t Do What He Was Suppossed To Do With The Money She Entrusts In Him For The Property Purchase. Trauma And Tragedy Ensue. But Does The Family (Which Also Includes A Grown Daughter, A Daughter-In-Law, And A Grandson) Get Through Or Do Their Dreams Disappear Like A Raisin In The Sun?
Hansberry, Her Fellow Actor And Activist Harry Belafonte, And His Friend Sidney Poitier Were Part of A Talented Black Creatives Cooperative Who Got Together In The Fight Against Segregation (Which Even Applied To Theatres At The Time When The Play Was Written Back In The 50s). Thankfully Segregation Was Eventually Outlawed Thanks To The Civil Right Movement (Hard Fought By Black And White People And Different Faiths Coming Together).
But Again, Some Haters Kept On Hating. Up To The Present Moment. With New Generations. Some Police, Border Control And Military Included. The Police Brutality Murder of George Floyd During Lockdown In May 2020 Brought Worldwide Protests And An Intensified Diversity, Equity And Inclusion Movement, (DEI) Which Included International Corporations. It Was Successful For A While.
However The MAGA (Make America Great Again) Movement Launced An Anti-Woke Movement Soon Afterwards And The Trump Administration Has Since Undone And Alot of The Progress That Was Initiated Five Years Ago. It Also Erased And Whitewashed Wideranging Achievements Made By African-Americans And Their Allies Prior To That, Including Banning Books, Burning Books, Wiping Websites, And Stopping Various Helpful And Supportive Government Community Programmes, And Undoing Medicare (Initiated By President Barack Obama).
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