COMMUNITY
Theatre & Bengali Harlem
Aladdin Ullah
“Take Lorraine Hansberry's 'A Raisin in the Sun.' Well, it's a working-class family, and it's about upward mobility, but systematic racism is preventing them from having upward mobility. I remember seeing the film first and not even realizing that it was a play. Of course, it's a story about economic apartheid, but I only later saw the resonance in the tradition when I read August Wilson, Amiri Baraka, and later, Lynn Nottage.”
How do you give dignity and humanity and a platform for people that are not being represented in the arts, in film, TV, and theatre?
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
AUTHOR
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AUTHOR
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Watch the interview on YouTube or IGTV.
Interview
Bangladeshi Diapora
Bangladesh
South Asian Theater
Working-Class Stories
Bertolt Brecht
August Wilson
Amiri Baraka
Lorraine Hansberry
Avijit Roy
Mel Watkins
Black Solidarities
ALADDIN ULLAH is a playwright, comedian, and performer based in New York City. He is a pioneer of the past decade as one of the very first South Asians to perform stand-up comedy on national television on networks such as: HBO, Comedy Central, MTV, BET, and PBS. He was the co-founder and host of the multi-ethnic stand-up show Colorblind, a member of Joseph Papp's Public Theater's Inaugural Emerging Writers group where he wrote and developed Indio during the Spotlight Series and workshops at Joe's Pub. He was also a part of the New York Theater Workshop Residency at Dartmouth, and Halal Brothers directed by Liesel Tommy (The Labyrinth's Barn Series at Public Theater). Aladdin has had staged readings/workshops of his plays at New York Theater Workshop, Cape Cod Theater Project, Classical Theater of Harlem, Lark Play Development Center, Shakespeare in Paradise Festival (Bahamas) Labyrinth, and 1 Solo Festival. His acting career includes American Desi, and the award-winning animated film Sita Sings The Blues. Aladdin is a Recipient of the Paul Robeson development grant to produce a documentary called In search of Bengali Harlem, which inspired the recent book Bengali Harlem by Vivek Bald. His most recent play is Dishwasher Dreams, a one-man show drawn from the story of his father’s migration from Noakhali, East Bengal, to New York City.