Actress, playwright and dub poet d'bi.young launches the book of her Dora Award winning play, blood.claat: one womban story. The event takes place at Lula Lounge (1585 Dundas Street West), on Monday, August 14th, 2006. The doors open at 7pm and the show commences at 7:30pm.

Produced by Theatre Passe Muraille, Androgyne Dub and Playwright's Canada Press, the evening features Toronto’s veteran storytellers Karen Robinson (Harlem Duet) and Ordena Stephens-Thompson (da kink in my hair), as they join young in the reading of various excerpts from blood.claat. young’s dancehall-rock band, dubbin.revolushun.gangstars, will close the night with a special performance. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and there will be a personal signing session with the author. It is a bilingual publication, published in English and Spanish, translated by Queen Nzinga Maxwell Edwards.

blood.claat tells the story of 15-year-old Mudgu Sankofa’s coming of age in Kingston, Jamaica, addressing social issues concerning women, relationships, family, self-knowledge, self-esteem and courage. It is the first of a trilogy entitled, three faces of mudgu, followed by androgyne and chronicles in dub.

Mudgu comes to terms with gender, class, race and sexuality through her developing relationship with her own blood. The inevitable nature of cycles simultaneously represents the resistance to colonial oppression, a ceremonial dance, a liberashun chant and a dub poem.

eye weekly describes blood.claat as “a meditation on the many contexts and connotations of blood – menstruation, murder, sacrifice, ancestry, salvation, childbirth.” The play is the story of ‘womban’ and blood, as experienced through the eyes of Mudgu. Mudgu is surrounded by a legacy of personalities, from Granny to Auntie, Njoni to Stamma, and Ogun to Pearl Johnson, who all relate to blood on their own terms.

blood.claat was first presented in New York City at the NYC Hip Hop Festival 2004, curated by political storyteller Danny Hoch and artist-activist Kamilah Forbes.

The production was nominated at the Dora Awards in five categories: outstanding new play, female performance, direction, design and production. It won in two categories, for outstanding new play and female performance. Currently, it is a part of the third Afro-Canadian Playwrights’ Festival.

d’bi.young won outstanding performance for blood.claat in the Summerworks Theatre Festival 2005 and the play was chosen as one of Canada’s cultural representatives at this year’s International AIDS Conference.

d’bi.young and director Weyni Mengesha will be presenting the award winning production at Theatre Passe Muraille, from August 29 to September 10, 2006. As young takes the lead role, Amina Alfred, performs all of the music, including vocals and percussion.

Born and raised in Jamaica, playwright, actor and dub poet d’bi.young moved to Canada in 1993. Her appearance in trey anthony’s da kink in my hair, garnered her a Dora nomination for best female performance. She also starred in the television sitcom Lawd Have Mercy, which aired on Leda Serene/Vision TV. young has written five plays, including Selphine Loathing; Yagayah, co-written with Naila Belvett; A Working Womban's Story and Androgyne. Her first book of poetry, art on black, was published last March, by Women’s Press. In addition, blood.claat, which has been published in book form, will be launched on August 14, 2006 at Lula Lounge.

Director Weyni Mengesha is an Ethiopian-Canadian director/dramaturge and composer. She was the assistant director on Djanet Sears’ Mirvish Production of Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God and the thirteen part television series Lawd Have Mercy. Recently, she directed and composed the music for da kink in my hair. Mengesha has been nominated for a Dora Award, and was the recipient of both a Harold Award and a national Harry Jerome Award for Excellence in the Arts.

admiss: $10
place: lula lounge 1585 dundas street west (west of dufferin)
info: 416.434.1823
lula reservations: 416.588.0307
artsadmin@dbiyoung.net www.bloodclaat.net