"Best of Blax" explores race, class, politics

MOUNT VERNON – The Ma’at Production Association of Afrikan Centered Theatre (MPAACT) will perform a collection of original sketch productions that offer courageous and provocative takes on race, class, and American politics at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19, in the Black Box Theatre, Armstrong Hall. The performance is free and open to the public.

MPAACT is a performing arts group founded to explore, cultivate, and sustain Afrikan centered theatre, an artistic expression grounded in the many cultures and traditions of the Afrikan continent and its Diaspora.

Their performance, “The Best of Blax,” will pull from a number of original hit productions, including “Blaxploitation the Remix” and “Blax 2: You Know How We Deux.”

MPAACT was formed in 1990 by a group of student activists on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since then they have produced a number of critically acclaimed mainstage productions and have received numerous awards and honors, including a number of Black Theater Alliance Awards, the Annual Theodore Ward Prize for Playwrighting, several Joseph Jefferson citations and recommendations, the Lorraine Hansberry Award, and many others.

The program is sponsored at Cornell by the Student Theatre Council (STC), Black Awareness Cultural Organization (BACO), and the Office of Intercultural Life.