Nia Akilah Robinson

The Great Privation (How to flip ten cents into a dollar)

March 14, 2025

While there are plenty of laughs in "The Great Privation," we never lose sight of the fact the subject matter has roots in the history of medical exploitation. Previous mainstream pieces have appeared in recent years: Rebecca Skloot’s #1 New York Times bestseller, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," about a black woman whose cells were taken without her consent and unbeknownst to her contributed to numerous medical breakthroughs, and "Behind The Sheet," Charly Evon Simpson’s 2019 play presented by Ensemble Studio Theatre, loosely based on the story of J. Marion Simms, a gynecology pioneer whose progress (and success) was built on the suffering of enslaved women. [more]

Push Party

June 14, 2024

"Push Party" is a story by Nia Akilah Robinson that reaches into the supportive community spirit that celebrates a woman’s status as a mother, independent of a child or children. It is a story that explores the relationships of a group of friends as they gather to celebrate the impending birth of a new child to one of their numbers, but in this case, a child that has been born but is not yet in the arms of her mother. It would be a relatively simple story if that were the only focus, but Robinson gives something much more with socio-political commentary on the conditions under which pregnant women must endure in a patriarchal society, and most especially, women of color. [more]

Imminently Yours

June 22, 2019

The comedy "Imminently Yours," written by the mononymous “Karimah” and staged by The Negro Ensemble Company, is largely about the importance to communities of honoring their “elders.” It’s appropriate, then, that two stalwarts of New York’s African-American theater—Dorothi Fox and Arthur French—have major roles in the production. Both of these actors have been plying their trade on New York City stages for decades (and they’ve done considerable screen work as well). The two hold their scripts onstage here and occasionally refer to them (or at least they did on the opening-night performance under review). This is moderately distracting at points—but the two are pros and, in a way, the production would have been poorer without their venerable presence. [more]