Featured photo: Speakers for the August 23 Tendaji Talks, Charles Winfrey (left) and Donna Ullrich (right)
Written by Tanya Terry
A session of Tendaji Talks is to take place TODAY from 6-7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 23, at the ‘New” McCree Theatre.
The Courier talked to Donna Ullrich, producer for iMichigan Productions, who will be one of the speakers for the event.
Ullrich pointed out the McCree Theatre is one of the very, very few Black theatres in the country. Only a handful of these theatres are in Michigan.
“They are so important in terms of bringing cultural arts alive,” Ullrich stated.
Ullrich feels one of the charming things and one of the amazing things about McCree is that it’s been very “nomadic” in the Flint area. The McCree Theatre moved several times before finding a place it could stay in a few years ago when a church on Clio Road was purchased for the theatre-it’s current and permanent home.
“That’s a really wonderful story of perseverance I think for the McCree,” said Ullrich.
Ullrich also pointed out not only are Black stories told at the McCree, but Charles Winfrey, executive director of the McCree Theatre, is a historian.
Winfrey has shared his knowledge about what the St. John Street Neighborhood was like and what it meant to the Black community, for example.
“He’s been able to write some really wonderful stories about Flint and about Black culture in this part of the state and country. His pieces are really intimate to the history and the culture around here to preserve that and tell those stories to theatre goers in this area.”
The theatre also features a “wonderful mix of other programming.”
“It has a really strong youth program.”
Ullrich explained that last year for the summer youth program one school got an all-day arts programming had approximately 180 kids engaged!
Ullrich also pointed out there are “celebrity types of people who are accomplishing things outside of Flint.” One of these people is Javon Johnson, who plays the butler on Tyler Perry’s “The Oval” television series. Johnson will be at a fundraiser for the theatre September 2. The event: ‘A Summer Soiree, Act II, An Evening of Elegance,’ is being held at the Gateway Convention Center.
The McCree Theatre also offers a Free Black film series every season, which includes documentaries, and informs attendees about Black culture in Flint.
“There is also a fine arts project every year with the schools where young people can submit examples of their art-whether it’s performance art or fine art. The Art Explosion is the name of that program.”
Ullrich is a McCree Theatre board member. She attends every McCree production she can. She explained why the upcoming Tendaji Talks and the McCree Theatre are so important to her personally.
“I ran a theatre company in Missouri, and I’m not sure I wouldn’t have given up along the line as I kept losing spaces I was performing in. But whoever was in charge (of the McCree Theatre) just kept finding the next space. They kept moving on…”
The goal of Tendaji Talks is centering African American history in Flint and the impact of systemic racism.
A group called Neighborhoods Without Borders started the Tendaji Talks.
Educator and Community Activist Tendaji Ganges was a founding member of Neighborhoods Without Borders. He died in 2014. Ullrich explained the group is about trying to break down those invisible borders that divide us by culture, by race or by ethnicity.
“We did Tendaji Talks for seven years, even during COVID. We did them online during COVID. We were in a year of trying to decide how we should revise them coming out of COVID….We had conversations with a good number of Black community leaders and other community leaders. Our goal had always been to provide opportunities for people regardless of ethnicity to come to environments that were safe to have conversations, to learn about other cultures. It always strikes me that what we fear, if we don’t solve that fear, all we do is grow to hate whatever it is we fear. So, we were always looking for ways to overcome that fear of the unknown.”
Tendaji Talks are named in honor of Tendaji Ganges to honor his commitment to education in this community to eliminate systemic racism.
In 2023, Neighborhoods Without Borders members met John Girdwood from the Educational Opportunity Initiatives program at the University of Michigan-Flint. Tendaji Ganges led the program when he was alive. Girdwood expessed to the group members he was interested in reviving the mission of Tendaji Talks.
