Reviews
Read Reviews of The Journey to Becoming a Super Woman!
OUR FIRST REVIEW FROM THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE IN SCOTLAND, 2006!!!
FROM www.broadwaybaby.com! Woohoo!
The Journey to Becoming a Super Woman
**** (Four out of Five Stars!)
The Zoo, 7-12 Aug, 11.55 (45 mins), Sweet ECA, 13-15 Aug 15.25 (45mins)
This is the world premier of Nafeesa Monroes one woman show, Journey to Becoming a Super Woman. As spoken word artist her previous credits include opening for singer Jewel and appearing on HBOs Def Poetry. Monroe wrote the show, combining spoken word and theatrical elements, and it is directed by Anne Thomas Evans.
The journey in question is that of Nafeesas life. She was born to a German-Irish mother and a father of African-American and Haitian descent. The show follows Nafeesas struggle to find herself and her identity. In the opening piece, she tells us I havent always been a Black woman... when I was a kid I was a Black girl with a White mom in a White neighbourhood and all I wanted to be was White. We follow her ups and downs through some harrowing experiences and out the other side, to the realisation that she has within her the ability to become a Super Woman.
This is powerful stuff from a passionate performer, with the spoken word elements particularly strong. While it will specifically appeal to young women (as the High School students in the audience who gave a standing ovation will attest), this is a universal theme, one which you do not have to be a woman or of mixed ethnicity to empathise with. Dont be surprised if you find yourself wiping away tears at some points, and expect to leave the show chanting I am a super woman.
[KM]
Our second review from Edinburgh Festival Fringe, 2006....
FROM www.thestage.co.uk - edited.
The Journey To Becoming a Super Woman
The Zoo
Nafeesa Monroe is a very talented performance poet. Her raps and rhymes slip out with a verbal dexterity that engages with her audience, while the poetry itself is fantastically inventive. A poem about fractions draws on all sorts of arithmetic ideas to talk with great power about how Monroe is the sum of two different ethnic backgrounds and question opinions about colour.
...A journey through Monroe’s own life, it is a story of a search from identity.
She was not, as she opens by saying, always a black woman. She has not changed, just her perception of self. The poems she performs intermingle with and reflect that journey.
...Her poetry is powerful enough to stand on its own...