NEWS
Alpha Playwright Stages New Production on Obama
Brother Vincent K. Brooks (center) gets his third star as Gen. James D. Thurman, Forces Command commander, and Brooks’ wife, Carol Brooks, participate in the pinning ceremony. Brooks was promoted from major general to lieutenant general and then took command of Third Army, now headquartered in South Carolina. Photo By Nicholas Salcido.
Third Army Now Answers to Alpha Man VINCENT K. BROOKS is another Alpha man at the highest ranks of the U.S. military on whom the free world depends on to continue the traditions of democracy and freedom. Earlier this year he was nominated by President Barack Obama for promotion from major general to three-star rank of lieutenant general. He was also given a new assignment to lead the U.S. Third Army. Brother Brooks assumed his duties just as Third Army was in the final He will command a force stages of transferring operations from Fort McPherson in Atlanta, of 36,000, in support of Ga., to Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina. He will command a force more than 130,000 troops of 36,000 in support of more than 130,000 troops in the U.S. Army’s in the U.S. Army’s Central Central Command, which comprises Command, which comprises operations in the Middle East and parts of Asia. He comes to the new operations in the Middle post after serving as commanding general of the 1st Infantry Division at East, and parts of Asia. Fort Riley, Kansas. Brooks, who comes from a military family, was born in Anchorage, Alaska and attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., where he rose to the rank of cadet first captain, the highest position (cadet brigade commander), a cadet can hold. He was the first African-American cadet to hold this prestigious position. He graduated from West Point in 1980. H
MAURICE HENDERSON opened his new play, ‘OBAMA: Straight No Chaser’ in March, on the anniversary of the famed speech on race delivered by President Barack Obama at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pa. Previously making its official premier and sold-out preview on President’s Day in February, this staged adaptation is about the latent trials and tribulations of becoming the first African-American president. Currently embarking on a national tour, the production will arrive in Washington, D.C., during the last weekend of August (the week of the unveiling of the monument at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial). The fall-season tour will kick off in New York. Brother Henderson is a 1981 initiate of Alpha, who joined at Theta Epsilon Chapter at Adelphi University in Long Island, N.Y. His award-winning and bestselling writing has been proclaimed and acknowledged by the Library of Congress, the American Poetry Center and Time Life Books series AfricanAmericans: Voices of Triumph. Henderson is a 1983 graduate of Adelphi University and has been teaching at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pa., since 1985. He has taught for Freedom Theater, Venture Theater, Walnut Street Theater and the University of the Arts. He has also been a director for Bushfire Theater and Playworks, and had his play staged locally at the Theater Center Philadelphia, Shubin Theater, Walnut Street Theater and the Annenberg Center. H FOR MORE ON ARTS AND , CULTURE, GO TO PAGE 86 to read about Alpha’s poet laureates. Spring-Summer 2011 H THE SPHINX
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