On July 21, 2008, Dr. Barbara Ann Teer, founder of Harlem’s esteemed National Black Theatre Workshop, passed away at the age of 71. The theater lost its founder, and Harlem lost a fierce cultural warrior and icon.
DR. Teer’s home-going was a true celebration. The procession began at the National Black Theatre Building and gained momentum as participants made their way along 125th Street, drumming, chanting and singing. They passed the Apollo Theater, which paid homage to Dr. Teer on its marquee. The ceremony included an elephant, as she was fond of them, and ended with fireworks at the Hudson River. The observance celebrated a life well lived in service to the people and community Dr. Teer loved.
Dr. Barbara Ann Teer was born in East St. Louis, Ill., in 1937. Her parents were both educators. She graduated from high school at 15 and college at 19. She studied dance with Katherine Dunham, then went to Europe for further study. She then began building a promising career as an actress and dancer.
In addition to continuing her professional studies, she came to Harlem in the early 1960s as an educator teaching dance and drama at Wadleigh Junior High School and Dorothy Maynor’s Harlem School of the Arts. She began making a name for herself in Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, including “Kwamina,” in 1961; “Home Movies,” in 1965; “Who’s Got His Own,” in 1966; and “Does the Tiger Wear a Necktie,” in 1969. She also appeared in the movie “Slaves,” in 1968.
Teer became a prolific director, writer and choreographer for stage, television and film. But she was discouraged with the stereotypical roles offered to black performers.
She said in a 1968 New York Times article, “We must begin building cultural centers where we can enjoy being free, open and black, where we can find out how talented we really are, where we can be what we were born to be, and not what we were brainwashed to be, where we can literally ‘blow our minds’ with blackness.”
This was not idle talk. Teer left her West Village digs and moved to Harlem when 60 percent of it was burned out and abandoned. She encouraged her show-business colleagues to do the same.
She left her promising career to found the National Black Theatre Workshop with the mission to use all the elements of theater to highlight black culture. She called her productions “rituals,” and taught people how to use song, dance, drums and storytelling to transcend their restraints and heal themselves.
Everything about the NBT was steeped in blackness, from the design of the building, with its octagon roof, to its housing the largest collection of “New Sacred” (Yoruba) art in the Western Hemisphere, exclusively commissioned by Teer with artists from Nigeria.
She was a savvy businesswoman and one of Harlem’s first entrepreneurs. She purchased the entire city block that houses the theater on Fifth Avenue between 125th and 126th streets, and had the city officially change the name to National Black Theatre Way and Frederica L. Teer Square, after her sister. Why that location? It was the intersection of two of the world’s most famous streets.
Dr. Teer was very concerned about the changes in Harlem and what would happen to the people who lived there and about the lack of respect for what Harlem represented as a cultural mecca.
She had two children, Sade and Michael. Her son recalled, “She was not a typical mom. She insisted that I be fearless. It was difficult in some ways and amazing in every way. My mom said that my sister and I were her best students and her deepest love.”
Dr. Teer’s legacy lives on in the
National Black Theatre. NBT’s current production is “Hattie . . . What I Need You to Know,” based on the life of Hattie McDaniel, the first
African American to win an Academy Award. The production runs through Oct. 4. Tickets are
priced at $40.
The National Black Theatre is located at 2031 Fifth Ave. between 125th and 126th Streets in Harlem. Call (212) 722-3800 for more information.
Teachers: For more information about the New York Post’s Classroom Extra program, contact Customer Service at 1-800-801-0100. Today’s lesson can be found in Classroom Extra at nypost.com.