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Robert Hooks

@_roberthooks

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Cultural Architect: Producer/Actor/Activist/Creator Arts Institutions. Co-founder Negro Ensemble Company. Champion of Equality in Media&Hiring.

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My entire life in 2 minutes! The 2026 NAACP/OSCIA THEATRE AWARDS created this for my Theatre Legend Award and I am so impressed and moved! Enjoy! And deep thanks to @oscia2221 @kirinnaulls Naulls and 2 amazing editors! (Despite Instagram's "vertical" making it seem bizarre!) #blacktheatreawards #OscarHernandez #kirinnaulls #blackexcellence #moreblacktheatrehistory #blacktheatrepioneers by @_roberthooks

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5 days ago

This is my late, loving, amazing and precious mother Mae Bertha Ward Hooks. Today, September 27th is her Heavenly Birthday. So I'm sending a big heart-felt hug and kiss. Happy Birthday to my Mommy....Happy Happy Birthday Bert! ...Miss you so much! #motherlove #maeberthawardhooks by @_roberthooks

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7 days ago

MORE BLACK THEATRE HISTORY! BLACK THEATRE PIONEERS-BERT ANDREWS!
I've worked with many stage photographers On and Off-Broadway. NONE have impressed me more than Bert Andrews. When we launched the Negro Ensemble Company in 1967 we were fortunate to hire Bert as NEC's staff photographer. For the first ten seasons he captured historic Black theatre productions for the world to enjoy. Bert Andrews, a brilliant theatre lensman, A PRECIOUS FRIEND! If you can find a copy of his "In the Shadow of the Great White Way" grab it! #bertandrewsphotography #blacktheatrepioneer #intheshadowofthegreatwhiteway #blacktheatrehistory #Negroensemblecompany by @_roberthooks

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11 days ago

BLACK THEATRE PIONEERS WOODIE KING's New Federal Theatre legacy strides into the future! Fulfilling his dream!
To quote @newfederalthearteap "A beautiful day for Woodie King Jr.’s New Federal Theatre! 🎀✨
Thank you to everyone who joined us for the ribbon cutting ceremony and helped us celebrate this new chapter in the life of Woodie King, Jr.’s New Federal Theatre.
Special thanks to Senator Erik Bottcher for cutting the ribbon and to Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Council Member Carl Wilson, and Commissioner Diya Vij for joining us and sharing their words and support.
We are especially grateful to our Producing Artistic Director, Elizabeth Van Dyke, for welcoming our guests and helping bring us together for this special occasion.
Thank you to everyone who continues to believe in New Federal Theatre, its artists, its community, and its mission.
Here’s to the doors opening, the stories continuing, and the next chapter beginning. ❤️🎭 #NewFederalTheatre #elizabethVanDyke #woodieking #MoreBlackTheatreHistory by @_roberthooks

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22 days ago

At the NAACP Theatre Awards!Thank you #DeniseNicholas! Brilliant actor,author, director and INTELLECT! But I will quote your kind words: "Always wonderful to see my friend @_roberthooks. Robert helped me get my career started. He's also the founder of the Negro Ensemble Company of New York." @therealdenisenicholas #Negroensemblecompany #NegroEnsembleCompanyFounders #blackexcellence #friendsforever by @_roberthooks

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a month ago

MORE BLACK THEATRE HISTORY! Edmund Cambridge, a master of Black theatre, theatre, and was a genius in every important stage production he worked on. He directed me at my very beginnings in Ballad for Bimshire, and taught me a true Jamaican dialect it gives me such joy to use...because it was HIM!He knew the soul, and the 'story rhythms' of every play he ever agreed to engineer, A brilliant Production Stage Manager who taught many others in his brilliant career. He was also a brilliant director, actor and teacher. And generous with his knowledge and talents!The Negro Ensemble Company was his professional home in excercising all those talents. After New York's NEC, Edmund permanently moved out to Los Angeles, where he started his own theatre academy "The Cambrige-Kilpatrick Theatre Academy, together with actor director Lincoln Kilpatrick. ....WE remember and salute... Edmund Cambridge..RIP. #EdmundCambridge #Blacktheatrehistory #balladforbimshire #NegroEnsembleCompany #BLACKTHEATREPIONEERS ?? by @_roberthooks

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a month ago

MORE BLACK THEATRE HISTORY!
Barbara Ann Teer and I were partners and colleagues in the 60's New York Black theatre movement. She taught and encouraged teenage students (from the streets of New York City) in my very first theatre company "The Group Theatre Workshop, and was a co-director in the GTW's success in their first two major professional Black theatre events.
Later, she moved up to Harlem, where she converted the 1960's Harlem community, into an international Black theatre Mecca with the creation of her National Black Theatre. This post shows how New York has honored the amazing Black theatre pioneer ..Dr, Barbara Ann Teer. May she continue to rest in glorious peace....Thank you dear Barbara Ann. And to her extraordinary daughter SADE LYTHCOTT who has grown and solidified this for the future! @natblacktheatre @sade1111 @davidalangrier #barbaraannteer #blacktheatrepioneer #blacktheatrehistory #nationalblacktheatre #grouptheatreworkshop blackexcellence by @_roberthooks

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a month ago

It's never a good feeling when a father misses the wedding of one of his amazing sons. But...it happened and now I'm so proud to share the love and joy of my third son Kiyo Dean Tarpley and his lovely and spirited wife Sharon Mitchell-Wynter. They live in Connecticut and are enjoying this great summer as a new and very much in love family! @sharonmitchellwynter #kiyoTarpley by @_roberthooks

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2 months ago

MORE BLACK THEATRE HISTORY! All-Star benefit for the DC Black Repertory Company! Wearing Woodson High School jerseys, (cause it was their HOUSE). You want to talk LOCAL CELEBRITIES willing to shoot some hoops for this important cause!!??..I'll just throw out some names:...(in no particular order)Jim Vance, Harold Bell, Clifford Alexander, Vantile (MotoJico) Whitfield, Dewey Hughes, Boogie Smith, Walter Fauntroy,Rickie Harris, Ron Dellums, Ed Murphy, and that's ME sitting on the far left......Yes! we won the game, and raised enough funds to move the DCBRC agenda along successfully! #DCBlackRepertoryCompany #cliffordalexander #rondellums #Murphy #Blacktheatrehistory by @_roberthooks

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2 months ago

MORE BLACK THEATRE HISTORY! "The Reckoning" (circa 1968) by the brilliant Douglas Turner Ward was so controversial we couldn't schedule it in NEC's regular season. But I loved it so much I mounted the play out of my own production company, apart from NEC's seasons. It was a tremendous success at the time, because of it's production and raw sexy storyline, of an evil, racist Governor of a deep Southern state. Having his (in-your-face) reckoning at the hands of two smart Black associates, with strong political leverage over him. It was a great, yet very controversial theatre event. Should really be produced somewhere today. NOT by me however, too retired!!..Seen here (left to right) Douglas Turner Ward as "Scar", Lester Rawlins as "the Governor", and Janet DuBois as "Baby". Photo by Bert Andrews #blacktheatrehistory #DouglasTurnerWard #roberthooksproductions #janetdubois #bertandrewsphotography by @_roberthooks

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2 months ago

MORE BLACK THEATRE HISTORY! The legendary actress Diana Sands in her second big Broadway starring role (after A Raisin in the Sun,). "Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright" by Peter Fiebleman. Directed by Joshua Logan, (circa 1962). ..And was also the first major acting role on Broadway for popular dancer/choreographer Alvin Ailey. Other co-stars in Tiger, were Claudia McNeil, Ellen Holly, Cicely Tyson, Roscoe Lee Browne, Al Freeman Jr, Robert MacBeth, and Robert Hooks. Tiger, Tiger,Burning Bright, appeared at The Booth Theater. #DianaSands #AlvinAiley #TIGERTIGERBURNINGBRIGHT #CicelyTyson #blacktheatrehistory by @_roberthooks

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2 months ago

Precious Family Remembrance. The late 60s. Me and my siblings hosting and celebrating an anniversary dinner for aunt Elizabeth (my mother's only sister) and Uncle John William. All gone now. Standing, left to right: Bobby Dean, Bernice, Caroleigh, and James Walter. Seated: Uncle John and aunt Elizabeth. Missing is our precious brother Charles Edward who had already transitioned much, much too soon. This is why photos can be so meaningful. #Hooksfamily by @_roberthooks

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2 months ago