DAKAR

A BIT ABOUT NEIL

A Brooklyn College graduate, I was a journalist for most of my professional life including ports of call at the New York Post, the Buffalo News and my first job at a Pittsburgh-area daily. In recent years I’ve turned to the arts. Even while a reporter, I was getting into the arts: I was a part-time theater reviewer for the Buffalo News and the Valley News where I interviewed talents from Joel Grey to Debbie Reynolds. I’ve written a combined 10 plays and screenplays. The plays included a staged reading of "American Apartheid" by the Buffalo Ensemble Theater company. It is the tale of a contemporary young black man who finds himself in 1955 Selma. There, his mere presence causes major problems for a black family and tensions for both races since the Northern black man refuses to revert to pre-Civil Rights customs. My most recent plays are, "Birdie and the Man," and "Thank You for Taking My Call.""Birdie"isa musical of a harried young woman with "man" problems who becomes empowered after dueling with her male counterparts over the course of events. "Thank You" is the story of an acerbic black talk show host and his battles with Conservative callers and with two white co-workers, one the station manager, whom he believes are joining forces to push him aside. Additional arts ventures include hosting and producing "Western New York Kaleidoscope," a weekly features and movie review program that ran on three Buffalo-area cable systems; producing and directing a movie trailer; plus producing and directing a documentary trailer. I’ve also written cover stories for Sunday magazines and I recently wrote a 3,000-word article for ESPN’s online division about 20 black football players who shut down the 1965 AFL All-Star Game in New Orleans after facing segregation there. This was instrumental in New Orleans integrating soon afterwards.