Special Thanks

Thanks to The Jocunda Festival, who presented a special live play reading of The Grace of God & The Man Machine, a Black Lives Matter play on Sunday, Oct. 25th to benefit The Riant Theatre

CLICK HERE to learn more…

Download the Press Release.

“The Naked House Painting Society”

“Easily the festival’s best. Riveting drama with genuine humor and intense relationships. Mystical in nature, the play turns on incisive philosophical dialogue.” — Winifred Walsh, The Baltimore Sun

“Slavery,” a play in one act

Ownership is the issue as two associates draft a patent at a huge law firm in Robert Bowie, Jr’s one‑act play “Slavery.”

“Crash & Burn PA”

“It’s pretty damned refreshing. Tightly woven, with comic prowess and a nicely fast pace. If you want a carefree night of fun and laughs, this is your ticket.” — Pandora Locks

“Witchcraft,” a play in one act

“‘Witchcraft’ offers the suspenseful flavor of Alfred Hitchcock show. The drama unfolds with many unanticipated twists and turns…” — Janet Stidman Evleth

Poet Laureate - Harvard Alumni Association

Robert is also an accomplished poet and HAA Poet Laureate. You can read some of his poems here.

Plays by Robert Bowie, Jr…

Sold-Out Shows, Rave Reviews!

Our FringeNYC premiere could not have gone better…

ONAJE sold out all five shows, the performances were riveting, and both audiences and critics were exceedingly positive. Check out these great reviews from onstageblog.com and Theatre is Easy (theasy.com) .

Thanks again to our incredible cast, crew, and creative team — and to everyone whose generous support helped bring ONAJE to life!

Recent Posts

In Freedom’s Name

In Freedom’s Name

Apologies in advance. I am going to use the “N word.”

On August 16, 1845, 27-year-old Frederick Douglass, a runaway slave at the risk of recapture, left the United States for a speaking tour of Ireland and the British Isles to promote his antislavery mission. When he reached Dublin, Douglas first saw Daniel O’Connell the famous Irish patriot and, that afternoon, went to hear him speak on Catholic emancipation, self-government for Ireland and his hatred of slavery in America. After O’Connell spoke, he was introduced to Douglass. O’Connell had just turned 70 and was more than twice Douglass’ age. They shared their mutual hatred of slavery, and then unexpectedly, O’Connell introduced Douglass to the remaining crowd as “the Black O’Connell.”

Hats off to Robert Manson, who introduced me to this subject.

IN FREEDOM’S NAME

“…I was born in exile from my native land,
Schooled with whips, and shackled by my fellow man,
Raised as chattel, alone, a slave and bastard,
As the property of my mother’s master
But not until I was free to come and go
Did I find the family I didn’t know
And not until the courthouse in County Cork
Did I discover O’Connell in my heart:
The two of us, as one, exiled from our faith
Our people and safety, by a nation state

“…Before I landed, after my weeks at sea,
(Free in a white country would be new for me)
The kind captain of our ship, the Cambria,
Asked that I speak upon my wild idea:
The granting of my country’s slaves their freedom.
The Americans on board came undone ‘n
Violent: ‘Down with the nigger! He shall not speak!’
Captain Judkins confronted them when they reached
Out to throw ‘the god damn nigger overboard’ —
Were there no boundaries to bondage and discord?…

“…Not until, in Dublin, near Sackville Street Bridge
When I saw him down by Trinity College
And heard him speak at Conciliation Hall:
Hating slavery, but nonviolence for all,
The temperance pledge, the failing potato crop
And the Irish servitude he’d try to stop:
Freed now, this Catholic beneath the English heel,
Of Peel, the P.M. he’d called ‘that Orange Peel’:
Freed now, fresh from prison for his English sins
I heard O’Connell turn Irish words to hymns…

“…Not ‘til County Cork, with the crowd before me,
When I said his name, they, as one, rose for me,
And from within, I heard my master curse him
And wondered what if O’Connell were my twin?
…Not until my heart asked me: ‘Why hesitate?
Trust him, he’s Irish. He’s born to agitate.
Weren’t you both born with bondage your argument?
And both born to harmonize as dissidents?’
…Only then, I was surprised to discover
In freedom’s name, I’d found my Irish brother…”

Until we realize that our individual freedoms are dependent on each other, we will repeat this servitude without end.

Dear Soon to Be Graduates…

I want to share joy, appreciation, and an observation during this hardship on all graduating seniors, whether from high school, college, or any school, during this, our second COVID Graduation. I don’t really remember that much about all the details of my high school...

A Source of Inspiration

Yikes! Every day, in odd and different ways, I rediscover I am coming out of a dark place. So two days ago I needed someone I admired, someone inspirational, to show me some light. So how bad was this bad place? Two days ago, when I finished my first draft of a Covid...

Delusions of Grandeur and the Marathon Man

I can still feel the pain. Over 15 years ago I jumped the gun and began training for the Senior Olympics. I always had a plan. I had made my commitment, early in life, when I was in second grade. I committed the first moment that mandatory exercise was imposed at...

Part 2 of "Our Pandemic Déjà Vu-- All Over Again

Part 2 of "Our Pandemic Déjà Vu-- All Over Again? (2020-2021)"
A Salute to President Larry Bacow, Radcliffe College and the med school, my ode for the @harvardalumni virtual spring meeting. You can read all nine of my odes as Poet Laureate of the Harvard Alumni Association at the #linkinbio👆

Cut loose their students, to create crimson glory
And turn a dying world into a living laboratory
But though they risked their lives for their fellow man
Harvard still made them all take their final exams.
But this time it is all different! There was no way
We would let this become John Harvard’s Groundhog Day!

No! This time we turned an “influenza” into a blessing:
Alston expanded its plans and our profs kept professing
With new teaching tools like Zoom to raise the dead...to the dean’s list
While the med school brilliantly kept the COVID cases de minimis
And new off campus virtual labs where you can “blow stuff up” --
I’m so retro I once tried that with a cherry bomb and a cigarette butt.

But no. No. This was no reboot of some pre-Zoot suit goof.
No. No. Because this time there weren’t no “oops!”
So behold a spirit moves and John Harvard walks the Yard
And the books will reopen and soon the gates will be unbarred
And Larry Bacow, hats off for your leadership and thank you
For the quarantine that saved us from some horrible, centennial, déjà.

#poetry #harvard #harvarduniversity #harvardalumni #harvardalumniassociation #poetlaureate #10kstoriesofrbb

This year's @harvardalumni Ode, Part 1 (full poem

This year's @harvardalumni Ode, Part 1 (full poem at link in bio)

Our Pandemic Déjà Vu-- All Over Again? (2020-2021)
A Salute to President Larry Bacow, Radcliffe College and the med school

Since the HAA Spring Meetings – again -- will not convene in person this year, my ode as your Poet Laureate (again - with the tip of my hat to our poet Seamus Heaney) Is recited – like last year - from outside my kitchen door. Take a look at the video.

“A spirit moved. John Harvard walked the Yard.
The books stood open and the gates unbarred.”
I quote Seamus Heaney. Cause he’s a real rock star....
I’m not, so imagine the gates are not unbarred...
Because I’m quarantined and locked out of Harvard Yard
With my ode to Radcliffe and our med school stars!

Wait! Seriously, what, as your Poet Laureate, am I supposed to do?
What is funny about a pandemic, déjà vu?
The T.V. talks back and works when it wants
“Are you there?” each Zoom call is like a séance.
So what do you do if you’re caught repeating in a déjà vu?
Maybe rediscover the past and add a touch of voodoo:

...So let’s travel back before Zoom calls and the cell phone,
Even before the Yard, was “the Yard” and Harvard’s home.
Before the Roaring Twenties and all that glamour and glitz
Before the gates were “unbarred” because they didn’t exist
And Widener and the new dorms were just completed.
Is this the déjà vu that’s being repeated?

...Back a hundred years when tea was served on a credenza.
Back to 1918, to the “Spanish Flu.” Yeah--the “Influenza.”
There were Harvard heroes... but some got fooled.
Radcliffe quarantined but Harvard briefly... opened the school.
Oops! Radcliffe wrote a feminist musical spoof to poke fun
About a group of men who fell in love with a smoking gun

Named, Ina Flue Enza, and kissed her mouth on mouth
And were quarantined in Bertum Hall renamed: the “Pest house.”
And HMS emptied out its classrooms and came through
To study each patient’s cough, sniffle and Ha-choo
And great professors like George Minot and Dean David Edsall,
Under pressure, heroes with their backs up against the wall,

#poetry #poetrycommunity #harvarduniversity #classof2021 #10kstoriesofrbb

Dear Soon to Be Graduates… I want to share joy,

Dear Soon to Be Graduates…

I want to share joy, appreciation, and an observation during this hardship on all graduating seniors, whether from high school, college, or any school, during this, our second COVID Graduation.

I don’t really remember that much about all the details of my high school graduation. But I do know that the friends I made and that school itself still shape my life with a respect for the arts and a respect for the uniqueness of the lives of the different people of that school.

My college graduation I do remember, but more because I have made new friends each year when I return to carry out my responsibilities on the “Happy Committee.” The alums on the Happy Committee put on and manage the graduation each year, so I relive the happiness of my graduation each year by helping others celebrate.

In both cases, my memories of graduation have been shaped over the years by the present more than the past.

More at the #linkinbio

#poetry #poetrycommunity #amwriting #amblogging #poetlaureate #harvarduniversity #harvardalumniassociation #10kstoriesofrbb

Deja Vu All Over Again. Dear soon to be graduates…

I want to share joy, appreciation, and an observation during this hardship on all graduating seniors, whether from high school, college, or any school, during this, our second COVID Graduation.

I don’t really remember that much about all the details of my high school graduation. But I do know that the friends I made and that school itself still shape my life with a respect for the arts and a respect for the uniqueness of the lives of the different people of that school.

My college graduation I do remember, but more because I have made new friends each year when I return to carry out my responsibilities on the “Happy Committee.” The alums on the Happy Committee put on and manage the graduation each year, so I relive the happiness of my graduation each year by helping others celebrate.

In both cases, my memories of graduation have been shaped over the years by the present more than the past.

For the last nine years, I have written a humorous, often self-mocking ode, which I read at the Spring meetings of my Alumni Association. Last year, there was no graduation because of COVID, so my ode had to be videoed outdoors and delivered by Zoom at the meeting.

This year that ritual had to be repeated again, as a “pandemic déjà vu. ..all over again.” But this time I compared the university’s response to the influenza of 1918 with its improved response to the present pandemic, in again a humorous, self-mocking effort to tell a story of joy and uniqueness.

This year, my advice to those graduating is to stay in touch with your classmates. You will find that those reunions and the evolving friendships will make these strange years even more precious even though you had to suffer through a Zoom graduation.

My guess is that you will share the humor from all of this with your classmates over time, and the bonds will grow stronger because of the uniqueness of this year—and because you survived all the craziness.

“My Hat’s Off to You!”

#poetry #poetrycommunity #poetrylovers #poetryofinstagram #harvardalumniassociation #harvarduniversity #amwriting #amblogging #10kstoriesofrbb

How dark was my dark place last week? "Two days a

How dark was my dark place last week?

"Two days ago, when I finished my first draft of a Covid Comedy about global warming, rats, bats and our place on the planet, I firmly believed my empathy had become misplaced by the pandemic.

The rats must be horribly embarrassed about dropping the ball 400 years ago, when their bubonic plague didn’t eradicate humankind once and for all. Because now, for the poor rats, it’s much worse.

The rats have been upstaged. These upstart bats are getting all the credit for COVID and the anti-homo sapiens dark web is reporting that the bats had unified all earth’s creatures for the great second global effort to liberate the planet. But the rats dropped the ball again because they are dangerously late coordinating and bringing out Bubonic 2.0.

Maybe it’s Stockholm Syndrome from eating human leftovers out of dumpsters for 100 years. I can feel their pain. After all, you are what you eat.

But think about how very sad the rats must feel now! Will they forever be remembered for being stupider than human beings who can’t stop global warming or polluting the planet or even stop killing their own kind and get vaccinated?"

#amwriting #amblogging #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealthmonth #theater #arts #writingcommunity #10kstoriesofrbb

#throwbackthursday Last week, after a dark time,

#throwbackthursday

Last week, after a dark time, I decided to call Van Dirk Fisher, an artist whom I admire greatly. I have never met Van in person. We have only met on Zoom calls but I have watched him work. He was the inspiration I needed.

The Black Experimental Theatre (BET) a.k.a. The Riant Theatre @rianttheatre, was founded in New York in 1979, as a not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization, by artistic director Van Dirk Fisher. BET is a theatre that entertains as well as teaches by nurturing and developing new works by playwrights that encompass the historic and social progression of African Americans and the contributions the Black community has made in the United States. Last October, Van directed and staged a brilliant virtual performance of my play The Grace of God & The Man Machine in anticipation of a staged performance when the NYC theaters reopen.

Van is an inspiration first and foremost, both because he has and continues to make amazing art and because he overcomes the impossible, always. I saw him cast the virtual play brilliantly and then proceed to teach the actors how to use virtual backdrops, even though they were located in different states. He was so good, he got three actors in three different locations to pass a joint as if they were sitting at the same picnic table. He created both the intimacy of theater and the close-ups of movies.

The talkback afterwards had as many as 80 people participating while he artfully directed the conversation.

During the call, Van and I talked about his theatre and his accomplishments as well as about preparing for the performance of my play at The Riant Theatre.

#amwriting #amblogging #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealthmonth #theater #arts #writingcommunity #10kstoriesofrbb

Yikes! Every day, in odd and different ways, I red

Yikes! Every day, in odd and different ways, I rediscover I am coming out of a dark place. So two days ago I needed someone I admired, someone inspirational, to show me some light.

So how bad was this bad place?

#linkinbio #10kstoriesofrbb

#newblog #sonnet #amwriting #amblogging #linkinbio

#newblog #sonnet #amwriting #amblogging #linkinbio

The Marathon Man In a world of educated guesses Ab

The Marathon Man
In a world of educated guesses
About one’s loves, integrity and health
It is my custom to keep promises,
Even if they are only to myself.

Still being a tenth of a ton and all,
With sacred dictates of my religion
Requiring too much food and alcohol,

What made me train to run a marathon?
I trained on a treadmill, March to July.
Got my first “runners high” at fifty-five.
Depleted my life’s endorphin supply,
And blew out both knees and begged to die.

Ah yes, but to Hell with all of this fun;
Next year, for sure, I’ll be ready to run.

#marathontraining #marathon #amwriting #amblogging #poetry #poetrycommunity #10kstoriesofrbb

Over 15 years ago I jumped the gun and began train

Over 15 years ago I jumped the gun and began training for the Senior Olympics.

I always had a plan. I had made my commitment, early in life, when I was in second grade. I committed the first moment that mandatory exercise was imposed at school.

I dutifully avoided strenuous exercise in order to have absolutely no injuries when I turn 90.

But I made one big mistake...

#linkinbio

#poetry #amwriting #amblogging #poetsofinstagram #10kstoriesofrbb

Sunday Accidentally Spent I’m by the pool on th

Sunday Accidentally Spent

I’m by the pool on this sunny Sunday
With my wife and two children off at church.
I’ve pulled the Bible off the shelf, on display,
From its front row center prominent perch.

I’ll read it after The New York Times.
Midway through “The Book Review” I half-see
A Monarch butterfly in the sunshine
Hold the Book like a Christian “wannabe.”

Once you hold the Times, its history.
Finished. Forgotten. Trash canned people’s dreams.
But the Bible and butterfly as extremes?
The Christian code and the fatally free?

Did the two of them touch by accident?
And was my Sunday accidentally spent?

#spring #springiscoming #springishere🌸 #sonnet #nationalpoetrymonth #poetrycommunity #poetsofinstagram #poetryisnotdead #10kstoriesofrbb
@nytimes

One of the things I love about spring is it offers

One of the things I love about spring is it offers a welcome contrast between my focused pursuit of heaven in a church with a fresh reminder that we live surrounded always by the accidental beauty of nature.

At the #linkinbio, I share another sonnet about finding the #divine in unique places!

#spring #springiscoming #springishere🌸 #sonnet #nationalpoetrymonth #poetrycommunity #poetsofinstagram #poetryisnotdead #10kstoriesofrbb

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About Robert Bowie, Jr.

Playwright and Poet Robert Bowie, Jr. of Baltimore, Maryland has had ten plays produced, including “Onaje,” which was selected for professional production at FringeNYC in October 2018. Its five sold-out FringeNYC performances received rave reviews. Other plays include “There Ain’t No Wyoming” and “Naked House Painting Society,” which were produced through The Baltimore Playwrights Festival. Bowie’s political farce “Crash & Burn P.A.” was the only submission selected by the 2016 Festival Committee for a full production at Theatrical Mining Company, Baltimore.

Currently, Bowie is working on a operetta in partnership with Mind The Art Entertainment. Entitled “Vox Populi,” it is a comical, interactive tale about the deadly sin of pride.

Bowie’s plays are focused on social justice and span a broad spectrum between drama and comedy. His subject matter ranges from plays about racial prejudice and civil rights to political farce.

Bowie is a graduate of Harvard University and is the Poet Laureate of The Harvard Alumni Association (HAA).

“Without the arts, we are a rudderless boat.”
— Robert Bowie, Jr.