One to the blade and one to the handle

I cracked and watched Spike Lee's Pass Over (Icons passim) even though we are going to see Paapa in it after he opens this week in the Kiln theatre.

Lee put the original Steppenwolf production onto celluloid and author Antoinette Nwandu talks about it above. Three minutes thirty in she is brilliant.

This play asks us, collectively, to consider the value of black lives
Specifically, the value of the lives of young black men
And I would say the value of the lives of young black men
Who are not special
Who are not entertainers
They're not athletes
They're not secret maths geniuses
They might never get better
They might never be different
But to entertain the possibility that we need to live in a society
that does not ask these young  men to prove their worth.

Our rugby club lost two boys a couple of years ago and we still haven't got over it; one to the blade and one to the handle. A victim and a perpetrator. Ben knew 'em both.