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A huey p. newton story cast1/17/2024 Internal party struggles, violent incidents (many tied to FBI harassment), ac-tivist milestones, et al., are at most alluded to. But aside from reciting the Black Panthers’ famous early 10-point program list of demands (benefiting all black citizens) from the government, Newton here evades direct commentary on his tumultuous Panther years. His chain-smoking memory-rap drifts from bittersweet Oakland childhood memories to prison incarceration. Smith remains seated in a chair on a platform throughout, rising just once to pantomime a frantic shadow-boxing dance that evolves into substance-withdrawal spasms. More shading would be welcome, befitting a figure then (and now) vilified as a gangster by some whites while cast in the visionary martyr role by many African-Americans. (Newton died in 1989, shot to death in a street confrontation evidently related to crack addiction.) While undeniably compelling to watch, this slant tends to underline the negative aspects of Newton’s legacy at the expense of his achievements. Whatever time period or subject he’s addressing, his Huey is a jittery, wrecked man at tether’s end. Smith retains that restlessness, but now heightens it via nonstop vocal and physical tics. Such intimacy gave a sense that we were eavesdropping on a mind’s freeform reflection bursts of oratory fervor and drug-addled ranting seemed all the more startling as contrast. But in some ways, the rawer “Story” seen before was more complexly fascinating: Smith then offered a Newton whose frequent silences and low-volume utterings implied personal disquietude over his clashing public personae.
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