happy to do so." In an interview with Reuben Silver of Karamu, Hughes said: "It is a cultural shame that a great country like America, with twenty million people of color, has no primarily serious colored theatre. There isn't. Karamu is the very nearest thing to it...It not only should a Negro theatre, if we want to use that term, do plays by and about Negroes, but it should do plays slanted toward the community in which it exists. It should be in a primarily Negro community since that is the way our racial life in America is still...It should not be a theatre that should be afraid to do a Negro folk play about people who are perhaps not very well-educated because some of the intellectuals, or "intellectuals" in quotes, are ashamed of such material" By 1940, according to his biographer Arnold Rampersad, "Langston consigned all his skits and sketches, divided into three classes—Negro Social, Negro, Negro Non-Social, and white—to his agent, and told him Cafe Society, an interracial cabaret founded in New York by Barney Josephson, was planning a revue. Hughes sent twenty skits, including, Run, Ghost, Run. He also sent a copy to Karamu; there is no record that the revue was staged there or anywhere. Three of those skits appear here in print for the first time. Throughout his life, Hughes added to the program with many short satirical skits. Recent Karamu offers art experiences for people of all ages through a variety of programs. The three primary program areas are the Early Childhood Development Center, the Center of Arts and Education, and the Karamu Performing Arts Theatre. In 2020, Karamu House presented Freedom on Juneteenth, written by Tony F. Sias, Latecia D Wilson, and Mary E Weems; an event commemorating the end of slavery, June 19, 1865, in the United States. Freedom on Juneteenth originally was created to celebrate the music of Bill Withers, but was adapted due to the passing of George Floyd. Awards On December 17, 1982, Karamu was listed in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, and received an Ohio Historical Marker on June 16, 2003. Notable alumniActingBill Cobbs (born June 16, 1934) - film, television, stage, directing, master workshops Minnie Gentry (1915–1993) — a Broadway, film and television actress Robert Guillaume (1927 - 2017) — a film, stage and television actor best known for starring — in the late 1970s–mid