Emotionally-Charged COPS AND ROBBERS: HUNTER POETRY Comes to Berkeley 11/10

Jinho "The Piper" Ferreira returns to The Marsh Berkeley this November with his hard-hitting solo show Cops and Robbers: Hunter Poetry, in a revised production that includes musician WolfHawkJaguar and his band, live on stage. A piercing look into the dysfunctional relationship between law enforcement, the media, and the black community, Cops and Robbers: Hunter Poetry explores an officer-involved shooting and its devastating effects. Writer/performer Ferreira takes the viewer on an emotionally-charged ride with unexpected twists and turns, as he seamlessly travels through 17 characters, each with his or her own convictions, logic, and prejudices. Piper's driving performance is now scored with traditional African spiritual music, to fill out the emotional journey for audiences who often leave the theatre overwhelmed by this unflinching look deep into the workings of modern law enforcement.

Cops and Robbers: Hunter Poetry will play November 10-December 9, 2017 (press opening: November 18) with performances 8pm Fridays, 8:30pm Saturdays at The Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way, Berkeley. For tickets ($20-$35 sliding scale, $55-$100 reserved), the public may visit www.themarsh.org or call The Marsh box office at 415-282-3055 (open 1pm-4pm, Monday through Friday).

This solo tour-de-force made national news, selling out its entire original run and three extensions at The Marsh Berkeley in the fall of 2014, and it played for extended runs in San Francisco and Berkeley in 2015. Declared "more than an evening at the theater, it's a discussion on difficult issues clearly designed to prompt openness, honest, and a world where justice isn't common" by the San Francisco Examiner, Ferreira takes no prisoners as he challenges the viewer to question all preconceived notions of justice in Cops and Robbers. Since its last run at The Marsh, Piper has developed the piece to include music from WolfHawkJaguar's "Hunter Poetry" to perform throughout the show.

Jinho "The Piper" Ferreira is a rapper, actor, writer, and law enforcement officer from Oakland, California. His alternative hip-hop band Flipsyde has toured internationally with artists such as Snoop Dogg, The Black Eyed Peas, Akon, The Game, and more. Flipsyde has written anthems for both the Winter and Summer Olympics. In 2009, Piper won the Creative Promise Award for screenwriters at the Tribeca Film Festival with his CIA thriller: Walter's Boys. Appalled by the death of Oscar Grant at the hands of BART police in Oakland at the Fruitvale station, Piper paid his own way through a Bay Area law enforcement academy in the spring of 2010. He graduated in the top percentile, delivered the commencement speech at graduation, and was offered an opportunity to be the change he wanted to see. In January 2011, Piper became an Alameda County Deputy Sheriff.

He joined the Youth and Family Services Bureau Crime Prevention Unit, and along with his co-workers, helping to create what the community development investment organization ArtPlace America describes as "one of the most progressive units in the country." The paradox of being a member of the Black community and a hip-hop artist, while simultaneously working in Law Enforcement, served as the inspiration to write Cops and Robbers. He wrote a screenplay version of Cops and Robbers and was it accepted into the 2017 Sundance Screenwriter's Lab. He was also a scholarship recipient for a performance workshop with Anna Deavere Smith at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Says Ferreira, "When I wrote this play, it was therapy for me, exploring the completely dysfunctional relationship between the black community and law enforcement, as well as the very real role that media plays. Now that I have performed this work before thousands of people, I have seen how deeply it affects audiences and made revisions so that it gives back more, and can become therapy for them as well. It's a different world, we're at a different level of consciousness now, and more than ever we need to connect."

Passion and spirit directly influence the music of the multi-talented Urban World Music artist WolfHawkJaguar. His music stirs the soul with a mixture of spirituality, raptured in the heart of Orisa, Hip Hop, Reggae, Rhythm and Blues. Currently residing in Oakland, the California native is a prolific musician, actor and award-winning film maker. In Cops and Robbers, he will be joined on stage by percussionist Kele Nitoto and vocalist Rashida Chase, creating traditional African spiritual music, offering a soulful balm to audiences swept up by Ferreira's emotionally-charged tale.

The Marsh is known as "a breeding ground for new performance." It was launched in 1989 by Founder and Artistic Director Stephanie Weisman, and now annually hosts more than 600 performances of 175 shows across the company's two venues in San Francisco and Berkeley. A leading outlet for solo performers, The Marsh's specialty has been hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as "solo performances that celebrate the power of storytelling at its simplest and purest." The East Bay Times named The Marsh one of Bay Area's best intimate theaters, calling it "one of the most thriving solo theaters in the nation. The live theatrical energy is simply irresistible."

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