andre n jones

I have always been an artist. From the time I could handle a crayon, pencil or pen I was always looking for ways to express myself. It’s always been my dream to paint, sculpt, or write things that would leave a lasting impression on the world. Little did I know that there was so much more to my dream. Being the youngest of four children, when I was growing up in West Philadelphia, I was exposed to theater at the playhouse in the park and all kinds of live art from visual art exhibits to classical concerts and performance art at an early age. My mother and father were both teachers. They demanded that we speak correct English. But, my chief influence was my paternal grandmother. Mrs. Irene Jones. A retired domestic, who also was one of the first female Co-Pastors in the AME Church in Philadelphia, she instilled in me the gift of wisdom. She gave me my fascination with stories and the African Griots. She taught me about my Great grandfather and the Moors. She insisted that her maiden name, Moore, came from the Moorish people. She would teach me how to sing my pain as a story. She’d weave spirituals with old wive’s tales and history. Her knowledge, wit and home spun ability to teach lessons through story shaped a large part of my intellectual thought processes. She also left an indelible mark on my spiritual life. Through her I learned to throw a lesson along side of a story, which she attributed to the teaching style of Jesus of Nazareth. I became enthralled with how to see spiritual principles and convey them in common experiences. The journey to self-awareness had begun. The arts were a natural place for me to explore and question the world. In High school, I was an Art Major. Through the discipline of visual art I learned not only how to see and interpret but I began to have a scientific method of understanding all subjects. I began to blossom as a student. I could see relationships between abstractions of history, science and language and the present reality. I.e. I understood correlations between music and math, negative space/shape and geometry and even Shakespeare’s verse and rhyme cuplits to the command of the use of language and Standard English. Then in college, at Cheyney University, I learned how to control and manipulate both the visual art and my story telling ability as an actor under the tutelage of Edythe Scott-Bagley. It was there I learned to be intentional with how lines were delivered, how a set would be designed or crafted and how lighting affects the mood and/or weight of a scene. There, while designing sets, lighting, sound and learning the history of theater and acting, my gifts were converted into skills, which are the foundation of my artistic practice. That foundation has allowed me to be able to craft together my own theater company. It has allowed me to embrace my history, my skills set and my design. At Temple University, I had the opportunity to refine my writing skill even further. Having access to reference points, from Aristophanes to Ben Johnson and from Friedrich Schiller to Lynn Nottage, to choose from and experiment with different ways to tell a story. So now, here on my grandmother’s shoulders and my education I stand. I’ve become a singer/songwriter, poet, visual artist, playwright, actor and historic storyteller and activist. I am the legacy of my grandmother’s toil, my own exploration, research and immersion in plays and playwriting at Temple and Professor Edythe Scott-Bagley’s instruction. I have been entrusted with their wisdom, gifts and my own creativity to inform, beautify and enrich the world. That is my mission. That is my design. That is Andre N. Jones.

In a time where crime is high, murder justifies productivity, political prowess and profit, messiness requires the miraculous. Probity is preferred over prejudice. Yet, society continues to be choked by the weeds of greed, corruption and divination. As evil principalities drive humans to indulge in all things pleasure- full, the obsession of a few... An unwitting drug addicted Hero, a detective, five strangers, a Hip-hop influenced archeologist and his cantankerous best friend, along with the keeper of the eternal flame, find themselves battling for the soul of the city, they all call home. As their lives intersect, the world expands. And suddenly, the fuse of the proverbial dynamite is lit. There is no way to stop the explosive convergence of good and evil forces present in the NuBirth Comix Universe. Our first title, M introduces us to an all to familiar occurrence... The set up of an African American for a crime he did not commit, in an effort to continue the profitability of corrupt politricks, human trafficking, drug trafficking, underground sport slave rings, misogyny and much more. From there, investigations and interventions of a reborn entity and a band of misfits filled with righteous indignation, interweave a network of stories in fantastic episodes of intelligence, thrilling action and feats of extreme bravery in the face of emanant danger.