"Delilah is a Badass Mama with a revolutionary agenda," explains sultry, feline
actress N'Bushe Wright -- her lithe dancer's body languidly curled in a chair
at New York's nibble-and-been-seen restaurant, Time Cafe. "She believes love
can change the world by any means necessary. Too bad she had to die for it."
Luckily, the young actress discussing her upcoming role in the Hughes Brothers
(Menace II Society) film, Dead Presidents, is very much alive -
and so is her acting career. Set in the late 60's, the Disney film is a
living-just-for-the-city drama that takes the ghetto genre to a higher level
with its lush cinematography and documentary-style rawness. Twenty-five-year
old N'Bushe (pronounced Na-boo-shay), whose name means 'godly one' in Swahili,
plays Delilah Benson, a Black Panther sister trying to "uplift the People." In
her efforts to enlighten Anthony Curtis (played by Menace star Larenz
Tate) -- a disillusioned Vietnam vet who returns to the Boogie-down Bronx
without a j.o.b. -- Delilah, however, gets caught up in an armored car heist
('dead presidents' in street lingo means cold, hard cash) and loses her life.
"Delilah is definitely the strongest character I've ever played," says Wright
who has been making a steady ascent to the top in her short, three-year acting
career. "I read the first part of Elaine Brown's A Taste of Power to
see what it was like being a female Panther back then and it just blew my mind.
They were so committed to changing the Black plight in this country."
Growing up in do-or-die Bed-Stuy, Wright isn't exactly a stranger to the ghetto
situation. "It wasn't until I visited another part of the country recently
that I realized how intense it is living in New York. As much as I love living
here, sometimes it feels like living in the midst of hell." Luckily, Wright is
the product of two very gifted and grounded parents. Her father,
Suleiman-Marim is a jazz musician and her mother is a pyschologist for the Board
of Education. As a teenager, Wright had her sights set on dance, attending the
High School for Performing Arts in Manhattan before studying with the
prestigious Alvin Ailey and Martha Graham companies. "I use a lot of what I
learned as a dancer with acting. The sense of movement, the fluidity and
especially the discipline are still very much a part of me," explains Wright.
