The American Slavery Project presents
BLACK WOMEN & THE BALLOT:
3 Short Radio Dramas
Civic Ensemble is proud to support The American Slavery Project's virtual production of Black Women & The Ballot: 3 Short Radio Dramas.
This performance brings together a stellar line up of playwrights and performers including two amazing artists that we've had the pleasure
of working with; Judy Tate and Saviana Stanescu.
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The American Slavery Project is a theatrical response to revisionism in American discourse about enslavement and its aftermath, Jim Crow. ASP centers African American writers who write about the era, develops original work, creates conversation in the community, educates and makes vital connections between our past and the current era. Black Women and the Ballot interrogates the American relationship to Black women and voting in this 100th anniversary year of Women's Suffrage.
In their commitment to creating conversation in the community, rather than the conventional "talkback" ASP centers the conversation so that the distance between actor and audience is lessened and the conversation is incorporated into the art.​
In the Parlour: On the eve of the historic 1913 Women’s March for votes, young Howard University student, Edna Brown stitches up walking skirts for her sisters of the newly formed sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, to wear. But when she learns that the famous white suffragette, Alice Paul, the march’s organizer has other plans, she gets help from the formidable Mary Church Terrell and the shrewd president of the Alpha Kappa Alpha, Sorority, Inc. It is a battle of wit and will in this original imagining of a very true story.
Don't/Dream: On election day, an undocumented immigrant housekeeper, burdened with endless chores, fantasizes about voting and tries to make sense of her entitled employers' obsessions.
Pulling the Lever: Three generations of Black Women remember their most important experiences voting.
The 3 Plays:
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To view the June 19 livestream performance
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The American Slavery Project thanks the following partners for their support and contributions:
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Civic Ensemble, Crossroads Theatre Company, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Ensemble Studio Theatre, HartBeat Ensemble, Liberation Theatre Company, and Sheen Center for Thought and Culture.