QUESTION Do you think descendants of enslaved Africans deserve reparations?
- Two hundred fifty years of slavery?
- Ninety years of Jim Crow?
- Sixty years of separate but "equal?"
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35 years of racist housing policies?
OUR MISSION
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Image: freeblackspace
I say, “Yes, reparations are in order.” That is why my partners and I are on a mission to produce the play Reparations at the DC Black Theatre Festival in Washington, DC in June. We are using this theatrical vehicle to promote a national dialogue on healing and reconciliation based on truth. One of the most effective ways to touch the minds and souls of people is through the arts. Reparations is the perfect theatrical vehicle for audiences to experience this raging debate.
ABOUT THE PLAY
Reparations is a musical dramedy that explores the reparations debate with style, humor and a spirit of transformation. Horton Tense, a successful lawyer takes a case defending an insurance provider whose ancestor company insured slave ships, enslaved Africans and convict leasing victims. He encounters an Ancestor Spirit, Imhotep, whose mission is to redirect his lost soul, but what happens when divine intervention meets with modern notions of success? What happens when one must find the courage to relinquish the trappings of success to embrace a legacy of struggle and resilience? Reparations is thought provoking and bold theatrical experience that will leave audiences laughing, singing and thinking.
FUNDRAISING GOAL
$16,000
WHERE WILL THE MONEY GO?
$5,000 – Actors and rehearsal costs
$2,500 – Producer
$3,000 – Musical Director and Musicians
$2,000 – Director
$2,000 – Printing/Mailing
$1,500 – Indiegogo Fundraising Coordinator
IT'S EASY: YOU MAKE A DONATION AND YOU RECEIVE A PERK!
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Check out the column on the right to find a level of giving that works for you and a perk you'd like to receive. We're offering some great rewards; each named for a period in Black History. Once the funding window is completed, we will thank you on our website, Facebook and Twitter, and ship all the other goodies by mail.
YOUR GENEROUS DONATION WILL HELP US
- Present Reparations in Washington, DC
- Present a concert reading of Reparations in New York City in late 2015
- Promote a discussion on healing and reconciliation based on truth
- Expose the play to potential financial backers and sponsors
- Connect young performers to a legacy of social activism
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Utilize the arts as a vehicle for community engagement
HOW WILL COMMUNITIES BENEFIT?
Participate in a post-show discussion on healing and reconciliation with a panel of noted scholars that will help:
- Recover ancestral memory
- Affirm the humanity of those who endured and fought against slavery and Jim Crow
- Provide some sense of historical location for descendants of enslaved Africans
- Learn strategies to promote healing and reconciliation based on truth
- Learn strategies to help repair the damage done to White Americans on a heart level and African Americans on a spiritual level
- Join a growing social justice movement aimed at changing mindsets from “their children” to “our children” and “those people” to “my people.”
WHAT ARE THE RISKS
In the event that we do not hit our fundraising target the concert reading will still go on with the necessary adjustments to budget and personnel.
Your donation will allow artists, musicians and scholars to touch communities on a heart level and push them into action, turn up the volume on a collective voice that cries out for truth and justice, and contributes to a play that supports the growing international movement for reparations.
