We’re all so used to settling into our cushiony seats at a play with the introductory words, “Sit back. Relax. And enjoy the show.”
Sharia Benn, director/founder and executive artistic director of Sankofa African American Theatre Company, invites us to instead “Sit up,” and “Lean in.”
It’s in the same spirit in which we are invited to approach the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday as a day on, not a day off.
To celebrate Black History Month, Sankofa Theatre and Gamut Theatre collaborate to present “Voices of the Eighth Chronicles II: Stories from Harrisburg’s Old Eighth Ward,” the second installment of stories from the once-flourishing and diverse Eighth Ward neighborhood, whose citizens were ousted and homes demolished to make room for the Capitol Complex in the early 1900s.
Picking up the thread dropped at the end of the first installment, Benn, also the playwright, feels it’s important to unpack and correct the narratives others have been fed throughout history.
One standing narrative about the Eighth Ward is plaited as a poor, unsanitary, violent and crime-infested neighborhood, where nothing good could come. Instead, Sankofa presents vignettes of upstanding citizens in a diverse, thriving neighborhood, pulsating with political activism—passionate early suffragettes (Abby Carroll), the Freedom Seekers and the Underground Railroad chugging through it.
Intertwined throughout this play’s theme, dialogue, and setting are images of slaves weaving textiles on a loom, picking cotton, and feeling something stirring from their ancestors who did the same. If you look closely at the backdrop, you’ll see colorful textiles swirling together but not cohesively interlaced. If you take a step back and look at the whole tapestry, you’ll see some hidden images. (I never could master Magic Eye, so I had to rely on my plus-one to tell me what they were.)
“We are individual strands woven together in history, with things in the fabric of American history that have affected many different humans,” Benn said.
A recurring image and main character is the Sankofa (Jimmy Kohlmann), a mystical, majestic bird with its head turned backwards to look at the past, helping us to embrace, own and process our present, helping us to move forward. The Sankofa bird soundlessly flutters through each scene, over every interaction, informing the story about slavery and sometimes the double whammy of being a Black woman during that time period.
With no instruments other than their voices, ensemble cast actors Sydney Crutcher, Latreshia Lilly and James Mitchell harmonize a cappella vocals in clever arrangements while rhythmically dancing, keeping time by stomping the floor. (Cierra Woods, choreography; Alexander Owens, sound designer). Particularly convicting are the traditional Black gospel hymns, “Wade in the Water,” “I Open My Mouth to the Lord,” “Amazing Grace,” “This Little Light of Mine,” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
This play is the sequel to the first installment that ran last February. Although I usually keep comparisons to other works out of scope, I think it’s important for audiences to feel grounded in what will become an evolving body of work.
When I watched the first installment, I jammed probably more learning into my old noggin than it could hold at once. That thick historical tapestry was like shag carpeting folded over six times.
Because this second installment is geared toward elementary-aged children, Benn made a good call to make this play simpler, shorter and easier for that age group to absorb. Knitted together with moving imagery, intuitive rhythms and vibrant colors, the story fragments feel more like the carpet squares kids sit on at circle time.
Still, I would have liked to meet just a few more characters from the Eighth Ward. Mentioned were the local historical figures with elementary schools named after them: Foose, Scott, and Marshall—prime candidates for kids to meet “in person.”
State Rep. Patty Kim said, “As a lawmaker working on the grounds of the Eighth Ward, the site of the Underground Railroad, I should be an abolitionist.”
With so many threads to unfurl and pieces to unravel, Benn acknowledged that most audience members would be white.
“We didn’t call you here to entertain you,” she said. “You were called to make an informed choice, to get engaged, to learn. Peace comes when we pick up the pieces and put them back together in a way that makes us stronger.”
“Voices of the Eighth Chronicles II” runs Feb. 3 to 12 at Gamut Theatre. Find more information at https://www.gamuttheatre.org/vote. Also check out Digital Harrisburg for more stories from the Old Eighth Ward, and to see the virtual exhibit: https://digitalharrisburg.com/exhibits/eighthward.
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