ThoughtGallery.org > International Human Rights Art Festival Performance: Mary Speaks

International Human Rights Art Festival Performance: Mary Speaks

Mary Speaks gives a voice to African-American mothers through history and looks at a spiritual lineage stretching from one of the most famous figures in the New Testament.

“Mary Speaks takes the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and uses it to explore the history of black mothers and the loss of their sons,” Polite says. “Mother Mary becomes a prototype for the struggle of black mothers to raise and keep their sons alive in a society where his very existence is seen as a threat.”

The show points to the parallels between the story of Jesus Christ and many innocent African-American boys and men whose lives have been lost.

The one woman show presents Mary not just as metaphor, but seeks to imagine or re-imagine her as a real person at different moments in history when mothers face loss.

“I play her as an African-American woman,” Polite says. “This is the story of Mary told through the African-American experience, from the 1900s ,coming out of slavery, into the lynching years, the thirties, the fifties and the sixties. We see Mary as these different women throughout the timeline of the African-American experience.”

Written and Performed by Angela Polite

Directed by Christopher Burns











When: Sat., Mar. 4, 2017 at 1:30 pm
Where: Dixon Place
161A Chrystie St.
212-219-0736
Price: $10
Buy tickets/get more info now
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Mary Speaks gives a voice to African-American mothers through history and looks at a spiritual lineage stretching from one of the most famous figures in the New Testament.

“Mary Speaks takes the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and uses it to explore the history of black mothers and the loss of their sons,” Polite says. “Mother Mary becomes a prototype for the struggle of black mothers to raise and keep their sons alive in a society where his very existence is seen as a threat.”

The show points to the parallels between the story of Jesus Christ and many innocent African-American boys and men whose lives have been lost.

The one woman show presents Mary not just as metaphor, but seeks to imagine or re-imagine her as a real person at different moments in history when mothers face loss.

“I play her as an African-American woman,” Polite says. “This is the story of Mary told through the African-American experience, from the 1900s ,coming out of slavery, into the lynching years, the thirties, the fifties and the sixties. We see Mary as these different women throughout the timeline of the African-American experience.”

Written and Performed by Angela Polite

Directed by Christopher Burns

Buy tickets/get more info now