Please Note: Seating is first come, first serve.

This powerful and thought provoking series of monologues explores African American experiences with institutional profiling. Inspired by the shootings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and John Crawford III in Beavercreek, Ohio, these seven perspectives delve into the challenges of law enforcement and violence in our society. Raw, passionate, and deeply personal; these stories examine the civic discord around equity and civil rights in America today. An audience engagement period will follow each performance, enabling all interested in participating in a larger conversation. August Wilson Red Door Project’s production of The New Black Fest’s Hands Up: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments comes to Tacoma from Portland, Oregon, and is presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.

The 7 testaments include:

•Superiority Fantasy by Nathan James

•Holes in My Identity by Nathan Yungerberg

•They Shootin! Or I Ain’t Neva Scared by Iris Goodwin

•Dead of Night… The Execution of… by Nami E. Kelley

•Abortion by Nsangou Njikam

•Walking Next to Michael Brown by Eric Holmes

•How I Feel by Dennis Allen II

This is a free event, and the entire community is invited to attend. Broadway Center and our partners are committed to understanding the perspectives of all relationships in our community, our citizens, and our law enforcement. These monologues expand on and complement the City of Tacoma’s previous efforts in Project PEACE, a community-wide effort to strengthen relationships between local communities of color and law enforcement.

We will be working with local police officers and others to create a subsequent event that will explore the experiences of police caught in the line of fire or physically threatened while in the course of duty. The results of that exploration will be shared in a community forum and performance to be scheduled in Fall 2017.

“Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength.” – AUGUST WILSON