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“Selah” was a play written from interviews with citizens inside the North Carolina research triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) with representation across the ideological and racial spectrums.
North Carolina’s politics have been exceptionally tumultuous, with documented voter oppression and gerrymandering, controversial means of reform, and Reverend Barber’s launch of the Repairers of the Breach campaign – an echo of MLK’s Poor People’s Campaign in the late 1960s.
In the vain of Anna Deavere Smith’s Fires in the Mirror, this project used interviews with North Carolinians who are directly involved in these issues to write a script and music for a provocative performance that allowed the audience to consider the humanity beyond party lines.
The performance allowed the audience to consider the humanity beyond party lines.
While our eventual hopes include a full production of the play, this project focused on creating an audio drama version. After completion, they hosted public listening sessions with North Carolinian audiences in areas of the state with vastly different political leanings. The intent is to foster empathy and listening that would not happen in normal forms of political activism, such as protests or social media.