UPSTANDERS ONSTAGE:
Performances for Social Change

Mayerson JCC Parking Lot
8485 Ridge Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45236
Sunday, May 23
Seating Opens at 5:15 p.m.
Event Starts at 6 p.m.

Welcome and Introduction
Host: Piper N. Davis
Throughout the evening, Piper will provide insight and interactive activities around the work being presented.

Monologue For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf
Playwright: Ntozake Shange
Performer: Jasimine Bouldin
For Colored Girls is an absolute masterclass in poetry and movement. Ntozake Shange’s masterpiece tells the survival stories of seven women of color as they grow through a world created by sexism and racism.

Music Set by Khari
Cincinnati-based music artist Khari will present approximately 10 minutes of original songs.

• “Numb” is a song that touches on the mental obstacles faced by Black people in America when it comes to seeing trauma due to police brutality and violence. This song was written with a feeling of helplessness and anxiety.
• “Young & Black” is a song that was written out of rage. This song aims to embrace the anger and the power that comes with being Black in America.

Poem — Reading an Article on Another Slaying
Writer and Performer: Camille Jones
This poem was written out of necessity. After the initial reporting on Daunte Wright’s shooting in the midst of the Chauvin Trial for George Floyd’s murder, I felt almost a numbness manifested in rote behavior: wake up, go to work, go to rehearsal, go home, avoid turning on the TV. Despite going through the motions, I was unable to stop thinking about the tragedy of these deaths, about the disappointment in police and citizen interactions across the country. So, while at work, I came across an article in my emails wherein the author drew a connection between Wright and Floyd — both murdered in the same city and looking to their mothers for comfort. This haunting parallel immediately made me think of my older brothers and the infuriating reality that their lives are in danger just as much as Floyd’s and Wright’s were; that my brothers would have called out for our mama. Therefore, I needed to bring that daunting truth to light in the hopes that these words will bring humanity to the slain, to make others think of Floyd and Wright as their own brothers.

Dramaturgical Information and Activities
Host: Piper N. Davis

Monologue from Pesach in Auschwitz: A Father's Story
Playwright: Aviva Woznica
Adapted by: Zak Lempert
Performer: Adelyn Helms
A story of suffering and faith, this monologue tells the tale of a minyan of 10 men celebrating the holiday of Pesach as the tyranny and torture of Auschwitz surrounds them. The strength and conviction to their faith these 10 men possessed brought what little comfort it could to the entire camp of Jewish men, women and children.

Music Set by Aprina Johnson
Cincinnati-based music artist Aprina Johnson will present approximately 10 minutes of original songs.

• "Flicker" — Honing the ability to shine through our most desperate times.
• "Your Luv" — How does the world change?! By your unique ability to love?!

Monologue from The Twunny Fo’
Playwright: A.J. Baldwin
Performer: Jasimine Bouldin
The Twunny Fo’, written by Cincinnati local A.J. Baldwin, covers the gentrification of a neighborhood through the lens of third-shift workers at a recently gentrified gas station. In the piece being shared tonight, Baldwin’s character Rissa discusses her true calling in life and why she works at a gas station even after finding that calling.

Poem — What Continues After Sunset
Writer and Performer: Camille Jones
A poem about unrealized freedom. This poem was written to demonstrate the residual affects of slavery in America. How some freed slaves, so indoctrinated by fear, perhaps and surely by white supremacist ideals about African peoples and servitude, did not immediately accept the idea of their legal freedom as they knew nothing of the word; only the Southern heat, crop fields, and waiting for the slow sun to dip into the earth and disappear. This poem articulates my own fears about unrealized potential and freedom that goes unused.

Dramaturgical Information and Activities
Host: Piper N. Davis

Monologue from The Vagina Monologues
Playwright: Eve Ensler
Performer: Adylen Helms
The Vagina Monologues is an episodic work covering sex, body image and other prevalent topics to women. These stories are told through the perspective of women from various ages, races, sexualities and walks of life. All you really need to know about this particular monologue is the title: MY ANGRY VAGINA, and that says it all. In this monologue, Ensler rails against the practices created for her vagina that do not seem to service her in any way.

Music Set by Khari
Cincinnati-based music artist Khari will present approximately 10 minutes of original songs.

• “The Riddle” is a conceptual song that serves as a think piece for gentrification and the displaying of people from their homes.
• “Pseudobulbar” is a song that touches on the masking of pain. Often, Black people experience struggle and plight, and have to hide those feelings of sadness. Instead we try to smile through the pain.

Monologue from I Am Not Safe
Playwright: Derek J. Snow
Performer: Keisha Kemper
Written by Cincinnati local Derek J. Snow, I Am Not Safe opens with a personal history lesson from a grandmother. In this monologue, Snow’s character, Margaret, speaks on her own experiences and troubles finding an identity in a world telling her that who she is needs to change. As she grows that search for identity it turns to fear of those who would strip it from her.

Poem — Sweet Hollering
Writer and Performer: Camille Jones
This is the first poem ever written about my dad and the challenging and confusing paradox of loving and sometimes hating a man who hurts the woman you love most in the world: mama. I treasure this poem for its catharsis in writing it. This poem was the first poem that ever freed my lips to speak on the abuse I witnessed as a child and how my frustrations manifested from a child-like perspective. “Sweet Hollering” is quite literally my childhood-self hollering to be heard from within my adult form. Now that adulthood has granted me the tools to heal that childhood trauma, I feel that this poem can hopefully help others who have been shackled by the wounds of yesteryears.

Dramaturgical Information and Activities
Host: Piper N. Davis

Scene from Detroit 67’
Playwright: Dominique Morisseau
Performers: Jasimine Bouldin and Adelyn Helms
Detroit 67’ tells the story of two siblings at odds with each other who take in a woman off the street, backlit by the riots that overwhelmed the city of Detroit during the summer of 1967. This scene takes place near the conclusion of the script and discusses the lines drawn that divide our society into pieces.

Music set by Aprina Johnson
Cincinnati-based music artist Aprina Johnson will present approximately 10 minutes of covered songs.

• Waiting on the World to Change (John Mayer)
• Brother (Need to Breathe)

Monologue from Fannie
Playwright: Cheryl L. West
Performer: Kiesha Kemper
Fannie covers the story of civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hammer as she organizes and leads a protest rally. This particular monologue is Fannie’s closing words at said rally as she tries to remind those in attendance of what hate has done to us and what America could be.

Poem — A Refrain for Robert
Writer and Performer: Camille Jones
This poem is for my brother, Robert. Of the four of my mama’s children, Robert and I would butt heads the most because we are so much alike. Growing up, Robert was so daring, defiant, resilient, and seemingly fearless. I now understand that much of that defiance came from desperation, a cry for help. As an adult, Robert has forgotten much of that unwavering grit which saddens me. And like a poet, I had to release that sadness onto the page. By writing this poem, I hope to breathe light back into the dimmed lantern heart of Robert and remind him that all the power he possessed while riding bikes for country miles and venturing into the unknown dangers of the woods to catch frogs and lizards still lives inside and belongs to him.

Closing
Host: Piper N. Davis