Dr. Indira Etwaroo, the current CEO and Artistic Director of Harlem Stage is a woman to be reckoned with — especially when it comes to spearheading the telling of the Black people’s untold stories and the injustices they have endured and continue to endure under racist police officers and a corrupt system. She is not afraid to say that this is something that should be acknowledged and talked about.
We have to recognize where police mistreatment of Black people has been in this country, from the Freedom Riders of the 1960s to the victims of police brutality and murder through the decades and today. For this reason, when Dr. Etwaroo decided to present the production “Freedom Riders: A Journey with No End in Sight”, which she also directed, it is not surprising that this poignant play, with 12 stories of police profiling, abusing and murdering Black people, came across so raw and so brutally. The title makes a profound statement on its own. This production was trying to sound an alarm, serve as a wake-up call that something has to be done about this. This poignant, disturbing, vivid work has an adaptation by Arthur Yorinks with Zenzele Daniels and Dr. Etwaroo and was presented in partnership with The New Press.
As the audience sat in the intimate theater at Harlem Stage on 135th Street and Convent Avenue, we saw five mesmerizing, extraordinary actors perform multiple roles as they told stories of people who have been victims of police brutality, profiling, harassment, and violence, including rape. Russell Hornsby, Billy Eugene Jones, Lisa Arrindell, Stephen Tyrone Williams, and Angelica Ross (along with Harry Lennix at two performances) told the real experiences of these characters, representing Black people from around the country, often not identifying themselves by name, only telling where they were and what their encounter with the police involved. They painted a very clear picture of the humiliating, abusive interactions, at times becoming emotional. In each situation, they were guilty of driving while being Black, walking while being Black, or being in their home sleeping while being Black, as they also told the story of Breonna Taylor.
As each person stepped onto the stage, the stories would change, but the environment stayed the same. You knew you were about to see someone who was targeted by the police for no justifiable reason; someone who was degraded; a woman who was cavity searched when pulled over in her car with her brother. The car was searched, her license was run and nothing was found; neither was an apology. The production also spoke the many names of Black people who have died at the hands of the police — George Floyd, Michael Brown, Shawn Bell, Trayvon Martin and so many others — deaths for which the police received no consequences. In doing this, in saying their names, this production is making sure that their stories stay alive and in that way, they are kept alive in the memories of society.
The tension in the room was thick and the mood was heightened by the live music of pianist Arden Altino, guitarist/singer Divinity Roxx, and violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain, with a music score composed by Altino, Roxx and Romain. The technical crew was incredible and included technical director Breashel Mondesir, assistant technical director Ricardo Fernandez, theatrical visual designer Devin Cameron, associate lighting designer Cora McKenna, costume designer and prop master Jorge Rosario, audio engineer John Altino, audio assistant Gabe Wilhelm, and director of photography Tony Burns. The production played a limited run of 16 performances and was something that all people needed to see.
Many school and church groups got to experience it at Harlem Stage, and it sparked conversations there, as it did at the universities it was performed at — in the South. This is such an important step in shouting out this program and getting a dialogue to begin. As Dr. Etwaroo proclaims in the program, this story is important because art is important in the way that it addresses issues in society. “We meet this moment not with routine, but with urgency. The urgency for one of humanity’s oldest and most unflinching instruments of truth: The telling of stories.”
One thing that I truly appreciated seeing in the playbill was that Dr. Etwaroo had her company perform this production at churches and HBCUs taking the production on the bus and retracing in reverse the path of the Freedom Riders, honoring the Great Migration, performing the show in Montgomery, Atlanta, Georgia, Greensboro, North Carolina and eventually coming to Harlem to their theater home.
What Dr. Etwaroo is doing at Harlem Stage is something that we should all want to find out more about. To do so, visit HarlemStage.org.