I'm Not Getting On Until Jim Crow Gets Off!

I’m Not Getting On Until Jim Crow Gets Off!

Teen & Women Activists in the Montgomery Bus Boycott

I’m Not Getting On Until Jim Crow Gets Off is an interactive performance and dialog on a watershed moment in U.S. History, the Montgomery Bus Boycott and its significance in advancing democracy in the United States. The oral histories on the women in the Montgomery movement are presented through a talking timeline that lets the audience reclaim this herstory in collective memory.

Different historical players’ voices and stories weave the historical narrative. By interacting with the audience, Awele deconstructs (and the audience explores) the complexities of this layered her/ history and together they link it to contemporary themes and issues.

Audiences are given opportunities to collaboratively build working definitions of key concepts presented in the performance, to discuss content with their peers and with the researcher/writer/storyteller, and to interview characters about their motivations. The program concludes with the creation of a human sculpture / image theatre (by volunteers from the audience) to celebrate the role of women as leaders and foot soldiers in the freedom struggle.

Historical Links:
13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments; Reconstruction Black Codes and Laws; Plessy v. Ferguson; Brown v. Board of Education; Gandhian Nonviolent Resistance; Direct Action; Some Core Values of Democracy; The African American Freedom Struggle; The Beloved Community. Resources at http://www.awele.com

“Awele Makeba walks the invisible bridge between storytelling and art.”
Pat Holt, former Book Review Editor, San Francisco Chronicle

STORYTELLER • ACTOR • VOICEOVER ARTIST

Awele (ah WAY lay) Makeba is an award winning and internationally known actor, emerging playwright, storyteller, recording artist and educator. She is a “truth-teller” and an artist for social change. She researches, writes, and performs hidden African American history. She invites audiences to wrestle with complex and emotionally laden issues that teach us about our common humanity, potential, and our purpose for “being” in the world. She provides opportunities for audiences to grapple with the meaning of their own lives as they make meaning of past lives.

The 90 minute show is sponsored by the Williams College Multicultural Center.