Feb. 15, 2008

Pellissippi State students present play of African-American history

Under the bushy gray brows are eyes glistening with passion.

Robert Boyd has a message, and he hopes his play, “An American Journey,” will help get the message out.

Boyd is an associate English professor at Pellissippi State Technical Community College. The public is invited to see his account of the African-American journey from slavery to Civil Rights.

The play, part of Pellissippi State’s Black History Month celebration, will be presented at 10:30 a.m. Feb. 20 in the Community Room of the college’s Magnolia Avenue Campus. The performance will be done in the “reader’s theatre” style, with emphasis placed on the text rather than on action.

The event is free, and parking is available behind the campus.

Boyd says he wants to make the point that all Americans need to understand American history.

“Come, let’s take a journey, an historical journey,” the play begins. “Join us as we read from yellowed pages of American history books … books hidden from mind and sight.”

“Most people don’t realize that the first Africans to arrive here weren’t slaves,” he said. “They were free. They came a year before the Pilgrims, so there’s no division between American history and African-American history.

“Another thing that people don’t realize is that Europeans didn’t go over and kidnap the slaves. They were sold by African chiefs because of tribal wars.”

Boyd wrote “An American Journey” several years ago, basing it on “From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans” by John Hope Franklin.

According to Franklin, says Boyd, the chiefs didn’t know that the practice of slavery in America was different from slavery in Africa.

“Very few people realize how these slaves were brought over,” Boyd said. “They were stacked side to side like cardboard. For every hundred that began the journey, only 10 percent survived. They weren’t considered human—they were cargo.”

For the Pellissippi State presentation, he has turned over the reins of both directing and reading to students at the Magnolia Avenue Campus.

“They’re adding technical things to it,” Boyd said. “It’s not just African-American students either. It’s a diverse group that is working on this.”

Roger Alleyne, a Pellissippi State student in Theatre, will direct the performance. Spirituals, live and on CD, and images of famous African-Americans as well as slaves will accompany the readings.

“What I want to do through the play,” said Alleyne, “is say for anyone who’s gone through injustice—whether it’s a woman, a Jew or anyone else who has suffered affliction and wants to fight for equal rights—‘You can make it.’”

For more information, contact Remonda Swafford at (865) 329-3102.

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