The Clearing, Episode 2: Imagining and Building New Structures

Three-part discussion series “The Clearing” will accompany the shadow/land audio play and be hosted by Soyica Diggs Colbert.   Why are some areas and communities hit harder when disaster strikes? This episode considers how catastrophes are created and what imaginative and constructive work needs to be done to prevent them in the future.   This conversation includes: Soyica Colbert (host), Sheila Foster (legal scholar), Shana M. Griffin (scholar), Jack Moore (Director of New Artists) and Cara Page (scholar) join in the conversation.   "The Clearing," references a space of healing in Toni Morrison's Beloved. In Beloved, the Clearing is a place in the woods where one of the characters, Baby Suggs, held her religious and spiritual gatherings. Baby Suggs called the black formerly enslaved community together to laugh, dance, cry and reclaim their bodies, bodies that had been used in the service of trans-Atlantic slavery. The ancillary episodes like shadow/land provide a space for healing and also call forth Congo Square, which is located at a clearing, apocalypse which is clearing, and the Yoruba deity Oya, who rules hurricanes and tornadoes and is known to clear the way. The Clearing, our ancillary episodes of post-show discussions, honors Toni Morrison and all the great black women writers and healers that have paved the way.   SHADOW/LAND: AN AUDIO PLAYWritten by Erika Dickerson-DespenzaDirected by Candis C. Jones Produced by The Public Theater Featuring Te'Era Coleman (9-1-1 Caller), Lizan Mitchell (Magalee), Lance E. Nichols (9-1-1 Dispatcher and Caller), Lori Elizabeth Parquet (9-1-1 Dispatcher and Caller), Sunni Patterson (Griot), and Michelle Wilson (Ruth).