Ifa Bayeza
Celebrated playwright Ifa Bayeza opened Community Access' Our Community, Our Story speaker series on February 25th, with a powerful performance from her award-winning play, "The Ballad of Emmett Till."
Throughout her career, Ms. Bayeza has been committed to the exploration of African-American history and the role of race in the making of our modern nation. Her latest epic drama reveals new truths and insights into the 1955 brutal murder of Emmett Till, an event that sparked the modern civil rights movement.
Community Access CEO, Steve Coe
and Ifa Bayeza
"I came to the story of Emmett Till as a child," Ms. Bayeza shared. "In this play, I wanted to capture that sense of loss and sense of commitment he inspired in my generation. I wanted to create a work that speaks of that time to this time today, a work that would allow different generations—and races—to reflect and to have dialogue. This type of dialogue is relevant on so many human levels, including the work that Community Access pursues. Its vision. How it empowers people through access to learning and its art program. And, how it inspires people to reflect and heal."
Left to Right: Ntozake Shange,
Ifa Bayeza and Suzanne Coley:
Director / Artist in Residence of the
Community Access Art Collective
In the subjects that she has chosen to pursue, Ms. Bayeza has a lot in common with the mission of the Community Access. Like the work of Community Access, her plays give voice to the voiceless, shed light on the struggle for human dignity and celebrate the resilience of the human spirit. Her characters again and again discover their own resources, and with the aid and support of their community, the powerless become powerful and what is broken becomes whole.
Ms. Bayeza served as the original dramaturg and set designer for her sister Ntozake Shange's landmark Broadway production of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. She and Shange have joined forces again, collaborating on a new novel, Some Sing, Some Cry, which will be published by St. Martin's Press in 2010.
Ms. Bayeza and Ms. Shange will unveil this new work together on June 24th at the theater at Riverside Church in a reading to benefit Community Access. The Community Access series, Our Community, Our Story, is the centerpiece of our organization's efforts to educate our community about the experiences, daily life struggles, and healing processes of individuals who are living with mental illness. Our inaugural events convene a group of acclaimed authors whose works reflect the human condition. For ticket reservations and details about upcoming events click here: www.communityaccess.org/speaker-series.