Description
The journey begins in Greenwood, Mississippiethe Delta. eIn my Delta town, some black girls aspired to become the womanethe mistress of some wealthy white man. But the darker oneselike meecould make it by going to the cottonfields, working from sun to sun, for just about three dollars a day,e laments Phelia (Hollandes alter-ego). It is those and other dreadful experiences that inspire her to dream far beyond the funny-paper walls in her drafty shotgun house in Dixie Lane Alley. Pheliaes mother, Aint Baby, is a powerful influence. A midwife who delivers babies of poor black and white women, she also rents out rooms to prostitutes, as a way ete make a livine for me ane my chulluns.e On her 11th birthday, Pheliaes childhood is brutally stolen from her by a white man. Not even Aint Baby can protect her from white people, nor remove the sickening taste of shame. Phelia plots a series of escapes. After the rape, she attempts to join a minstrel show as an exotic dancer, astounding the male audience with her especiale skill, but the plan is quickly thwarted. At the age of 12, Phelia is a prostitute and a thief. At 14 she has quit school and spent time in jail, and by 16, she is an unwed mother. Then the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) comes to town, and Phelia is swept into the momentum of the civil rights movement. Tragically, Aint Baby is killed when her house is firebombed, and a heartbroken, but determined Phelia goes off to meet her destiny in the North. There she finds herself lured into the neon world of pimps, junkies and whores. Amazingly, she is encouraged and supported by a community of civil rights workers, friends and her estreet familye to attend college. The journey ends, 20 years later, as Phelia ebuck-dancese across the stage at the University of Minnesota to accept her Ph.D. Inspired by Alice Walkeres poem eRevolutionary Petunias,e the play closes with an emotional tribute to unsung black esheroeseeextraordinary, ordinary women who are the backbone of the African-American community. Single flexible set. Approximate running time: 2 hours.
