2/19/2023 0 Comments Kienlen chop suey![]() ![]() ![]() Louis have been linked to the sharp divide between city and county, the latter zealously divided into ninety municipalities, the fact that Ferguson is not Dellwood is not Ferguson seems more than a technicality.ĭriving up Kienlen past its light industrial lots down Martin Luther King and its abandoned factories and chop suey joints down Lucas & Hunt past Normandy High School, its football field flags repeating “SUCCESS!” past St. That said, given that so many problems in St. It sounded better to say that Every 28 Hours would debut in the town many consider the provenance of the #blacklivesmatter movement. That said, all marketing material, including my own, took liberties with this distinction, knowing that to the vast majority of readers, the difference was immaterial. Louis County, with its own police force and a population of about 5,000. 21,000), Dellwood itself is a different city in north St. I’d been to the center in August to learn about Artists as Tutors, an after-school program founded by Shanara Gabrielle and directed by Darian Wigfall, and was eager to see how the space would accommodate such an ambitious performance piece. The national premiere of Every 28 Hours took place at Dellwood Community Center, a modest but lively facility, but blocks from the tumult West Florissant witnessed last year at this time. Louis community to compose, rehearse, and perform between 60 to 90 one-minute plays tackling issues of social justice. ![]() In collaboration with local talent, visiting artists engaged the St. The project-titled Every 28 Hours, in honor of the controversial statistic that every 28 hours a black citizen of our country is killed by a police officer-attracted playwrights and directors from both coasts to gather in the Ferguson area for a week-long residency. Offered a preview of nationally-profiled theatre project responding to Ferguson, Mike Brown, and #blacklivesmatter, I traveled a now familiar route up north from the Forest-Park DeBaliviere region. Louis neighborhoods, most of which certainly have suffered years, if not decades, of structural neglect and decay, Ferguson is perhaps the last place I’d think of as some treacherous place one detachedly views on cable, some archetype of crime, some symbol of collapse.īecause it has not collapsed, and indeed, had it collapsed, it is highly unlikely that any kind of public insurrection could have flourished at its epicenter. It was easy to appreciate how unremarkable it was, until of course, in history’s grip, it became so remarkable.įor all the years I’ve spent mentoring in North St. Ferguson was a close acquaintance-not a friend I loved, but the type of person one invites to a festive seasonal party. I toasted craft beers at its brewery, purchased late-night munchies at its Schnucks, navigated its rows of humble ranch houses, visited one of its spiffier enclaves. It is possible that I am the only person I know in the Washington University community who knows Ferguson moderately well. By that I mean, I knew it before Michael Brown, and I came to “reknow” it after. Writing on the wall: Theatergoers make their statements at the Dellwood Community Center for “Every 28 Hours.” ![]()
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