Freedman’s Town to Botham Jean: Stories for Racial Healing
“Freedman’s Town to Botham Jean: Stories For Racial Healing” is a live storytelling show featuring 7 diverse Dallasites sharing their true, personal stories about racial tension in Dallas.
Have you experienced racism? Are you dealing with your privilege? We are actively seeking storytellers for this show from all generations. Send in your story today for consideration! Details at www.freedmanstownshow.com.
Directed by master storyteller Dr. Njoki McElroy and produced by Oral Fixation (An Obsession with True Life Tales)’s Nicole Stewart, this magical storytelling experience will provide historical context to racial tension between blacks and whites in Dallas while offering a very personal lens through which to understand what our wounds are so we may acknowledge and heal them. The 75-minute show features seven individuals performing their 8-minute stories, one-by-one with short musical interludes in between speakers.
The greatest tool we have for racial healing and understanding each other is sharing our stories. Together, we can transform our city!
Oral Fixation is honored to welcome Dr. Njoki McElroy, playwright, storyteller, and scholar as the director of its upcoming show “Freedman’s Town to Botham Jean: Stories for Racial Healing.”
Dr. McElroy is a Dallas native who moved to Chicago during the Great Migration. Her development of theatre with urban youth in the Chicago area drew notice from a professor at Northwestern University where she ultimately earned her doctorate in Performance Studies and taught for over 30 years. She developed the courses Performance of Black Literature and African American Folklore, which she continued to teach at Southern Methodist University in the Master of Liberal Studies program when she returned to Dallas in the 1980s.
Dr. McElroy comes to “Freedman’s Town to Botham Jean: Stories for Racial Healing” after directing “Our Stories: Bridging Communities, Building Trust” in collaboration with Cara Mia Theatre in 2018
