Unheard Voices resonates the lives of those at the African Burial Ground

BY AAGD STAFF

(October 26, 2019) –American Slavery Project commissioned 17 African American writers to examine the lives of 17 burial remains that were part of the 419 graves of the anonymous men, women, and children who lived in colonial New York and were buried at the African Burial Ground in lower Manhattan.  Located between Broadway and Duane Streets, the African Burial Ground is where 17th an 18th century Africans, African Indurtured servants, and African slaves were buried outside of what was then New Amsterdam.  In 2991, the 114 bodies were unearthed, as the Federal State Office Building was being built.  The burials had no names, but only crip numbers and crip contents.  So, the playwrights of the American Slavery Project Writers Collective have imagined the lives of these individuals from the contents of each grave and perform the monologues.

The monologues imagine the lives of the slaves filled with racism, antagonism, depravity, and other struggles. Through scripts, filled with emotion, their incredible stories come alive in tales of terror and unparalleled horror.  

The phenomenal performance is conceived and directed by four-time Emmy and WGA Award winner Judy Tate and staged by Melissa Maxwell.  

The program ran at the Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street at the corner of Elizabeth Street in NYC) with two morning performances at 11AM and two evening performances at 7PM on October 15 and 16.  Unheard Voices marked the 400th anniversary of the arrival of enslaved Africans to the Jamestown Colony.