Social Justice anyone?
As a theater collective, an important part of our mission is to present stories that make a difference.
One area of interest we have is the disproportionate incarceration of blacks, especially black men.
We will be doing plays and musicals about this issue, and making art about it as artists do, but I want to share some statistics to show why we are passionate about it.
Unjust Conviction By the Numbers
Blacks make up almost 18% of the U.S. population, but make up 40% of the prison population.
The reason for this disproportionate representation can be inferred from another statistic: 365 individuals have been exonerated by their DNA.
This means that these people were arrested, tried, convicted and sent to prison for something they didn’t do. 62% of these exonerated people are black.
A reasonable inference from this is that innocent blacks are incarcerated at a higher rate than whites.
ROB Artists Make Art About Unjust Conviction
This is an issue we are highlighting by making art about it.
We have two projects.
- First we have a hip hop musical called Freedom about unjust conviction written by myself and a rapper in Chicago, Chi-Ill.
- Second we have a play with music called The Brothers of B Block, written by Kimonie Cutchember, about men incarcerated in a local county jail.
The Brothers of B Block is part of our newly-created Resident Artist Program (RAP). Kimonie is in the first year of the residency. The entire three year residency is comprised of dramaturgical work in the first year, readings in the second year, and a full production in the third.
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