Sacred Ground
By Ifetayo Valerie Williams Lawrence

The Characters
Sister (Mayme A. Williams)
Brother (Varian Huddleston)
Hester (Edward Talmadge)
Miracle Turner (Kim Tucker)
Jesse Sheperd (Jonathan Berry)
Reverend David Walker (Benjamin Cain, Jr.)
Darlene Hudnall (Tasha Michelle Smith)
Ruby Williams (Doris J. Moore)
Roy Tate (Saladin Florence)
Sarah Tate (Linda Hunt)
Queen Ester (Sheriden Booker)
Patience (Jennine Foster-McKelvia)
Sheriff (Edward Talmadge)
Bishop (Joe Keenan and Bill Fluke)
Alice Bishop (Karen Durham)
Spirits (Candance Smith and Rachel Cooper)

Directors Notes
In a Southern Town or the spaces that its earlier inhabitants migrated to -- Chicago, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, New York, Oklahoma, Kansas -- memories, tall takes and thoughts about the protection given by and about the art of listening to our ancestors remain a part of the culture. Ifetayo Valerie Lawrence Williams brings life to ancestors of a small southern town in Mississippi. She invites the residents to recall the strength, the guidance, the love that is available to all who listen to the voices (intuition or actual speech) of those who lived before. She is clear that some ancestors are wicked and others have doubts about the fairness of the system. Ifetayo Valerie suggests that the wise and the socially responsible ancestors can lead the way for progress in an indifferent world. Sarah explains her fears about the ability of ancestors to help and about living in Mississippi in 1968:

"I don't know if mothers go'n get too busy they forget to teach the children the courage, the strength of our ancestors. I don't know if our story, our way of life, will get buried beneath tomorrow and no longer be there for us to use to climb up on so we can see where we come from."

As Kuntu honors four local playwrights, writers who have attempted to preserve or to create new patterns of response, Sacred Ground forces many African Americans and those who research its heritage and its traditions to remember those multi language African men and women who came to this country with a unique economic, cultural, legal, and social system. Since they lived in forced isolation culturally and socially, many of their mores and traditions remain. Ifetayo Valerie Lawrence leads us forward to recall that the ancestors are here to protect and to guide and to give meaning to a life that stands on sacred ground. The idea is to bring forth the goodness, the love, and the wholeness of Africans who stand on sacred ground; that years of giving, of supporting, and of struggling validates our ownership.