Fri 1/26-Sun 2/18
Cleveland playwright/performer Lisa Langford was inspired to write her play The Breakfast at the Bookstore after seeing a history podcast called Backstory that dealt with the history of UFOs in the U.S. which included an episode on how UFO sightings between Black and white sighters, the former relating experiencing revelations of justice and spirituality, the latter of kidnapping and exploitation. That found confluence with her simultaneous reading of James Robenalt’s Ballots and Bullets which touched on Cleveland’s 1968 Glenville Shootout, during which police battled with Black nationalists led by a Black bookstore owner Ahmed Evans who thought he’d seen a UFO and was preparing for a race war.
She says, “I like the idea of setting the piece in 1973 because that was a liminal time between the progress of the ’60s and the failures of the ’70s, not unlike today, when we look back at the time between the buoyant hope of 2008 and the despair of 2020.” The play features a conflict between a couple when the woman wants to open a revolutionary Black liberation bookstore similar to Evans’ and the man doesn’t. And visitors from outer space get involved.
The play will be staged at Karamu, with noted local playwright/performer/director Nina Domingue directing. It runs through Sunday February 18. Get tickets here.