May 14, 2022 , The Helen

I'm Back Now

a reading

by Charly Evon Simpson
directed by Stori Ayers

Run time: 90 minutes, no intermission
Advisory: Strong language, discussion of enslavement, and death of loved ones.

Inspired by Cleveland’s past, present, and future, I’m Back Now is a poignant family drama that transcends time and space. At 19, Sara travels to Cleveland to meet her birth mother Elle. As she strives to reconcile the legacy she thought she knew with her actual origins, Sara discovers that she is a descendant of Sara Lucy Bagby, the last woman ever prosecuted under the Fugitive Slave Act. Traveling through time from the 1860s to today, the play weaves together three generations of one Black family in a deeply felt meditation on the histories we carry.

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