THIS GHOST OF SLAVERY
Originally published in The Atlantic magazine, Anna Deavere Smith’s This Ghost of Slavery travels through history to interrogate how America's juvenile justice roots are entrenched in Reconstruction era laws — legislation created to keep "Slaves" slaves. In this version, Smith reads all 17 characters — stage directions too — interlocuted by cello and drums to reinforce the inherent musicality of her journalistic language.
Read: This Ghost of Slavery,
as originally published in The Atlantic Magazine.
written & performed by Anna Deavere Smith
co-directed by Yuval Sharon & Alexander Gedeon
as originally published in The Atlantic Magazine.
written & performed by Anna Deavere Smith
co-directed by Yuval Sharon & Alexander Gedeon
Presented in December 2024 as a workshop
by XQ America at The National Museum
of African American History's Oprah Winfrey Theater,
with support by The Carnegie Foundation.
Forthcoming presentation by
National Sawdust, fall 2025.