Using the Internet
Playwright explains how experience helps her craft
Article By Marcia Cebulska
What did I call upon in myself since I am not black and cannot know that experience? What experiences did I call upon?
- Being spat upon and called "dirty Pollack" as a child.
- Being told a whole generation of Polish jokes that told me I should consider myself stupid.
- Being told by my college boyfriend that women were on the earth to serve men and I was to walk five steps behind him.
- Being thrown to the ground when I demonstrated peacefully against the war in Vietnam.
- Being harassed and jailed for associating with people of color while I was project director of a race relations study in Seattle.
- Being part of a family whose members have married people of color so that I now have cousins who are African American and Asian American and Hispanic American.
These are some of the things I called upon in addition to my dear family and friends of African American heritage who advised me, corrected me, and led me to sources to read and people to talk to. Fortunately, there were brave strong people who were willing to come forth at great risk, to make a change. I came to admire the strength and resolve of these unsung heroes and heroines.
Teachers may still download youth versions of Now Let Me Fly, by Marcia Cebulska, for use in their classrooms.
Learn more about Marcia Cebulska and the writing of the play.
A NATION ACTS: Play Readings of Now Let Me Fly
Join others across the country for readings of Now Let Me Fly by award-winning playwright Marcia Cebulska. Brown v. Board overturned "Separate But Equal," but years before the landmark court case, brave citizens held grassroots meetings across the nation in homes, schools, church basements and barbershops. This uplifting play opens hearts and minds to the issues of race, education and equality.
Based on hundreds of oral histories collected by the Brown Foundation and personal interviews, Now Let Me Fly brings to life the real stories and people involved in the struggle leding to Brown v. Board. Considered the most important U.S. Supreme Court decision ever, Brown v. Board started unraveling the chains of legal segregation.
Synopsis
It is 1950 and Thurgood Marshall wants to end the doctrine of "Separate But Equal." When the ghost of his mentor, Charles Houston, visits him, his enthusiasm turns to doubt. Houston takes Marshall on a journey, looking in on the lives and losses of the men and women working in the grassroots struggle against segregation. Together they visit Washington, D.C.; Farmville, Virginia; Hockessin, Delaware; Somerton, South Carolina and Topeka, Kansas. They collect the thumbprints of the ordinary people who became activists in all five of the cases that went to the Supreme Court. Now Let Me Fly is the story of the unsung heroes and heroines behind the struggle to end legalized segregation in the United States.
Now Let Me Fly was commissioned by the Brown Foundation and Washburn University.
"Thank you for making this valuable piece of literature available to [our] middle school students."Youth versions of Now Let Me Fly may be downloaded at http://anationacts.brownvboard.org/.
Deborah Barron, Tampa, FL
Professional productions are those in which any actor is paid or admission is charged; they are subject to royalties and must receive playwright's permission (http://anationacts.brownvboard.org/downloads/script/).