Walking with My Ancestors: Cape Coast Castle (2019)

Walking with My Ancestors: Cape Coast Castle (2019) is a one-woman award-winning multimodal performance piece that generates fresh perspectives on the experiences of the nameless African women, men, and children who once languished in the dungeons of Cape Coast Castle and suffered the agony of the middle passage. Based on original, firsthand research in the Ghana dungeons for African captives, the piece takes the audience on a ritual journey that leads to revelation, reconciliation, and rebirth. Through live drumming, singing, dancing, and acting the performer explores how our national and cultural problems connect with truths of our shared and painful pasts. Each performance ends with a discussion about histories, repair, affirmations, and futurities of a “people who past has been deliberately rubbed out.” Ultimately, it is a story we share about triumph over adversity, resilience, and survival.