Talk-Back Following March 31st Performance of “Lesson Before Dying”

“A Lesson Before Dying” takes place in the late 1940’s of the Jim Crow South, focusing on Jefferson, a twenty-one-year-old black field worker, wrongfully accused and convicted of the robbery and murder of a white man, and sentenced to death by electrocution.

In October 2013, the incarceration rate of the United States of America was the highest in the world. In 2012 that population was seven times what is was in just 1972.

Has the staggering growth of incarceration led to an era of the New Jim Crow? Can or should theatre play a role in social change?

Join us following our March 31st performance as we explore these ideas with our cast and local experts:

Tarik Greene, Deputy Director of M.A.D.E. Transitional Services;
Bridget Laureira, Advocate working for the release of a prisoner on death row;
Willie Trotman, President of Spring Valley branch of NAACP;
Cynthia Williams, Member of the Steering Committee of Rockland Coalition to End the New Jim Crow (RCENJC.)