













| |
|
Excerpts:
Scene Eighteen
STATELESS STATELESS
(Same time. Next second.)
(STATELESS STATELESS sings for her Homeland summer.)
STATELESS STATELESS: Camel Jockey
Camelot
I camel jockey
He Camelot
I sing for homeland
He play at Hyannis-port
He P-A-L of Is-RYE-El
I P-A-L of P-L-O
He run for president of Jews and their lies
I run for bushboy with news as my prize
He win the vote in the state of L A
I have no vote in the state of L A
I milk desert goat in stateless Palestinia
He be King of country soon crowned in California
I be nomad in tent-less now
He in White Houes, people bow
He make deal with IS-RYE-EL
Red Sea Dead Sea be his hell
I pray to Allah Allah is great
I Stateless Stateless, Stateless Stateless my fate
Give me sword to cut him down
Will do the act in L A Town
Download a video clip of the scene above. Stateless, Stateless
{This file is 2.6Mb videostream}
Sceene Twenty-three
BEYOND THE PALE
(1983: Chicago's Great South Side)
(REVEREND LEMUEL LOUIS GULLIVAH)
REVEREND GULLIVAH: My beloved congregation, I come before you today in cerebration and celebration. Yes, we shall rejoice, but first we shall think, and thinking brings us to history. We who do not understand out history and those of other oppressed people will not only be doomed to that history's repetition but repetition in ever more insidious ways. Today, you will reach back with me six hundred years to the European continent, six centuries, even before out ancestors were dragged to these shores, a time when most, not all, but most Africans lived in peace. But during the peace on the European continent in the land known as Ire-land, some would say a land of anger, there lived a people confined to an area called The Pale. Now The Pale come from a word meaning Stake, and that's not what we eat, but rather what men of violence have driven through each other's hearts. Men have been impaled on the stakes of battle. When Joshua fit the battle round Jericho and the walls came tumblerin' down, at the sound of his horn of plenty, his cornucopia of righteousness, what tumbled down at the tops of those walls were stakes, which now the Israelites bounded over easily, for their faith had made them strong. They bounded over the pales, for they were no longer beyond the pale, beyond the pale of authority. And there were those in Ire-land, the Ire-ish, so-called, whose faith made them strong and strong they needed to be, for it was the English who oppressed, the English who forced them to go beyond the pale of an unjust authority. 600 years and we are here on Chicago's Great South Side, our detractors on every side, saying we inhabit the largest ghetto in the world, the ghetto within the pale of the authority of the pale-face. We are ringed round by the sticks and stones of the walls of economic injustice. But this time the Israelites are not outside clambering in; the Israelites are us, clamoring out. We are not breaking in; we are breaking out. We are not fittin' the battle of Jericho
We are fittin' the battle of Chi-ca-go
We are declaiming, we are proclaiming, the Ire-ish who are our brothers and sisters, yes they are, do you know they are called the blacks of Europe, yes they are, our black Irish kinfolk are still in the midst of their struggle against the English and we in ours to push down the boundaries and reach for that horn of plenty for we possess the cornucopia of righteousness.
And now that we have thought and cerebrated, let us now give thanks, rejoice and celebrate for today we have the first AfricanAmerican Mayor of this yet-to-be-great city. My beloved congregation, it is in our power. Today we commence to have the authority and that authority is now invested in our name in the person of Harold L. Washington. Today, beyond, within, on top, over and over the pale we celebrate.
(LEMUEL goes to another place and is alone.)
LEMUEL: Cerebrate. We always celebrate before we cerebrate. We always party before we think. Now we got to think before we party. Everybody knows it. And those who know it and can't do it can't stand that we can do it. They want it so bad. They want to be we. They kill us before they be us which they can't. Can't they? Why can't they? They can. They don't want to. Bad enough. So they kill us. And what do we do? Stay dead? Turn the other cheek? Where the sun don't shine? Strike back? No. No. Neether. Niither.
(Back to the pulpit and to the future.)
Four years ago from this pulpit I presented to you the first African-American mayor of our then yet-to-be-great city and today, as this city is great, with heavy heart but buoyant spirit, we stand in front of the casket of this same man. There are those who will condemn this buoyancy alongside this heavy-heartedness, but I say to you that the word has gone forth, we do have a dream and the word and the dream are realizable. Do not underestimate your intelligence, your resolve. One man falls; ten must rise to take is place. One woman struggles; ten will take up her burden. One child cries; we must all hear and do our duty. Intelligence. Resolve. Goodness.
Let us praise each other.
Download a video clip of the scene above. Beyond the Pale
{This file is 2.6Mb videostream}
Cast and Crew Photos
Click for a larger version.
 

|
|