THE POUI (Creative Writing) PROJECT
and Africana Theater Lab, SIU Carbondale
invite you to
a staged reading of two plays directed by Segun Ojewuyi
on Saturday 26 at 7.30 pm
and Sunday 27 June at 6.00 pm
at the
ARTS LECTURE THEATRE, Cave Hill

On Saturday 26 June at 7.30 pm:
PREEMPTIVE by Niyi Coker Jnr.
Set in New York and Zanzibar against a backdrop of racial unrest, police bigotry and nationalist paranoia, Preemptive is located in a charged space of diverse histories and competing world-views. The characters must wrestle with their inter- and intra-racial demons, given a new emphasis by 9/11 and Obama’s accession to the White House. In the balance: rather than a meeting of minds, is a preemptive strike justified?

This is a theater of angst and optimism in the face of xenophobia and ignorance. It is also a theater of magical transpositions. Dr. Ahmed Bashir, a psychologist with the Harlem Hospital in New York and Dr. Vivian Watson, a psychologist with the New York City Police Department, are lovers. He’s a Zanzibari Moslem and she’s a white American Christian. Meanwhile, there are riots on the streets of New York and deep anxieties in Zanzibar as two culturally grounded truths compete for supremacy. This setting triggers a series of conflicts leading to a wild drama of emotional turbulence, intra-racial fear and violence, leaping from the US to Zanzibar, bleeding cultures and exploding into currents of irredeemable consequences.

On Sunday 27 June at 6.00 pm:
Seven by Rachel Hastings (see US poster above for synopsis).