{"id":34783,"date":"2013-11-19T04:34:46","date_gmt":"2013-11-19T04:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=34783"},"modified":"2013-11-19T04:38:41","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T04:38:41","slug":"play-could-begin-renaissance-for-seminole-nation-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=34783","title":{"rendered":"Play Could Begin Renaissance For Seminole Nation Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Play Could Begin Renaissance For Seminole Nation Culture<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Seminole Producer<\/a>
\nSeminole, Oklahoma
\n2013-11-13
\npages 1-2<\/p>\n

Karen Anson<\/a><\/strong>, Senior Editor<\/p>\n

IndianVoices.net<\/a> contributed to this report<\/em><\/p>\n

A play on the history of the Seminole Nation\u2019s Freedmen is wrapping up in Los Angeles, but those involved hope it\u2019s only the beginning of a movement.<\/p>\n

The play, \u201cthe road weeps, the well runs dry<\/a>,\u201d will end Sunday in Los Angeles Theater Center.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s part of a \u201crolling premier,\u201d being debuted in LA, as well as at the Pillsbury House Theater in Minneapolis, Minn; Perseverance Theater in Anchorage, Ala., and University of South Florida\u2019s School of Theater and Dance.<\/p>\n

\u201cSurviving centuries of slavery, revolts and the Trail of Tears<\/a>, a community of self-proclaimed Freedmen creates the first all-black U.S. town in Wewoka, Okla.<\/a>,\u201d states the press release about the play.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Freedmen (Black Seminoles<\/a> and people of mixed origins) are rocked when the new religion and the old way come head to head and their former enslavers arrive to return them to the chains of bondage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWritten in gorgeously cadenced language, utilizing elements of African American folk-lore and daring humor, \u2018the road weeps, the well runs dry\u2019 merges the myth, legends and history of the Seminole<\/a> people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Playwright Marcus Gardley<\/a> was awarded the 2011 PENN\/Laura Pels award for mid-career playwright.<\/p>\n

He holds masters of fine arts in playwriting from the Yale Drama School.<\/p>\n

\u201cOriginally I set out to write a play about the first all-black town in the U.S., Wewoka, Okla.,\u201d Gardley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a special interest in the town because my grandmother was born there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my research, I learned that Black Seminoles (people of African and Native American ancestry) actually incorporated the town…<\/p>\n

…A third person involved in the program claims very close ties to Seminole County, Okla<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Phil \u201cPompey\u201d Fixico spoke in a post program panel entitled \u201cExploring African American and Native American Spirituality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fixico is featured in the Smithsonian Institute\u2019s book<\/a> and exhibit<\/a> entitled \u201cindiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas,\u201d which will open its next show on Jan. 25 at the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Education Center<\/a> in New York City.<\/p>\n

For the exhibit, Fixico had to carefully document his heritage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a 52-year-old African-American, when I discovered that I was really an African-Native American,\u201d Fixico said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis epiphany took place 14 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fixico\u2019s found that he was the great-grandson of Caesar Bruner, an early leader of the Seminole Nation\u2019s Freedman band…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Play Could Begin Renaissance For Seminole Nation Culture The Seminole Producer Seminole, Oklahoma 2013-11-13 pages 1-2 Karen Anson, Senior Editor IndianVoices.net contributed to this report A play on the history of the Seminole Nation\u2019s Freedmen is wrapping up in Los Angeles, but those involved hope it\u2019s only the beginning of a movement. The play, \u201cthe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,459,8,3015,20],"tags":[3494,16414,16411,16241,1777,5269,16413,16412,16410,16243],"class_list":["post-34783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-history","category-media-archive","category-native-americans","category-usa","tag-black-seminoles","tag-caesar-bruner","tag-karen-anson","tag-marcus-gardley","tag-oklahoma","tag-phil-wilkes-fixico","tag-phil-pompey-fixico","tag-seminole-producer","tag-the-seminole-producer","tag-wewoka"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34783\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}