Tuesday, February 20, 2001	Go to: S M T W T F S
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Urban Perspective | Acel Moore

With a child at my side, a play about slavery stirred emotions

In the 19th century, the Underground Railroad guided and protected fugitive slaves as they traveled to freedom. William Still was a black ex-slave who was among the most courageous leaders of the Railroad, both in Philadelphia and the nation. His is a familiar story.

But on Sunday afternoon, while watching Stand by the River, a musical production depicting Still's life and efforts, I had an emotional experience unlike any I have ever had.

As I watched the play at the auditorium in the Free Library of Philadelphia at 19th and Vine Streets, my emotions went from profound and tearful sorrow to rage - and then to joy over Still's successes, which he achieved despite overwhelming odds and devastating setbacks.

The musical, composed by Mark and Joanne Sutton-Smith, a white couple from Swarthmore, was excellent, and the performers were outstanding. Yet it wasn't the music or the performers that brought forth my passionate response. It was more profound than music or performance alone could have called forth. No: It happened because I watched the play in the presence of a 9-year-old girl whom I love deeply - a little girl of about the same age and size as the children playing slaves in the musical.

At times I could not take my eyes off her as she watched the two-hour performance. I had never seen such intensity in her before.

The songs told the story of children sold and taken away from their mothers and of mothers being sold away from their children.

In Still's case, his mother was sold into slavery before he was born. She could take only two of her four children. A Sophie before William Styron's Sophie, she had to make the wretched choice of which two children to leave behind.

"Standing on the auction block with eyes that knew that we would never meet again," are words of one song in the musical. Such words are even more wrenching when you look into the eyes of your own child.

As I watched her, my empathy for the victims and loathing for the perpetrators of the evil and tragedy of slavery became more intense.

After the musical, there was a discussion of the performance and the emotions it evoked. A crowd of 500 overwhelmed the library. The overflow watched the performance via a video hookup in another room.

As I listened to the words of the theme song -

We stand by the river,

the river of darkness,

the river of sorrow ...

and watch all the troubles go by -

my thoughts ran to the toil and risk that culminated in the Underground Railroad, the beginning of a true popular movement for freedom.

As the Sutton-Smiths said said during the discussion, William Still's story is not African American history but American history. His is, in fact, a story for all humanity: Any human being held anywhere in bondage has the natural right to freedom.

Sunday's performance of Stand by the River at the library (which donated the space) was among several in the area. The next performance will be Friday at the Lang Performing Arts Center at Swarthmore College. Another will be held March 3 at Rowan University. All seats for the performances have been taken. But it has to come round again: This is a show that should be brought back.

Whether the legacies of slavery - the marginalization and discrimination that still exist in U.S. society - will end one day depends on whether my 9-year-old audience-mate, and others like her of all races, really come to understand where we have come from. After the play, I was hoping that my 9-year-old would discuss her reactions to the play, but so far she hasn't. I get the sense that we will have that conversation one day.

You have to hope that works like Stand by the River will help get such conversations started throughout this nation.