Till
by Ifa Bayeza
June 10-12

Mamie Till’s singular act of courage to insist on an open-casket funeral for son, Emmett, tortured and murdered at age 14 for whistling at a white woman, served as a catalyst for the passage of long-stalled anti-lynching legislation in the United States Congress.

IFA BAYEZA (Till) is an award-winning playwright, producer, and conceptual artist. Her plays include Amistad Voices, Club Harlem, Kid Zero, Homer G & the Rhapsodies, for which she received a Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays fellowship, and The Ballad of Emmett Till, which premiered at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre and received the 2008 Edgar Award for Best Play, as well as a Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Fellowship. Now running at The Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles, The Ballad … has been hailed as “breathtaking … brilliant,” “a masterful look at history,” “a marvelous celebration of life,” and “the best ticket in Los Angeles.” A graduate of Harvard University, Bayeza served as the original dramaturg and set designer for her sister Ntozake Shange’s landmark production of for colored girls… at the Public Theater. This September, she and Shange will debut their new novel, Some Sing, Some Cry chronicling seven generations of women, the men and music in their lives.