A dance performance first commissioned by the San Francisco Equal Justice Society, Dying While Black and Brown focuses on capital punishment and the disproportionate numbers of incarcerated people of color. The piece was created by Zaccho Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director Joanna Haigood in collaboration with renowned jazz composer Marcus Shelby. The dance is part ofthe Equal Justice Society’s campaign to restore 14th Amendment protections for victims of discrimination including those on death row.
The piece Dying While Black & Brown impacted me in a very profound way, because it took me back to a place emotionally that allowed me to reconnect with the tragedy of the past 18 years of my life, and then it also reminded me of the triumph of winning back my freedom. – Anthony Graves, Texas Defender, Former Death Row Inmate
Choreography and Direction by Joanna Haigood • Music by Marcus Shelby
Performed by Antoine Hunter, Rashad Pridgen, Travis Santell Rowland and Matthew Wickett of the Zaccho Dance Theatre in San Francisco, CA
Post-performance discussion including Diann Rust-Tierney, Executive Director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
Co-sponsored by:
The Hutchins Center for African and African American Research; HLS Criminal Justice Institute; HLS Criminal Justice Program of Study, Research and Advocacy; HLS Capital Punishment Clinic; Prison Studies Project; Phillips Brooks House Association Prison Education Program; Harvard Organization for Prison Education and Reform; Witness to Innocence; HDS Office of Ministry Studies