This past Sunday, I decided to catch some culture, which I keep telling y’all to do when you can. There’s so more to do in the Lou than just clubbing. I always have the St. Louis Black Repertory Company in mind, so I rolled through the Sunday matinee of “A Song for Coretta.”
It’s a proper play inspired by people paying their respects to the first lady of the Civil Rights Movement, Coretta Scott King. I’m not going to give it away, but imagine five women from five different walks of life standing in line, waiting to pay their respects to a woman who inspired and fought for them all.
What’s makes it even better is diverse backgrounds of them: the eldest lady (Andrea Frye) had actually met Coretta and the Civil Rights Movement; another, an artist (Cathy Simpson) is a Katrina survivor who lost her grandmother in the disaster; one is a healthcare worker on leave from the army (Leah Stewart), but is considering going AWHOL because of the innocent lives she witnessed being taken and the threatening of her own life refusing to take part in the murderous war crimes.
There’s a young journalist in training (Candace Jeanine) who there to get comments from the people in line for the funeral. Then there’s Lil Bit (Rory Lipede), a sassy, dysfunctional hood girl who’s dealing with parenthood and clashes with the elder, which makes for a good lesson about the different generations of blacks, our contributions, trials, triumph and work to be done.
Of course, it’s well done, because it’s writing by award-winning writer Pearl Cleage. So brother’s if you want to step out of the box to show your lady or love interest a good time, check A Song for Coretta. It runs from this Thursday until Sunday. Sisters if you have to take yourselves, by all means do so. You will enjoy it.