The WHY of MY City

 

SOLD OUT!

Audience comments –

Keep up the good work.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to have enjoyed your excellent play. I am Euro-American, senior citizen and life -long St. Louisan. I learned so much in such a wonderful manner. Great story, fabulous energy and dancing- strong messages. Often I feel sad and discouraged about my hometown but tonight you provided me a different lens from which to view us all. Thank you most sincerely for using your many talents to uplift and inspire. Wow! Bravo!!!

The story was joyful and hopeful.

It was great to see young people interacting in the arts to bring historical accounts of St. Louis to life.

The play was excellent.

Very entertaining. Good job Stitchers!

Everything was dope!!! Loved it! The actors and everything was powerful!!!

Amazing play, great actors, singers, and rappers! I enjoyed myself.

Simple Amazing Entering Definitely do a part 2

I really enjoyed this play, everyone did amaze, especially the dancers.

The play was not exactly what I expected but I actually enjoyed it more as a result of my surprise for what it truly was. In this I mean I truly loved how past historical events and figures were intertwined with the present especially in North City. Afterwards I drove to Forest Park and the Grand Basin Refracted on the 1904 World Fair and then drove through North City and saw the two water towers and truly wonder why there doesn’t seem to be more development throughput the area. I moved to St Louis first when I was 17 years old and right out of high school. I feel a strong connection since I have learned so much about the history and origins. The play last night made no issue to the fact we have many issues that exist here today and I feel this is essential. We must face our realities before we will be able to embrace a better future. Thanks for your efforts. Well done.

The story… Wanda, a young African American, has just been accepted at a major university. She doesn’t know if she’ll return to St. Louis after graduating college.  She wants to explore other opportunities, but Zoot Suit, a well-known gangster, entices her to come work for him.   The community rallies to prevent Wanda from making a serious mistake and with the help of Scott Joplin, Madam CJ Walker, Cool Papa Bell and Tina Turner, they manage to save her from the clutches of Zoot Suit.

 

Mario Farwell, Playwright, 2nd from right

Mario Farwell, playwright and director, is a native of St. Louis Missouri. He founded The Black and Avant-Garde Theater. His plays and musicals have been produced off-off Broadway in NYC, San Diego, CA, Minneapolis, MN, St. Louis, MO, Boston, and Africa. Mario Farwell is the founder and current director of the St. Louis Writers’ Group in St. Louis, MO. This is Mario’s first project with Saint Louis Story Stitchers.

 

Gregory S. Carr, Director, far right

Gregory S. Carr is a St. Louis storyteller, writer-director-actor and Living History Presenter. This is Greg’s first project with Saint Louis Story Stitchers.

 

Willie James aka Sillo, Choreographer

With an impressive career spanning several years, Sillo has worked with some of the biggest names in the industry including Pretty Ricky, Kendrick Lamar, Rihanna and his expertise in dance has been showcased on prominent platforms such as BET and MTV.

CAST

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COMPANY

 

 

 

 

 

 

CREW

 

 

 

 

 

 

Acknowledgements

Saint Louis Story Stitchers’ The WHY of MY City is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. On the web at arts dot gov.

Support for Story Stitchers creative youth development programs is provided in part by The Lewis Prize for Music 2021 Accelerator Award.

Additional support is provided by Missouri Arts Council, a state agency, and Missouri Humanities Council, a state agency, and Kranzberg Arts Foundation.

StitchCast Studio Special Edition

In conjunction with The WHY of MY City, Story Stitchers artists are creating StitchCast Studio Special Edition podcast recordings focused on Black historic sites in Saint Louis, Missouri.

StitchCast Studio Guests include:

John A. Wright, Sr

Author and historian

Sowandé Mustakeem, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of History and of African and African-American Studies, Washington University in St. Louis

Pastor Richard Ashley

from Lutheran Church in The Ville

Doug Harding

Park Ranger, Gateway National Park

Lois Conley

Director, The Griot Black History Museum

Angela da Silva

on Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing

Emeara Burns, heading up The WHY of MY City Special Edition podcasts, has been Story Stitchers youth leader since 2016 and served as Story Stitchers Program Director 2019-21. Burns is a performing and recording artist, poet and songwriter. She is a graduate of Central Visual and Performing Arts High School and is a featured leading youth artist at Story Stitchers since 2015, performing original work created at the Stitchers Storefront Studio at Washington University, Harris Stowe University, Annie B Casey National Conference at Union Station, Unity Summit in Seattle, Washington, Sheldon Concert Hall, .ZACK Theater, and 300 other venues throughout the City of St. Louis.  She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Emeara Burns will join cast members at a public Q&A after the June 15 performance.

Rochelle Caruthers, Director, African American History Initiative at the Missouri History Museum, Library & Research Center and Soldiers Memorial will join cast members at a public Q&A after the June 16 performance.

Podcasts and related research for these discussions is supported in part by Missouri Humanities Council, a state agency.

Additional support is provided by The Divided City. The Divided City is an urban humanities initiative, a joint project of the Center for the Humanities and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, College of Architecture and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design at Washington University in St. Louis. The Divided City is funded by the Mellon Foundation.

StitchCast Studio Special Edition podcast recordings for The WHY of MY City will be released in June.

 

 

 

Story Stitchers artists work in multi-year projects, allowing the work to be engage residents and additional storytellers as it moves forward in its development.

Below are past iterations of The WHY of MY City.

Saint Louis Story Stitchers presents StitchCast Studio Special Edition: The WHY of MY City Series with conversations exploring Ferguson, The Ville, the West Side, University City and the Delmar Loop, and the Richness of Music in St. Louis.

To learn more about the podcasts visit StitchCast Studio Special Edition: The WHY of MY City.

This program is a Special Edition of StitchCast Studio, called The WHY of MY City and is funded by Missouri Humanities Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. Funding for this grant is provided by the CARES Act and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The views expressed in the product are not necessarily those of MHC or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Special thanks to Kranzberg Arts Foundation for providing the .ZACK Rooftop and Ballroom for our recording sessions.

StitchCast Studio is sponsored by City of St. Louis’ Youth at Risk Crime Prevention Grant of 2020, Steward Family Foundation, Spirit of St. Louis Women’s Fund’s three year grant 2020-22, Arts and Education Council PNC Grant, and Missouri Foundation for Health.

The WHY of MY City Album

Now available on major music platforms.

Story Stitchers collected stories from residents and encouraging them to share what their community means to them as part of The WHY of MY City. Story Stitchers capture and document black history through written word and art by archiving oral history, story collection and storytelling. Audiences will gain insight into neighbors’ lives. The WHY of MY City seeks to collect positive stories of local heroes in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods that are struggling with decline.The WHY of MY City captures and documents pieces of black history through written word and art while training the next generation to become active, engaged citizens. Our goal is that programs become a force multiplier, rippling into families, schools, and neighborhoods, offering solutions to common urban problems. 

The premiere of the new work of art was streamed online, having moved from Kranzberg Arts Foundation’s new facility, The High Low due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Friday, May 1st, 2020 at 7:00 PM

The WHY of MY City was also streamed at:

Saint Louis Story Stitchers Youtube

Saint Louis Story Stitchers facebook

Q&A with humanities scholars John A. Wright and Bobby Norfolk followed the presentation in a Zoom Room.

The WHY of MY City is presented with support from Mid-America Arts Alliance and the National Endowment for the Arts, Missouri Humanities Council, a state agency, National Endowment for the Humanities, Missouri Foundation for Health, and Kranzberg Arts Foundation.

Talkin’ Bout the Ville

Bobby Norfolk, Master Storyteller

Download The WHY of MY City. Community Story Collection. docx

About Saint Louis Story Stitchers Artists Collective

STORYSTITCHERS.ORG

The Saint Louis Story Stitchers Artists Collective is a non-profit organization engaged in urban storytelling. The mission of Saint Louis Story Stitchers is to document St. Louis through art and word to promote understanding, civic pride, intergenerational relationships and literacy.

Collective artists work alongside twenty 16-24-year-old urban youth to collect stories, reframe and retell them using the arts to promote a better educated, more peaceful and caring society. Saint Louis Story Stitchers are a resident organization at Kranzberg Arts Foundation where members rehearse, present and perform in the Foundation’s first-class spaces. The Collective also maintains the Stitchers Storefront Studio in the historic Loop District for recording, editing and publishing. Current projects focus on public health issues including gun violence.