A Legacy of Chains by Annalisa Dias

A young student named May just wants to understand the big words her history teacher is using: segregation and lynching. Her teacher has to negotiate her language carefully. This short piece examines the ways we teach history, erase hard truths, and the link between Jim Crow era segregation and the contemporary prison industrial complex and school-to-prison pipeline.

This piece was commissioned...
A young student named May just wants to understand the big words her history teacher is using: segregation and lynching. Her teacher has to negotiate her language carefully. This short piece examines the ways we teach history, erase hard truths, and the link between Jim Crow era segregation and the contemporary prison industrial complex and school-to-prison pipeline.

This piece was commissioned by The Phillips Collection in response to the Jacob Lawrence Migration Series.
  • Recommend
  • Download
  • Save to Reading List

A Legacy of Chains

Recommended by

  • Julian R. Munds:
    6 Dec. 2019
    “ A blunt piece. As blunt as the people who are beaten from understanding the goings on of the past. A cry from the darkness. I also enjoy the liveness of the work. This must be a theatre piece. Thank you for writing it. ”
  • Bryan Stubbles:
    31 Aug. 2017
    “ A harsh, honest indictment of many things wrong with America, from "teaching to the test" to collective memory of Jim Crow to current policing and attitudes. Thoroughly recommended. Dias has created a masterwork. ”

MAY, a kid with black or brown skin.
COP, a police officer. Probably a white man, but maybe that’s not necessary. Their position
gives them power.
TEACHER, a young adult teacher who works in a public school, trying to teach American
history.

Development History

  • Reading
    ,
    Kent County Arts Council
    ,
    2018
  • Commission
    ,
    The Phillips Collection
    ,
    2016