TRUTH IS… A MAJESTIC MUSICAL SHOWDOWN!
BETWEEN PREENING PATRIARCHS OF CHURCH & STATE
AND A WOMAN’S TRUTHFUL VOICE
OF LIBERTY, COmpassion & DIVINE JUSTICE!
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Who is THIS SOJOURNER TRUTH?
TRUTH IS. . .
AN AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY
A WOMAN OF TOWERING PRESENCE & HISTORIC COURAGE
A PIONEERING CHAMPION OF BOTH EMANCIPATION
AND WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN AMERICA
WHAT IS THIS TRUTH?
TRUTH IS. . . A TALE OF IMPOSSIBLE TOIL AND IMPROBABLE TRIUMPH
ACHIEVED WITH HUMILITY, GRACE & GRATITUDE
TRUTH IS. . . AN EMANATION OF THE GREAT SOUL OF SOJOURNER TRUTH
EXPRESSED IN HER OWN WORDS & DEEDS
REVERBERATING THROUGH TIME
RESURRECTED FOR THE STAGE
AS A LIVING LEGACY OF FAITH IN ACTION
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“I will not allow my Life’s Light
to be determined by the darkness around me.”
~ Sojourner Truth
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IN TRUTH. . .
SOJOURNER RETURNS HOME TO NEW YORK
AT A CRITICAL MOMENT IN TIME (Then & NOW!)
TO SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER - TO CHALLENGE THE MEN IN CHARGE
AND THE OPPRESSIVE, DESTRUCTIVE POLICIES THEY CHAMPION
INTERRUPTING THEIR PARADE OF PATRIOTIC PROPAGANDA
ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, OF ALL DAYS!
THESE MEN WILL TRY ANYTHING TO SILENCE HER, AND IN TRUTH THEY DO,
YET THEY FAIL AGAIN AND AGAIN, UNTIL FINALLY AND FANTASTICALLY
TRUTH PREVAILS!
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CREATOR’S NOTES:
The MUSICAL
Based on her poignant autobiography, Narrative of Sojourner Truth, TRUTH tells Sojourner’s story as she did in her life - in both word and song, with a powerful woman’s voice, crackling wit and wisdom, and a deep, rousing, soul-stirring honesty. Sojourner is both the Prophet-Storyteller and the central figure in TRUTH’s Story within a Story, which she delivers as a kind of eye-opening, heart-rousing ‘Sermon on the Fairgrounds!’
As she recounts her harrowing life’s journey, Sojourner discovers that in order to exorcise the nation’s demons of enslavement, she must also recognize and release the shame she has long carried from things done to her in her younger days.
In defiance of persistent efforts by men to silence her, Sojourner stands once more in the SpotLight of God above. As she sings from her soul in the Holy Spirit of TRUTH, she is honoring her parents, children, family and ancestors, while liberating herself and lifting up the audience, young and old. Her Faith in Action gives us Faith in a way forward into a more just and humane way of living, Truly loving our neighbors as ourselves, once and for all.
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The PURPOSE
In our present time of racial and cultural reckoning in America, in a nation fraught with political, racial, economic, class and gender tensions, Sojourner returns in TRUTH to awaken and speak to the hearts and minds of America, challenging once more the pernicious deadly narratives of power-hoarding patriarchy, misogyny and white supremacy.
Coming to bind up, not wound, to resurrect, not bury, Sojourner’s TRUTH-telling opens a door for healing the nation in the here and now. By personalizing for all people to grasp the true horrors of slavery and its legacies - with a clear-eyed critique yet deep Love for humanity, Sojourner’s story inspires and awakens a spirit of compassion which is essential for justice and equality for all. Her living virtues of fortifying faith and forgiveness help lift people from the malaise of resentment and entitlement which pits neighbor against neighbor, leaving everyone mired in misery.
Sojourner’s Love is not blind, it’s not without scars, yet it is a living force of humility, simplicity, humor and transforming power which restores us to fundamental decency and humanity.
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“TRUTH is POWERFUL and IT PREVAILS!”
- Sojourner TRUTH
In these days...of intensifying assaults on women’s rights and basic freedoms, on voting rights and civil rights of all kinds, inclucing subversion of the judiciary by corrupting right wing forces, ongoing violence against black lives and women, and increasingly vocal white nationalist agitation in politics and on all media,
TRUTH’s message is simply more timely than ever.
More and more recognition is arising for Sojourner up and down the Hudson River and beyond, as people gather to learn about her Life, her Faith and her Light, and to celebrate her once again in a new generation of nation healers and TRUTH revealers.
As a hopeful sign for TRUTH, in August 2020, while Confederate statues were coming down across the nation, Sojourner’s statue was unveiled in Central Park in New York City. Alongside Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the “Monumental Women” statue is the first statue ever of real women in Central Park. It is also a homecoming for Sojourner, who lived many formative years in New York City. New York is where she first heard God’s call to go forth across the nation and tell the TRUTH about slavery. It is where she embarked from and received her new name: Sojourner - one who walks in the path of God, and TRUTH - what she is called to tell.
In TRUTH, Sojourner has arrived again in New York, a mere stroll from Broadway where she is ready willing and humbly able to take the stage by storm. . . with
THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH & NOTHING BUT
SOJOURNER TRUTH!
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The FAMILY
Barbara Allen is Sojourner TRUTH’s sixth generation great-granddaughter and Sojourner’s family legacy holder. She is the author of several beautiful children’s books honoring her great grandmother, and is a sought after speaker on the legacy of Sojourner. She is the Family Consultant for TRUTH and a tremendously positive voice for the enduring power and meaning of Sojourner’s life and spiritual legacy. TRUTH is honored to have her gracious input, friendship and support!
Her website is: www.sixth-generation.com
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SOJOURNER’S 4th of JULY HUDSON RIVER ADDRESS for TODAY
Twenty score and a handful of years ago, our grandmothers were brought forth upon this continent, forced to build for others a “new” nation. . . conceived in conquest, cloaked in “liberty” and dedicated to the perilous position that some men are created more equal than all others.
Now we are engaged in a great Broadway bound show, testing whether this audience or any other audience so conceived and so dedicated can have a long and open ended run. We are met on a great American Fairground with remnants and reverberations of the most unsettling and uncivil wars.
We have come to dedicate the composition of this play as a renewal of Holy Spirit, to quench the thirst for Liberty that so many of We the People have, and have had, for so many who have lost and still lose their lives in this nation, unjustly, while yet the nation lives.
We here highly resolve and say again that these beautiful innocent ancestors shall not have died in vain, their names shall be spoken, their songs of Spirit shall be sung, in both Act One and Two, for their lives matter, and this nation under God and over time shall yet have a true birth of Equality and Justice once and for all, so that a divinely guided government of the people, by the people, for the people, will Truly come to Be upon this earth.
Let TRUTH Be Told as in days of old! So here we go!
TRUTH . . . it’s about time somebody told it!
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