Twenty-Eight
by Cohen New Works Festival, University of Texas

Apr. 13 - Apr. 16, 2015
Monday-Thursday

TwentyEight is a play based on the Malcolm X Grass Root report Operation Ghetto Storm that states in 2012 a black person was murdered by a police officer, or vigilante every 28 hours. 66% of the people killed were under the age of 31. Texas had the highest amount of extrajudicial killings with 29. It is greatly inspired by the Afro-futurism genre, and will incorporate the music of Kanye West.

TwentyEight takes place in Settlement Forty, Texas, an all Black township, where 19 year-old Isaiah Willis is working on the first craft headed for the Liberian Space Station. The American government has offered the citizens of all Black townships the opportunity to start new lives on the LSS, but in actuality it is less of an offer, and more of a forced exodus. The citizens of Settlement Forty protest against the Liberian Space Station, and twenty-eight hours before take off is scheduled, a 14 year-old protestor is shot and killed by township enforcers. Isaiah, who’s brother Martin was murdered by a vigilante just a month before, is in complete opposition of the protest, and is hoping to leave all of his troubles for the LSS, until he meets the older sister of the murdered teenager, Najee. Isaiah and Najee make a quick love connection, but Najee is hoping to convince Isaiah to stay and fight against the enforcers, while Isaiah longs for the freedom and endlessness of outer space. With only twenty-eight hours to decide, the question is, “Who will survive in America?” 

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Twenty-Eight
by Tyler English-Beckwith
Cohen New Works Festival, University of Texas

April 13 at 5:30 p.m.

April 14 at 2:30 p.m.

April 15 at 5:30 p.m.

April 16 at 2 p.m.