The MLK Project: The Fight For Civil Rights

The MLK Project is a one-woman show that follows a Chicago student’s personal transformation through studying the Civil Rights Movement. Alaya uses her fists as an outlet for anger, but after interviewing local heroes of the Movement she discovers she can put “anger into action” and that her power is in her voice and her hip hop, not violence. Weaving together real interviews, poetry, hip hop, history and multi-media projections the performance features stories of both celebrated and unsung Chicago-based Civil Rights Activists including Reverend Samuel “Billy” Kyles, who was present on the evening Dr. King was killed; poet and artist Dr. Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs, who founded the DuSable Museum of African American History; Reverend Jesse Jackson, longtime fighter for social justice; and Puerto Rican poet and activist David Hernandez. This exciting partnership is part of the ninth annual tour of the Writers Theatre production.