American Slavery Project’s Unheard Voices

In this monologue play with traditional West African singing and drumming, acclaimed playwrights have imagined the lives and given voice to the individuals found at the African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan.

Conceived by Judy Tate, 17 writers were commissioned by ASP to study 17th- and 18th-century New York and the crypt contents at the burial ground where up to 30,000 African-descended people remain. There are no extant records of the free and enslaved men, women, and children buried there. The writers have imagined their lives and given them voice.