Disposable Men

HERE Arts Center presents the premiere of James Scruggs’s African-American odyssey Disposable Men, directed by HERE’s co-founder and Executive Director Kristin Marting.

Old-fashioned storytelling pairs with new media in Disposable Men. This humorous solo work presents a series of interactive monologues demonstrating the flippant irreverence with which the popular media treats the disposability of African-American men. With a witty sardonicism, Scruggs plays characters as varied as a waiter at a theme restaurant that features customized lynchings, a modern day minstrel performing at kid’s parties, and more. This is all performed with an underlying motif of the shockingly close relationship that Hollywood monsters and African American men share. Especially the imaginative, over-the-top ways both are feared, killed, and ultimately, disposed of.

Post-performance discussions on Feb. 9 & 10 with Dr. Carlyle Van Thompson, Woodrow Wilson Fellow on Humanities at Medgar Evers College.