L’il Brown Brothers/Nikimalika (I’ve Been to America)

The Ma-Yi Theatre Company, dedicated to exploring works by and about Filipinos, presents the world premiere of L’il Brown Brothers/Nikimalika (I’ve Been to America). The production explores the events surrounding the importation of indigenous Filipino peoples to the St. Louis World Exposition of 1904. The personal, spiritual and political collide in the bizarre setting of the “Philippine Exhibit” where indigenous people were put on display with circus “freaks” and asked to perform their traditional rituals to further exoticize their “savage” nature.