Juneteenth Seder Project
Los Angeles | January–June 2024

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In the first half of 2024 Inheritance Theater Project (ITP) is collaborating with Black, Jewish, & Black-Jewish communities in Los Angeles to create a Juneteenth Seder, a theatrical ritual experience that marries the traditional structure of a Passover Seder with the story and symbolism of the Juneteenth holiday. 

 

Juneteenth: A national holiday celebrated on June 19 to commemorate the day in 1865 when the final enslaved people in Texas were informed of their freedom, more than two and a half years after emancipation was initially declared.

 

Seder: A ritual meal celebrated by Jewish people around the world to honor the holiday of Passover. Family and friends gather to tell the story of the liberation of the Hebrews in ancient Egypt, as found in the book of Exodus.

 

This project seeks to connect Black and Jewish Angelenos in relationship with each other. Not to solve a specific issue or right a historical wrong, but to connect two communities who have known expulsion and exodus in many iterations through generations of lived experience. Our hope is that through creating something new together, that the participants can strengthen ties, form new friendships, and potentially impact the civil discourse among their communities moving forward.

 

We piloted a similar project in Cincinnati in 2020-21 which resulted in a virtual performance we called EXODUS: Reckoning.  Building on our succes, we’re excited to bring this participatory playmaking process to Los Angeles. 

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