Emily Wilson: Black Panthers: The Musical - Theater - Truthdig

Decades ago, Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx was so neglected that rats ran through the emergency room and the head of pediatrics claimed children got lead poisoning while hospitalized there. Steven Sapp’s grandmother lived near the hospital, and he remembers when the Young Lords, a Puerto Rican group similar to the Black Panthers, barricaded the doors in 1970 and took it over with the help of nurses and doctors who worked there. He also remembers going by the Black Panthers’ office in the neighborhood, where black nationalists organized clothing drives and free breakfasts.



So when the Oregon Shakespeare Festival approached Sapp and the other members of the New York-based ensemble Universes, asking them to be a part of the festival’s “American Revolutions: The United States History Cycle,” they chose to write about the Black Panthers and the Young Lords.



Read more here: Emily Wilson: Black Panthers: The Musical - Theater - Truthdig

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