The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One Hundred Years

by Pearl Cleage

Moderated by Thomas King

It’s 1964, ten years after the Montgomery bus boycott, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is planning a massive voter registration drive that promises to put the city back at the center of the Civil Rights Movement. Meanwhile the Nacirema Society prepares for its annual introduction of six elegant African-American debutantes to a world of prosperity, privilege and social responsibility. This centennial year, the Society’s grande dame, Grace Dunbar, will have nothing less than perfection for her granddaughter Gracie’s debut. Assisted by her lifelong friend, Catherine, who hopes the cotillion will prompt her grandson to propose to Grace’s granddaughter, the hope the cotillion will prompt Catherine’s grandson to propose to Grace’s granddaughter. And with young love brewing, old family skeletons rattling, national media attention abounding and a blackmail plot bubbling…what would dare go awry?

About the playwright 

Pearl Cleage

Bio to come

About the moderator

Thomas King

Bio to come