Is God Is

By Aleshea Harris 

Moderated by Dr. Niambi Webster

Twenty-one year old African-American twin sisters Racine and Anaia were burned and scarred as babies. Racine has burn scars on her arms, back and neck, and Anaia has scars on her arms, face and neck. After receiving a letter in their apartment in Northeast, they journey to the Dirty South to the deathbed of their mother, who is known as “SHE” or “God” and has scars all over her body. SHE informs them that their father, referred to as “Man”, set the fire that burned the three of them. SHE instructs the sisters to go west to The Valley to find and kill him. The sisters travel there to face Man and his new family.

About the playwright  

Aleshea Harris is an American playwright, spoken word artist, author, educator, actor, performer, and screenwriter. Her play Is God Is won the American Playwriting Foundation’s Relentless Award in 2016.

Her work has been commissioned for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Her plays have toured in France and in Belgium and have been presented at Playfest at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice, California Institute of the Arts, VOXfest at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and the Comédie de Saint-Étienne-National Drama Center in France.

About the moderator

Niambi D. Webster is a touring music dance theatre artist. She founded, produced and directed for ten years, The Langston Hughes Company of Players. The ensemble toured all of the country performing such plays as: “Jonnas,” “For Colored Girls,” “Ma Raineys Black Bottom,” and performed African American History programs throughout the State of Iowa. She received Artist of the year from The State of Iowa Arts Council. Niambi taught multicultural/ethnic education for 28 years on the collegiate level and 23 years teaching theatre,  English, speech and dance in high schools.

She has been  on the stages of Hattiloo, Playhouse on the Square, Theatre Memphis, Evergreen, Bluff City, and The Civic Center (where she directed The Junteenth Story” for three years).