By Jeanni Ritchie

Segregation is alive and well in 2024 Louisiana, if only in the minds of its residents. Lack of communication and unwillingness to embrace change reinforce stereotypes on both sides of the culture divide. We can only voice our truth with our one mouth while listening to others’ voices with our two ears. Let a former schoolteacher remind you of the divine symbolism there. While healthy communication between people involves 50/50 talk time, a healthy soul requires you to listen twice as much as you talk. It is the only way to broaden your perspective and break convention.

 

The Legacy cast is all about shattering preconceptions. They are tired of being seen as one-dimensional with a narrow focus on wrongdoing instead of the broader lens of the inclusivity and diversity seen in vision statements around Cenla. This is the origin story of Legacy. Now in its third year, the message only grows stronger.

 

“We want to show the positive side of black culture,” senior Jeremiah McKinney shares. “People see the sad, the negative. But we have a lot of rich culture in our music and our dances. Our desire is that through expression people will understand our heritage more.”

 

I’d just written a social-emotional skit encouraging kids to use their power of expression in building healthy relationships; I tracked.

 

But it was about history as well.

 

I’d been out of the classroom for fourteen years. Did Black Lives Matter change curriculum at all?

 

Senior Makayla Dangerfield was thoughtful. “No. You’d think there would be more progress but we learn the basics in school: Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglas..but we aren’t taught about some of the others who changed history. We aren’t taught about our culture or our heritage or even how to be black. Others aren’t taught what it’s like to be for us to BE black.”

 

The message of positivity that flows from their hearts onto the stage is a priceless. Go for the education not the entertainment.

 

Some of the entertainment will leave you with performance FOMO. I wanted to trade my iPad for someone’s dancing shoes during Whitney Houston “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” number.

 

I’m not a critic. Especially for theater or pizza because they all get my support. But I’m a realist. This falls between the touring Broadway show of Pretty Woman I saw in San Antonio last week and my son’s kindergarten Gettysburg address in ‘96.

 

The thing is I’d sit through 5,000 more “Fourscores and seven” just to support him. ASH Theatre students are here to represent. We should all be in attendance.

 

You can see ASH Legacy at Coughlin-Saunders Performing Arts Center Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at 7 and Sunday at 2.

 

(Photo credit: Jeanni Ritchie)