Freedom Is My Middle Name

  “You got to have goals and dreams. You got to find love
in your hearts!”

With these words, and the help of a magic quilt, five urban students are taken on a journey into the past by Stagecoach Mary, an endearing, vibrant and powerful character from African American history

The students take on the roles of people from another time and place. Their first stop is Atlanta, Georgia, and the year is 1858

They meet Preacher Man, a conductor for the underground railroad who daringly gives escape routes in sermon and song

They travel to Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1878 and meet Mary Eliza Mahoney, a woman who went up against seemingly insurmountable odds to become the first African American woman in the United States to graduate from a nursing program

At the end of the play, the students return to the present with new-found understanding. They begin to realize that you don’t have to be famous to make a difference ... you just need courage to make a dream come alive

This play, filled with magic, excitement and humor received its highly successful premiere at The Open Eye Theatre/New Stagings in New York as part of Black History Month
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