CAROLYN BYRANT
The Carolyn Bryant Project, is a new performance work is a conceptual inversion to the story of Emmett Till, in which we expose the binary between the preserved and hidden Carolyn Bryant and the hideously exposed and decaying Emmett Till. Carolyn Bryant and Emmett Till are bound together on stage, exposing them as they are bound together in history. She cannot ignore him because he is her future. He cannot ignore her because she is his fate.
We are exploring the dichotomy between the media event that surrounds the Till story and the intense lack of mainstream recognition of the catalyst for his demise. Carolyn’s continued silence is as extreme as the photographs of Till’s bloated unrecognizable body. At the root of this event there is one very important question: What happened in the store? We strive to attack this question from all angles, knowing that is unanswerable. We are exploring whether or not her allowed silence is an endorsement, emblematic of white privilege in this country as a whole.
Workshop Co-Production
Highways Performance Space
2011