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The Fula from America: An African Journey

Written and performed by Carlyle Brown

Based on Carlyle Brown’s own travels in West Africa, The Fula From America is the story of one African-American’s search for an African identity.  Set in 1981, the traveler sets off on a journey that takes him to Senegal, Mali, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Sierra Leone.  From deep in the bush to the corridors of the African elite, he discovers friendship, generosity, poverty, wondrous beauty and civil war.  As his adventures unfold, he finds himself on the boundary of the African-American hyphen where the question arises: how much of him is African and how much is American?

Artist Team

Artistic Director's Notes

“We will not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time”.

                                                            T.S. Eliot – Four Quartets

When Joshua Slocum left Gloucester Massachusetts in 1895 and was on his way to a single-hand voyage around the world he was hailed in the north Atlantic by a ship concerned for his welfare.  After all there he was a man alone in a small boat on a cold and stormy sea.  “Where are you coming from?” asked the captain of the ship.  “Gloucester” said Slocum.  “And where are you going?” shouted the captain.  “Gloucester” shouted Slocum.

 So it is with the journey where the destination is only an excuse for departure, where it’s not so much about the arrival, but the getting there that counts, and where the old clique saying rings as true as life itself, “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”  When one packs one’s bag for a journey, one learns too late that he or she has packed all their joys and troubles in a single compact place.  And no matter what we pack the only thing we really bring with us is ourselves, and no matter where we go it is ourselves that will be the only thing we will really discover in the end.  The journey I share with you now is a journey true to life, but a journey that has a parallel track, it is a journey that has been realized in life and now is a journey of imagination, memory, and the theater, it’s ultimate destination.  Come travel with me.

 -Carlyle Brown

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Last modified: 10/23/07