Say it Loud, Town halls and performances all over Akron

Say It Loud Akron is a multi-disciplinary, multi-platform vehicle that shares community voices around the issue of systemic racism.

In June 2020, the tragic death of George Floyd and others including Breonna Taylor the previous March, sparked protests in Akron and all over the country. In response to all they were seeing and hearing around them, local theater artists Francine Parr and Maya Nicholson decided to create a work reflective of the community in which they lived. Produced by the Akron Civic Theatre’s Millennial Theatre Project, Say It Loud Akron is a multi-disciplinary, multi-platform vehicle that shares community voices around the issue of systemic racism. The project began with personal stories gathered by Parr and Nicholson via one-on-one interviews and an on-line survey. Under development through December 2020, in 2021 the work will begin a series of town hall meetings followed a month or so later by performances in varying locations throughout Akron. Say It Loud Akron performances will consists of a series of monologues scripted directly from the interviews and surveys, offering authentic representations of the feelings, frustrations and fears of community members. The script is “fluid” with new stories written for each performance based on the town hall which occurred there weeks earlier. In addition, Say It Loud Akron features a series of memes created specifically to highlight the thoughts of Civil Rights icons and local citizens relative to the issue of systemic racism. These memes are distributed on The Civic’s various social media platforms, including the pages of Millennial Theatre Project and Say It Loud Akron.

Funding for Say It Loud is provided by Akron Community Foundations, Akron Civic Commons and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.