“On Buried Ground” portrays Alice of Dunk’s Ferry, a woman born into slavery in Philadelphia in, supposedly, 1686 to parents from Barbados. She likely led an extraordinarily long life, perhaps 116 years old, and was unusually well-documented for an enslaved person.
Due to her detailed memory of people and historical facts from the first years of the city of Philadelphia, she was relied upon as an oral historian. She was owned by Samual Carpenter, a deputy governor of Pennsylvania, a founder of Christ Church and a personal friend of William Penn.
“She lit William Penn’s pipe, which is really fun,” said playwright Rayne, formerly known as Angela Bey. “A very trusted member of the community. She also rode on horseback to Christ Church until she was 95 years old. You can imagine this beautiful woman of stature riding on horseback to services.”
For the performance, Alice is portrayed by Rhonda Moore, an elder of dance in her own right who, in 1983, was a founding member of the influential ensemble Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. For 15 years, she has fostered young dancers as an instructor at Temple University.
In “On Buried Ground,” Moore gives a voice to Alice as she never was able to in life. She delivers a fiery sermon from Christ Church’s elevated podium on the spirit of the Black Philadelphian.
“If she could, like, have dominion over this, what would a Church sermon from Alice look like and feel like?” Benjamin said.
“In this church, my church, this thing called love is not a spectacle,” Moore says, as Alice.
“In this church, my church, angels take graveyard shifts, bind their spirits to the fences to keep love in,” she continues.
“In Philadelphia, the Free North, we haunt the Earth,” she proclaims. “Ponder our futures.”
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Publish date : 2024-09-03 13:00:00
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