I Ain't Yo Uncle

This play takes Harriet Beecher Stowe's abolitionist novel and spins it on its ear. Old stereotypes get to meet their creator, as Uncle Tom, Topsy and Eliza put Harriet Beecher Stowe on trial for not only perpetuating negative stereotypes but also for failing to "get their story right." In this play these same stereotypes reinvent themselves, while the story gets updated from their own Afrocentric perspective in such a way that it not only retains the story's original power, but also draws sharp parallels on matters of race between yesterday and today. If Uncle Tom's Cabin was the novel that helped start the Civil War, I Ain't Yo' Uncle reminds us that the war for equality in America still continues.