La Peña Cultural Center is proud to present: 9-1-1 What’s Your Emergency? The Verdict! TWO NIGHTS ONLY: Friday, April 26 & Saturday, April 27
April 26, 2019. 
Doors open at 7:30 pm / Show starts at 8pm
General Admission: $25 Advance / $30 Doors
Students & Seniors: $20 Advance / $25 Doors
April 27, 2019. Doors open at 7:30 pm / Show starts at 8pm
General Admission: $25 Advance / $30 Doors
Students & Seniors: $20 Advance / $25 Doors
9-1-1 What’s Your Emergency? premiered as a one-act play at La Peña Cultural Center in 2018 as an artistic response to the local 9-1-1 calls that made BBQ Becky and Permit Patty infamous on a national level. Act one examined how the 9-1-1 call is rooted in “micro-aggression”, yet can have irreparable consequences to communities of color.
We are so pleased to be presenting a groundbreaking second act, “The Verdict”, which further examines the intersection of structural racism and personal psychological narratives that propel the calls.
Written and directed by Bay Area playwright Jovelyn Richards and starring a cast of local actors, the play uplifts the stories of the victims and the defendants against the backdrop of: gentrification, stereotypes, systemic racism and the personal narratives of humanity.
SYNOPSIS:
Are 9-1-1 calls against black and brown people hate crimes? The verdict of “Guilty” or “Not Guilty” rests in the hands of the jurors.
On the eve of the court’s decision the doors open into the bedrooms of the prosecutors, defendants, key witnesses, BBQ Becky and Permit Patty. What happens behind closed doors in matters of race can no longer be hidden when everybody’s dirty laundry is exposed.
Poetic justice will be served in this court drama based on real life 9-1-1 calls.
LIVE Q&A:
Tune in to La Peña’s Facebook page on Sunday, April 28th at 5pm for live discussion with the cast to continue to the conversation about race & the topics the play covers!
What people have to say about “9-1-1 What’s Your Emergency?”:
9-1-1 What is Your Emergency? is a brave and brilliantly performed play. The characters are raw and relatable, and every word uttered is clearly written with love and grace, making this difficult story approachable to a wide audience. We all benefit from the healing space director Jovelyn Richards creates in her artivism.
– Sarah Maslov, SURJ Bay Area
As the presenting partner, it has been an honor to uplift the visionary storytelling work of playwright and director Jovelyn Richards. When we support black women authors, playwrights and directors we open doors for other POC in the arts, create spaces for communities of color to see their authentic stories reflected on stage, and invite an intercultural audience to sit with both the tension and ease of difficult subjects, a dichotomy that only the arts can create. To Jovelyn and the cast members, thank you for entrusting us with holding this space for you.
– Natalia Neira Retamal, La Peña Cultural Center
About Jovelyn Richards
Jovelyn D. Richards is an African-American/Native American writer/director/teacher and performance artist living in Oakland, CA. She has done solo performances at The Marsh, Afro Solo, and La Peña Cultural Center in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as at the Los Angeles Women’s Theater Festival, the National Black Theatre Festival in North Carolina, and other venues. She has also published short stories and a novel, and she is the host of a radio show on KPFA that explores the racial and other divisions in our society.
Her work often focuses on the dignity, wisdom, and resilience of people of color as they struggle with systemic racism. Her novel, Tulips for Evening, deals with race relations in the South immediately after the Civil War. Her solo performance piece, Come Home, dealt with Negro soldiers from rural Arkansas returning home after World War II, and Miz Pat’s House presents stories about diverse women in a mid-20th century brothel run by an African-American woman.
Her current play, 9-1-1 What’s Your Emergency? explores the racist fears that drive white women to call the police when they see people of color in their neighborhoods. 9-1-1 is being created in collaboration with Showing Up for Racial Justice, a national organization dedicated to fighting white supremacy.
Richards has worked for over 25 years in marginalized communities as a family advocate and community educator, and she is especially interested in the intersectionality of race, class, gender, and LGBTQ oppressions. She is a consultant with Peer Advocates Training and Consulting and has been leading cultural diversity training workshops with the teachers and staff of the Stockton Unified School District.
Richards has also directed theatre residencies at the San Francisco Sex Workers Theater and Film Festival, at Bennett College, and Central Eastern University in Budapest, Hungary. She is currently an artist-in-residence at La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley, CA.