Flyin’ West is, literally and metaphorically, a play about the importance of the stories we tell. In it Pearl Cleage gives us familiar stories, but always with a twist that gives us a new understanding of their meaning. In the character of Miss Leah, for example, we have a former slave who has come west with the usual stories of oppression, but also with a mission -- and tactics that prove vital for the group’s survival. Frank’s “tragic mulatto” story is countered by Sophie, who managed, despite a similar tragic background, to find a strong sense of self, a new family, and a clear purpose in life. The domestic violence -- a classic case of the oppressed becoming the oppressor -- is answered by the combination of tenderness and strength we see in Wil. The story itself gives us the stereotypical Western Myth, complete with the values of the Old West: pioneering spirits braving harsh conditions to breathe free, who will protect their land and their family at any cost. Only this version of the Western Myth isn’t peopled with any of the usual suspects; instead of white men, the core of this Western saga is three black women. By telling the old stories in new ways, Cleage not only reclaims history for those who have been written out, but she makes the old history bigger and more interesting than it was before.

Cleage calls her project of claiming (and thus enlarging) history “accurately expressing our very specific and highly individual realities [in order to] discover our common humanity.” She gives her story about story-telling a familiar feminist ending that drives home her sense of why this project is so important: she gives us the Future, in the guise of a baby girl, who will move forward armed, thanks to Miss Leah’s stories, with the knowledge of the Past.

Reclaiming history is an obvious and important part of addressing cultural bias. Reclaiming the stories -- “unearthing the voice[s],” as it were -- allows members of the affected group to discover role models, find a sense of self, become empowered to enact change. However, it strikes me that it is not only the affected groups who need this reclamation. It is not only women who need women’s history, and it is not only African Americans who need black history. For it is only when we hear and understand each others’ “highly individual realities” that we can “discover our common humanity,” only when we all take part ownership of our collective and now-enlarged past that we can be fully armed for the future.

Pearl Cleage lives in Atlanta with husband and daughter. She is an artistic associate of Just Us Theater Company there, and writes for The Atlanta Tribune and Ms. Magazine. Other works include the novels What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day and Some Things I Thought I’d Never Do; and two books of essays, Mad at Miles: A Blackwoman's Guide to Truth and Deals with the Devil and Other Reasons to Riot. Other plays include Blues for an Alabama Sky and Bourbon at the Border. All three plays were commissioned by and premiered at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta and have received numerous productions throughout the country. Cleage is also a performance artist and frequently collaborates with her husband, Zaron W. Burnett, Jr.

[April 2007]

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