Racism – Interfaith Cincinnati

by Rev. Dr. Jack Sullivan, Jr. Texts: Proverbs 22.1-2, 8-9, 22-23 and Psalm 146

After several days of sheltering in place with my immediate family, I returned to my Ohio home. At once, I I was greeted by two old friends who were waiting for me at my place. They were not human beings. Instead, they were piles of dust, behind two doors.

So, as I looked at the piles of dust, trying to decide which one I would attend to first, I imagined one of them saying to the other in an enthusiastic tone, “I have decided that I am better than you. This means , I am worth more than you, and I am more important than you.” So then, I imagined the other pile of dust being startled and issuing a rather stern rebuke: “Say what? Aren’t we both just piles of dust? How are you any better than me?”

13th & Republic is produced by the award-winning Cincinnati-based arts organization “Walterhoope” http://www.walterhoope.com/, currently in its fourth season and recently featured in Cincinnati magazine.

“13th & Republic” is a locally-produced “interactive operatic radical dance film,” innovatively produced through creative-collaboration-in-the-era-of-covid, featuring the original music of Kaleel Skeirik, the inspiring poetry of Tyrone Williams, gospel choir director/pianist Rev. Dan Larkin, director/choreographer Darnell Pierre Benjamin, and local dancers, singers, and film professionals. Skeirik’s original piece was motivated by the shooting of Timothy Thomas in 2001 at 13th & Republic in Cincinnati.

About 13th & Republic
Walterhoope presents 13th & Republic, an Interactive, Operatic, Radical Dance Film directed by Darnell Pierre Benjamin that addresses excessive police force against Black communities and the mental health of the country.

13th & Republic features an original score by composer Kaleel Skeirik that weaves together contemporary symphonic, jazz, renaissance, and Appalachian folk music with original poetry and lyrics by Tyrone Williams.

This project is made possible in part by state tax dollars allocated by the Ohio Legislature to the Ohio Arts Council (OAC)

Grant support from Xavier University, Ohio Arts Council, Christ Church Cathedral.