February 4, 2025
Have you ever had this experience? It’s in the quiet moments, when a family member, friend, or stranger drops the most out-of-left-field lore you could ever imagine! What is lore, you ask? Something you can’t get from google, at least not in the same way. Something that illuminates a part of the “lore-giver’s”, life, the past, …you? So much so that whatever it is, it’s important, and now you find yourself telling a friend, a sibling, a child. Passing on the story, building connection and contributing to the tradition of storytelling.
I assume you’re familiar with the name Zeus? What about Hera? Hercules? Mmmm. How about Osun or Elegba? Yeah, I wasn’t either until my own cultural lore made its way onto my desk in the form of The Half God of Rainfall by Inua Ellams. An epic revenge poem that features Nigerian mythology, Greek mythology, and basketball– all told through the oral tradition. And what a gift it was to receive a story that has the power to illuminate oneself– in my case, my Nigerian cultural history.
The Half-God of Rainfall is a story of power that questions how one obtains it, takes it, uses it. It explores love: of the game, of a mother, and it challenges toxic masculinity. In our production the play’s storytellers are from the future, telling a story from their past. The director, Lindsay Smiling, wanted to use Afrofuturism to ground the play. Afrofuturism is a genre of speculative fiction that combines science fiction, history, and fantasy to explore the Black experience. It asks: what can we learn from the stories of our past? Can we challenge what we know? Will history ever stop repeating itself? Who can be a god?
Connect with the resources below in whichever way works best for you. I hope you’re able to grab hold of the story while it’s here. Who knows when you’ll encounter it again and it’s best to be prepared before history repeats itself. Don’t you think?
-Brittany
