From the Archives – “Another River Flows”

In the early 2000s, James Jackson came to Mark McKenna at Touchstone to ask if we’d help dramatize some work that he and the NAACP had been working on… the story of the Black immigration into the Valley and the struggle for justice— which turned out to be a gathering and performance in memory of the 4^th Street Removal Project. In 2008, as the culmination of the Lehigh Valley Black African Heritage History Project, Another River Flows performed in Easton, Bethlehem, and Allentown. The performance below took place at the Bethlehem Ice House on Sand Island and features treasured performers too numerous to name, but I recognize Winston Alozie, James Jackson, Peggy Pettit, Phyllis Alexander, Margarita Gonzales, Grace Adele, Ella Hook — many, many wonderful performers and cherished friends.

Frankly, yes, we at Touchstone have put forward this excerpt now because of what is happening now in our communities, in our hearts. For so, so long this has gone on – the oppression of our Black brothers and sisters. Words fail. Memory fails. But the struggle must succeed, and the trace of the memory of this beautiful, loving, righteous production gives me hope.

— Bill George