By establishing an annual artistic ritual featuring music, movement, and word, Lookingglass Theatre commemorates the start of the 1919 Chicago race riots, incited by the tragic murder of Eugene Williams, a Black teenager stoned to death on July 27, 1919, by a white man, George Stauber, after drifting into a “whites only” section of Lake Michigan. One week later, 38 were dead, 537 injured, 2000 displaced.
Sunset 1919 is meant to peacefully honor the lives of Black people impacted by the deadly racial attacks that swept the nation that summer, the roots of which stretch back across centuries, and the fruits of which we continue to pluck – a moment in an unbroken line.
Artists
Kareem Bandealy is a father, an actor, a playwright, and staff member at Lookingglass.
Wordsmith. Trouble Maker. Lover and a fighter.
