THE KEENING

BY COLM SUMMERS AND LEANNE HOWE

ABOUT THE PLAY

176 years ago, the Choctaw sent aid to the Irish in the worst year of the Great Famine. Their gift began a generations-long reciprocity between them, one that still flourishes to this day. It was out of this history that my relationship with Choctaw scholar and writer LeAnne Howe was born.

In ancient Irish culture, a “keening” is a sacred mourning song. In 1847, the Choctaw and Irish alike were mourning the loss of their people, and their homes, at the hands of Imperialism. In our play, keening is what connects these two worlds across the Atlantic. The play features an exciting blend of traditional Choctaw and Irish performance forms: dances, songs, ceremonies, and poems, as a way of reclaiming what was lost.

At its core, The Keening is a production about indigeneity, immigration, and assimilation, and a conversation about what it means to be American- a conversation which arguably has not been as pressing since the founding of the nation.

DEVELOPMENT HISTORY

• JULY 2021: Colm travels to Athens, Georgia to draft a script with LeAnne Howe at the University of Georgia.

• AUGUST 2021: The Keening team is invited to be the inaugural artists at the new Irish Arts Center in New York City

• NOVEMBER 2022: A second residency takes place at Irish Arts Center, where Colm and LeAnne begin to draft a new iteration of the script.

PROJECT SPONSORS

The development of The Keening has been made possible with the support of Irish Arts Center and The University of Georgia.