Updated January 15, 2023: Due to emergency construction in Gaston Hall, this performance has been postponed.
Updated December 20, 2022: This story was originally published for Here I Am's virtual premiere in April 2021. The show will have its in-person premiere performance in Gaston Hall January 20, 2023. Tickets are available via the Laboratory for Global Performance & Politics.
Here I Am, an upcoming performance by Mélisande Short-Colomb for Georgetown’s Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, taps images from the Maryland Province Archives, the University Archives, the University Art Collection, and beyond to bring the stories of the GU272 to life.
Short-Colomb is a descendent of Abraham Mahoney and Mary Ellen Queen, two of the enslaved people sold by the Maryland Jesuits in 1838 to fund Georgetown University. She started as a student at Georgetown in 2017 after hosting a dinner for other descendents of the GU272 and faculty from the Laboratory. During her studies, she engaged with her descendancy through the Laboratory, where she now serves as community engagement associate.
Here I Am is the capstone of “Eight semesters of engagement with the institution that enslaved and sold my family, as well as the United States of America, because we are moving forward in national dialogues about mythologized histories of America and the people who were excluded in reality to create the myth,” Short-Colomb explains. The performance will be an autobiographical chronicle that explores her complicated relationship with Georgetown through narrative, imagery, and music.
While the show may ultimately be mounted for in-person audiences, its premiere performances will be livestreamed due to the pandemic. “My black box is on the other side of my bedroom door in my apartment,” Short-Colomb said.
But that allows for innovations in how the show will use imagery. “A normal production might use projections to show images on screens,” said Michael Donnay, production manager for Here I Am. “We’ve been figuring out ways to create media that responds to and engages with her as she’s performing.” Some images may appear as floating pieces of text in front of Short-Colomb’s face, as a backdrop, or blended with other pieces of media.
Photo of Old North from 1874, one of the archival materials used in Here I Am
The production worked with staff in the Library’s Booth Family Center for Special Collections, including Curator of Collections on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation Mary Beth Corrigan, University Archivist Lynn Conway, and Art Collection Curator LuLen Walker to identify photos, documents, and art for use in the production and secure the rights to use them where needed. Many of the pieces housed at the Booth Family Center for Special Collections are actually owned by the Jesuits. For a few pieces, Corrigan had to request permissions from the Jesuit Superior General in Rome—a process complicated by the need to explain the unique nature of the performance and even what a “Zoom play” might be.
Here I Am will be performed in conjunction with Emancipation Day in Washington, D.C. Collaborators include Grammy-nominated musician Somi, Obie Award-winning playwright Nikkole Slater, and Chair of the Georgetown Department of Performing Arts Derek Goldman. Performances will be held April 15 at 5:30 p.m., April 16 at 7:30 p.m., and April 17 at 3 p.m., with a preview April 13 at 7 p.m. All performances are free and tickets can be requested at bit.ly/HereIAm21.