“TUBMAN PHONE”
BIO
Candice D'Meza (B.A.; MPA) is an actor, writer, and multi-disciplinary artist. A proud member of the Actors’ Equity Association, she has been called one of the “Seven Young Houston Theater Actors To Watch” and awarded the 2018 Best Utility Player Award by the Houston Press. Social practice in nature, her projects manifest as participatory theatrical performance and audio-visual installation. Her creative practice involves the use of theater, song, dance, film, audio/visual installation and memoir writings to explore how environmental, historical-cultural factors intersect with vulnerability, acceptance, grief and shame. Her current project “Fatherland” is an audiovisual immersive performance that serves as a community grief ritual for all those who have lost an emotional or physical homeland—by force or by fate.
Her website is www.candicedmeza.com ; IG @candicedmeza Facebook.com/CandiceEDMeza
To be Afro-Latinx, a descendent of the enslaved African inhabitants of Hispaniola, is to embrace the revolutionary and liberatory practices of my Haitian ancestors. To be Afro-Latinx, to be Haitian, is to be free first--and to spend the rest of my life learning how to decorate that freedom.
PART OF A SERIES OF LIBERATION MICRO-PLAYS
Two men in prison are staring at a cellphone in the middle of a table.
B
So, does it ring on its own or do we have to--
KO
The phone rings. We answer it. Then we outta here.
A beat.
B
Who s'posed to be callin'?
KO
Sssh. Just wait.
A loooong moment passes.
B
Suge Knight--he still got hitters out here.
KO
No, it ain't no damn Suge Knight, aight? Be quiet, the guard is lookin'.
B
Jay Z? Jay Z got us a new lawyer? Hell yeah!
KO
You drawing attention, Nigga. Shut up!
B
It's Kim Kardashian--she finna get us outta here?
KO
(accidentally)
Harriet!
Damn.
B
Who the fuck is Harriet?
KO
It's better if you don't know.
B
You got three seconds to tell me who the fuck Harriet is, or I'm smashing this phone and walking the fuck up outta here.
KO
You play too much. Sit down.
B
One.
KO
Is you serious? They find us with a phone, Nigga we both goin' in the hole.
B
Two.
KO
Yo just wait a second, Listen, wait, you gotta trust me on this--
B lunges for the cellphone and grabs it, KO tries to grab it from him but can't. B holds it up as ransom.
B
Three.
KO
I got it from Harriet Tubman.
B
Harriet Tubman. Underground Railroad Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman.
B makes a move as if to smash the phone.
KO
Alright! Damn! I'll tell you. Last night, I was sleep and I had this dream, right? I'm like a slave, a for real slave. With the torn pants, some scratchy-ass shirt. I'm looking like I got on some Yeezy collection shit. My fade, my line-up is gone. My beard is on grizzly. I'm confused as hell, like "I know this ain't about to be no ROOTS dream, cuz I fa damn sure ain't with getting whipped for some bullshit, feel me? So I'm looking around, and then she comes. I don't know how I know it's her, but it's her. Scarf on the head, long skirt. Whole getup; she got the rifle and everything. So I'm standing there, staring at her. Cuz this dream feels real as hell and legit I don't even know what to say. Like, do I just be like Wassup, I've read about you. Well, I ain't actually read about you, but I heard alot of stuff about you freeing people. Black people. You real tight. What am I supposed to say?. So I just stood there. So she walks up close to my face, and no lie Nigga her breath smells like fucking ripe peaches in August. She's like "You ready to get free?" And I say "Hell Yeah", and she hands me a cellphone. And says "Answer when I call". And when I woke up, there was an Iphone 11 on my lap. With a photo of Harriet Tubman as the screensaver.
A Beat.
KO
See, this is why I didn't wanna tell you.
A Beat.
B
Nigga. You got a trans-dimensional, time travel phone from the ancestors. From mutha-fucking Harriet Tubman.
KO
That's what I said.
B
Fuck.
KO
I know. So sit down, and let's wait for this call.
They both stare at the cellphone.
B
So, say she calls and shit.
KO
Yea.
B
Where we 'bout to go? Where she gonna take us? We already North.
KO
I don't know. But anywhere is better than here.
B
What about the rest of us?
KO
I don't know. She told me not to tell anyone.
B
Well, why don't we call them up, three-way or some shit.
KO
Because it ain't gonna work like that. I wasn't even supposed to tell you, but your nosy ass had to follow me here.
B
You was gonna leave me behind?
KO
You really tryna be free and get up outta here?
B
Yeah.
(pause)
But I mean, is there pussy where we goin' or--
KO
B. Is you really tryna be free? For real, for real. I ain't got nothing left for me here. They tryna take every fucking thing they can from me. Can't make enough to make it, can't afford to have kids, can't walk to the store, can't drive and not get stopped. The only thing I got left is my life, and they can't have that. I'll never give 'em that. You do whatever you want, but me? I'm getting my Black ass outta here.
B
"Free". You don't even know what free is. Shit, none of us do. A blunt, some good pussy? A dope job? No debt? You in a rush to go but you don't even know where you 'bout to go.
The cellphone rings.
The cellphone rings again.
It rings a third time.
KO grabs it. Quickly answers.
KO
Hello? Yea--yes. Yes, I'm ready.
KO listens, looking puzzled.
KO
She asking for you, by name.
B slowly reaches for the phone.
B
Hello?
He listens. Looks up at KO, as he is about to form his answer...
Blackout.
END OF PLAY