The Story of Pa I Sha

(Chicago, IL) Following three generations of BBE Artistic Director Brandi Berry Benson’s own Chickasaw ancestors, this musical journey begins with her fourth great-grandmother, Pa I Sha, who walked the Trail of Tears (or the Removal). The program moves on to Pa I Sha’s daughter Mary, marriage to a Civil War soldier, their nine children, and their experience as an interracial family forced to live in a tent outside of town. The final stage of the program addresses the discrimination that led this family and later generations to deny their full degree of Indian blood or to deny their indigenous identity altogether. Using melodies of the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations, the performance features a narrator/vocalist (in English with some Chickasaw language), traverso, Native American flute, period strings, and Chickasaw percussion. In person and livestreamed at blemf.org.