Source: KG Smooth / KBXX
KG Smooth talks to the lovely and wonderful Holly Charles, fashion designer, English teacher, author, playwright, and producer of the stage play “In All Thy Getting: The Forgotten Story of Freedmen’s Town.
Along with director, Allie Woods, and cast members, Trevor B. Cone and Kyle Mosley.
The dual plot of In All Thy Getting: The Forgotten Story of Freedmen’s Town explores the lives of a young husband and wife, thriving (financially) in the city of Houston but floundering in their marital pursuit of happiness.
The plot is complicated by their responsibilities as caregivers to the husband’s 99 year old paternal grandmother, who resides in what she calls Freedmen’s Town.
While their newfound success has afforded them the opportunity to move away from what the husband remembers as a poverty-stricken and drug-infested Fourth Ward, they’ve remained in order to take care of an elderly grandmother suffering from dementia. The couple does not understand the grandmother’s adamant pleas to preserve her home, Fourth Ward and its bricked streets; nor do they understand her pleas with them to reconcile their marriage.
Through grandmother’s hallucinations, dreams and even brief moments of cryptic clarity, we learn about Fourth Ward’s beginnings as Freedmen’s Town.
Most importantly, though, the young couple, as well as the audience, learn about the power of preservation.
Grandmother’s voice represents the forgotten martyrs of Freedmen’s Town. While their faith and fervor have created opportunities for newer generations to “get more”, they would surely want us to abide by the scripture that says, ‘In all thy getting, get an understanding’ – Proverbs 4:7.
