Episode 1: The Mayor
Episode 1 focuses on the conflict between then-mayor Kevin White, Judge Arthur Garrity, and then-president Gerald Ford, including the standoff over sending federal troops to enforce bussing in Boston. Following the audioplay, we will bring you a panel moderated by scholar and Facing History-affiliated teacher Neema Avashia featuring Bishop John Borders III, Dr. Karilyn Crockett, and Professor Matthew Delmont.
Adapted from J. Anthony Lukas’ Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families
by Kirsten Greenidge
Directed by Melia Bensussen
Sound Design & Composition: Owen Meadows
Sound Engineering: Matthew Freije
Line producer: Rosalind Bevan
Dramaturg: Charles Haugland
Meet the Artists
Cast
Michael Kaye
Michael Kaye
Michael Kaye The Huntington: Common Ground Revisited, Dead End, and Two Lives. Boston area credits include: Admissions, Mothers and Sons, and Clybourne Park (SpeakEasy Stage); Ears on a Beatle and Book of Days (Lyric Stage); Good, Broken Glass, Opus, Amadeus, Straight White Men, Lonely Planet, The Elephant Man, and Silence (New Rep Theatre); and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Actors’ Shakespeare Project).
Omar Robinson
Omar Robinson
Omar Robinson The Huntington: Common Ground Revisited, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, Romeo and Juliet, Tartuffe.
Brenda Withers
Brenda Withers
Brenda Withers is a Huntington Playwriting Fellow and founding member of the Harbor Stage Company on Cape Cod. Her plays include The Kritik, Jordan, Northside Hollow (w/Jonathan Fielding), and String Around my Finger.
Panel
Neema Avashia
Panel Moderator
Neema Avashia
Neema Avashia, she/her, is a Civics teacher in Boston Public Schools, where she has worked since 2003. She was recognized as the city-wide Educator of the Year in 2013. As an Asian American teacher and writer, Neema has published several pieces focused on race, class, and inequities in education.
Dr. Karilyn Crockett
Dr. Karilyn Crockett
Dr. Karilyn Crockett’s research focuses on large-scale land use changes in twentieth century American cities and examines the social and geographic implications of structural poverty and race. Karilyn’s book “People before Highways: Boston Activists, Urban Planners, and a New Movement for City Making” (UMASS Press 2018) investigates a 1960s era grassroots movement to halt urban extension of the U.S. interstate highway system and the geographic and political changes in Boston that resulted.
Bishop John M. Borders III
Bishop John M. Borders III
Bishop John M. Borders III serves as senior pastor for Morning Star Baptist Church located in Boston, Massachusetts and has since 1981. He was consecrated to the office of Bishop by the International Bishops Conference in June 2010. He is the author of Unlikely Blessings: Discovering Happiness Through the Life of Joseph (PostHill Press, 2014).
Dr. Matthew Delmont
Dr. Matthew Delmont
Dr. Matthew Delmont is the Frank J. Guarini Associate Dean of International Studies and Interdisciplinary Programs and the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor of History at Dartmouth College.
Photo: Stan Grossfeld, Courtesy of The Boston Globe