COLUMBIA, S.C.
Kimberly Lucas slowly moves her arms and hands in whirling motions through the air, emulating the movements of nearly stagnant water.
A single spot light shines a ray of light on her face to reveal looks of fear and anguish.
These are the emotions that enslaved Africans must have lived with everyday, Lucas said.
They are also the feelings expressed by Black Americans who survived Hurricane Katrina only to find themselves trapped by rising flood waters and lack of transportation.
“It’s the same thing that happened at the bottom of the slave ships with urine, feces, dead bodies and people dying as they wallow in all that filth,” said Charles Brooks, a Benedict College assistant professor of fine arts.
Showing the comparison between Black slaves in early America and the Black victims of Hurricane Katrina is the premise behind a play Brooks wrote and recently directed called “Help!: The Storytelling of Bondage, Oppression and Refugees.”
