Sharpenicity

Till  New York Musical Festival 2019 From left, Denielle Marie Gray, Tyla Collier, Taylor A. Blackman, Dwelvan David, Devin L. Roberts and Judith Franklin  Credit  Russ Rowland Till is a musical that never could have been made in 1955, the year that Emmett Till was brutally murdered in Mississippi. In the tradition of African American  musicals where the characters generally are featured in happy dancing moments of life, its horrific theme is rare. Emmett Till is also unlike hundreds of  murdered African Americans preceding him  who mostly remain unknown.  Nor is he like those who would be murdered after him, like MLK Jr. and  Medgar Edgars,  leaders in the Civil Rights movement. He was an ordinary fun loving boy never known to be in trouble, raised in Chicago by a single mother.  But he was also part of a larger family, those who had not migrated north for a new life, those who wanted him to come visit them in Mississippi, albeit a place with dangers that this youn