Friday, May 13, 2016

New Play Explores Life, Legacy of Slain Teen Trayvon Martin

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Trayvon Martin has often been in the thoughts of playwright and activist Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj in the four years since the 17-year-old unarmed black boy was shot and killed after a confrontation with neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman.

He has wondered about Martin's dreams, his life and the moments before he died.

Maharaj has channeled those thoughts into a two-hour play debuting Thursday at Philadelphia's New Freedom Theater. "The Ballad of Trayvon Martin," co-written with Thomas Soto, explores the idea of the dangerous consequences of being perceived as a threat for young, black boys and men through the lens of Martin, whose death in Sanford, Florida, on Feb. 26, 2012, was a galvanizing event for many black Americans and seen by some as the nascent origins of the Black Lives Matter movement underway across the country. 

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