Congratulations to Safiyah Sawyer and the Cast of Hamden High School's Original Production of "From Here" Being Staged May 17 & 18th

It's hard not to carry Syracuse in the blood, especially after earning a Ph.D from the University and finding your trajectory headed to Connecticut. The same is true for Dr. Don Sawyer, who graduated a few years after I did and took his work to the nutmeg state, too. I'm happy to say he's now a visionary at Fairfield University for our campus and I hope there will be more time to collaborate and work with him. 

When Dr. Sawyer invited me to his youngest daughter's senior project last week, I knew I was in. As a teacher in Kentucky, I was fortunate to lead senior projects and know how important they are for development, growth, and possibilities. Don and Latoya's daughter, Safiyah, wrote and produced a play at Hamden High School about a jazz (well, blues) singer who is mentored and falls in love with a blues (well, jazz) singer. It was a 60-minute production, well-performed, exceptionally lit, and staged marvelously. The fact that all this was a vision of a young adult still in high school is simply astounding. I couldn't help but hug Don afterwards and say, "Be proud, Pops. Be proud. If she is doing this as a senior, imagine what comes next."

Kudos, too, to the Hamden High School faculty for encouraging and supporting their senior class to have projects like this. With a bar high, kids achieve. 

I'm always fascinated by the behind-the-scenes work of any show (as I learned so much from teaching scriptwriting and running the 10-minute play festival in Kentucky with my own students). I miss that work. To write is to be of the Gods...scripting what you want others to portray. To produce is even harder as you need to bring it all to fruition. And here Safiyah doing it all as a senior at the school. Bravo. 

Shouts out to Jadya-Nekole Parma, Christian Smith, Sage Delgado, Lebron Marshall, Nerhea Byers, Anthony J. Esquilin-Ortiz, Jared A. Esquilin-Ortiz, Porter Suite, Elijah Jackson, Maxwell Jackson, and Justin Mercado for bringing Safiyah Sawyer's vision to life.

The Production, From Here, will be performed once again tonight in Hamden at 7 p.m. - All should be proud, especially the writer. How many can say, "Oh, yeah...when I was a senior in Connecticut I wrote a play that was produced at my school about this singer...I wanted to make a social commentary and so I put my pen to page." 

There's nothing better than applauding young people who see the power of words for what they can do to change the world. Here's to changing the world one story at a time.