Here I Am in Georgetown University in Qatar, as part of the 2025 Black Literary Festival
On every occasion I perform and experience Here I Am as live theater, I am transported and uplifted by the whispers, the encouragement, and the physical embodiment of my grandmothers, my ancestors, and the people I represent.
I’m not a representative of Georgetown, although this is encapsulated and all-around a Georgetown narrative. But this is not about Georgetown. It is common knowledge, and national knowledge, granulated into a family story — an American family story.
I remind myself, in the wake of the new political rhetoric and activity that’s swirling all around us, that we are coming up on the 250th birthday of America next year — and that my family has been here for 344 years. My family, and families like mine, made America.
Here I Am has gone through several iterations since it began during Covid. But the beauty of a play is it can remain true to the integrity in which it was created. The research hasn’t changed. The story hasn’t changed. The people haven’t changed.
We are moving forward and bringing this story to new audiences, and that
By Mélisande Short-Colomb, Community Engagement Associate at The Lab
Here I Am is an acclaimed original Lab production, written & performed by Mélisande Short-Colomb.
On every occasion I perform and experience Here I Am as live theater, I am transported and uplifted by the whispers, the encouragement, and the physical embodiment of my grandmothers, my ancestors, and the people I represent.
I remind myself, in the wake of the new political rhetoric and activity that’s swirling all around us, that we are coming up on the 250th birthday of America next year — and that my family has been here for 344 years. My family, and families like mine, made America.
Here I Am has gone through several iterations since it began during Covid. But the beauty of a play is it can remain true to the integrity in which it was created. The research hasn’t changed. The story hasn’t changed. The people haven’t changed.
We are moving forward and bringing this story to new audiences, and that’s where change happens. It happens in the people and communities who experience Here I Am, and what they take away from that — a glimpse into the stories untold in America.
Recently, I performed in Doha at Georgetown University in Qatar, an institution that, like Georgetown in Washington, exists because of the same history. Had my family not been enslaved and trafficked by the Society of Jesus, neither would stand as they do today. The point of reference is not the country, but the narrative.
Here I Am in Georgetown University in Doha, Qatar, as part of the 2025 Black Literary Festival
There are stories untold everywhere. But when we have a side-by-side parallel that is the United States of America and the families who were here (whose names are known, whose experiences are recorded in the archives and the documents), that dispels a mythology about the people who matter. Many more people were involved in creating America than those we always talk about. So, what we do with Here I Am is bring words, images, and song together for an experience into another reality, ever so briefly.
Teresa Castracane Photography
To hear an untold story is as simple as listening. Everybody is an untold story. I speak lovingly, and uplift, and wrote the play, to honor and bring forth my ancestors as I know them, with the understanding that I am an ancestor in the making; That in 150 years, or 344 years from now, somebody will remember me, and also the people who were 344 years before me.
I am part of the continuum, not the hard stop.
Here I Am, Georgetown University in Qatar Highlights
