WRITTEN BY:

Edafe Okporo

PERFORMED BY:

Gbenga Akinnagbe and Amara James Aja

In the Spring of 2023, Waterwell begun a collaboration with the Dignity Not Detention Coalition. The Coalition asked us to create a piece of theater that could anchor their upcoming Town Hall Meetings about the Dignity Not Detention Act, a bill in the State Legislature that would end ICE detention in New York State. You can read more about the bill here. Lee Sunday Evans, Waterwell's Artistic Director, commissioned Edafe Okporo to write a 15-minute play about his experience which premiered at a DND Town Hall in June 2023 at the Bronx Music Heritage Center. In March 2024, this project toured to several locations around NYS to build support and momentum for this legislation to be passed.

Do Not Tell Them I am a Prince by Edafe Okporo, is a poignant exploration of the harrowing realities of U.S. immigrant detention based on his real-life experience of spending almost 6 months in Elizabeth Detention Center.

In Nigeria, a gay man named Edafe finds himself trapped in the suffocating grip of violent persecution and makes the painful decision to flee his homeland. He arrives at JFK airport hoping to find refuge, but ends up confined within the walls of an ICE detention center. Struggling to reconcile his shattered expectations, Edafe's story is a poignant exploration of the harrowing realities of U.S. immigration detention.

Each performance of the play followed by a Town Hall discussion with directly impacted people and organizers talking about the harrowing realities of U.S. immigration detention and how we can be part of igniting a collective movement to end it in New York State.

Read more about the Dignity Not Detention Act here: nydignitynotdetention.org/