Experience a pantodub theatre griot posse workshop reading of d’bi.young anitafrika’s acclaimed trilogy, featuring a dynamic mix of practitioners from The Black Theatre School in collaboration with mid-career artists at the SummerWorks Festival, presented by the Watah Theatre.

THE SANKOFA TRILOGY is anitafrika’s two-time Dora Award-winning triptych of biomyth monodramas, featuring the plays blood.claat, benu, & word! sound! powah! Having recently completed their Ph.D. in Black performance aesthetics, anitafrika reimagines the trilogy with an expanded cast. It journeys through extraordinary stories of three generations of powerful Jamaican womyn – Mudgu Sankofa, her daughtxr Sekesu, and her granddaughter Benu whose stories traverse the intersections of gender, race, class, hxrstory – and their resolute belief in blood, truth, and r/evolution. blood.claat was nominated for 5 Dora Awards including Outstanding Design, Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Production. benu and word! sound! powah! has received numerous Critic’s Picks and Audience Choice Awards.

In blood.claat Mudgu Sankofa, the 15-year-old protagonist, navigates hxr relationship with hxr menstruation, the blood of the violence she witnesses, and the cycles of love, life and death in hxr family. In the second play benu, Sekesu Sankofa, Mudgu’s daughtxr, battles postpartum depression while navigating the alienation, invisibility and abuse Black womyn experience in the healthcare system. And in the final play word! sound! powah!, set amidst the socio-political upheaval of the 1980 election, Benu Sankofa (Mudgu’s granddaughter) joins a collective of radical poets and together, they use their voices to challenge systemic injustice, wielding words as weapons against the political corruption that they witness every day.

This rendition of the trilogy is a precursor to the 20th anniversary biomyth monodrama production coming to The Theatre Centre from September 23 to October 12, 2025. Experience theatre as ceremony, as liberation, as power as we witness, biomythicist d’bi.young anitafrika returning to Tkaronto after seven years of graduate studies. To learn more about this production and secure your tickets now, visit theatrecentre.org.

We look forward to seeing you at SummerWorks.

Advisories: Content includes simulated weaponry, depictions of blood and contains mature themes including sexual abuse, profane language and police violence.

THE SANKOFA TRILOGY

BLOOD.CLAAT

Wednesday, April 13th, 2025 at 6:00 PM

BENU

Friday, April 15th, 2025 at 9:00 PM

WORD! SOUND! POWAH!

Saturday, April 17th, 2025 at 1:00 PM

The Theatre Centre, Boni Franco Theatre

1115 Queen Street West in Toronto

Tickets are available for $15, $30, or $45

Tickets are on sale now at summerworks.ca