Yankee Bajan by Linda Parris-Bailey
Koubek Center -Co-production with DVCAI & Parris-Bailey Arts Theatre
Linda Parris-Bailey’s Yankee Bajan is a play with music that explores the experience of African-American expatriates in Barbados, the land of their family origins. “Bajan” is a term for Barbadian. Can one return home to a place that has never been home? Will the young ones in the family flourish coming of age as Bajans, or will their “Yankee” culture hurt friends and family? What cultural and colonial baggage does one bring to such an experience? In the process, Yankee Bajan examines the circumstances in the United States that would drive a family to consider becoming expatriates. Through live performance and musical references from Brooklyn to Barbados, Yankee Bajan takes the audience back to the wisdom of the Barbadian Heroes, a select group including freedom fighters, trade union pioneers, and defenders of human rights. It takes us through the expatriate experience, and ultimately, the return to an independent Caribbean island.