"The N-Word has been around since 1619. It’s been a part of American history, American literature and there's so much controversy over the use of it, who can use it, who can't. Who has permission to use it?"
That's Thomas Meloncon, Texas Southern University associate professor and author of about 30 plays and two books of poetry, starting to explain why he wanted to explore this divisive topic into his play
Stagolee and the Funeral of a Dangerous Word which is having its world premiere at Main Street Theater.
Meloncon has often focused on relationships in his plays. His play
Diary of Black Men has been staged all over the United States and internationally since 1982 and centers on six stereotypical Black men and their understanding of relationships with Black women.
Growing up in the Fifth Ward, Meloncon was well acquainted with Lloyd Price's 1959 No. 1 pop hit
"Stagger Lee." (Both Stagolee and Stagger Lee are alternative spellings.) It and many other stories and songs told the story of a Christmas Day brawl in 1895 that led to the death of one of two men in a bar in St. Louis, Missouri.
"Stagolee, of course, is based upon a fight between a guy by the name of Lee Shelton and Billy Lyons in 1895. Two people fighting over a dice game or politics. The legend goes that Billy Lyons knocks Lee Sheltons' — Stagolee's — hat off his head which is something you don't do to any man and particularly to any African American man and so that fight started," Meloncon said.
In real life, the fight took place on Christmas Day 1896 in a St. Louis, Missouri bar and Lyons died early the next day after being shot in the abdomen. From this account, Meloncon began to build his story of two men fighting over one's use of the N-word.
"I've been writing this story off and on or a number of years now," Meloncon said laughing. "It's gone through different phases and different twists and turns."
The five-act play takes place in the fictitious town of Deep River, Texas. The local chapter of the NAACP is planning a funeral for the N-Word. A riot develops around this particular word. It addresses racism. It addresses the fact that the word is still toxic and when it’s used, people have emotional responses to it."
Meloncon set the play in 1999, the year that Mos Def (now known as Yasiin Bey) put out his debut album
Black on Both Sides that used a variation of the N-Word 49 times and was considered one of the best albums of the year.
"Part of the story is centered around an incident at a lumberyard where my two characters work and the white guy uses the word and Stagolee who's the son of Stagolee tells him he can't used the word without his permission That argument still exists today."
After the fight at the plant both men are charged with inciting a riot. To resolve that, the head of the NAACP makes a deal with the district attorney to have the two sit and talk about the N-Word in the office of the NAACP.
"So they bring in a Jewish psychologist who's a very good friend of the head of the NAACP and his role is to get these two men to sit down and unravel the psychological origin of this word. When did they learn this word. And when did they learn the meaning of it?" Meloncon said.
"When do kids both black and white first use this word? Do they understand what it means? Do they abandon the word at some point or do they continue to use it? It gets into the flesh of why this word exists and why do we use it and why is it sometimes funny, toxic? Sometimes it's used casually. There are so many layers to this."
In the Main Street production, Timothy Eric plays Stagolee, Seth Carter Ramsey plays Roger and Ed Muth plays the Jewish mediator. Errol Anthony Wilks directs. .
And as far as resolution goes?
"They do come to some understanding. It's not what you call a happy understanding. There're are ups and downs. But they do come to realize from each other how they learned this word.
"I hope that the after effect of [his play] is that we come to — even the young people — we come to a better understanding of this word, a word that has been used as a weapon of mass destruction both internally and externally. "
Performances ate scheduled for March 30 through April 21 at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays (no performance on March 31, Easter Sunday) $35-$59.at Main Street Theater's Rice Village location, 2540 Times Boulevard. For more information, call 713-524-6706 or visit mainstreettheater.com.
