Atlanta Author Pearl Cleage

Atlanta Author Pearl Cleage Helps Develop Intergenerational Conversations at the Alliance Theatre

By Holley Calmes

What can an 11-year-old do to help make the world a better place? How can a teenager help establish justice in a broken world?

An original animated short film and a collaboration of young minds are dealing with these questions, and they also have one thing in common. Both projects are guided and inspired by Atlanta author Pearl Cleage.

“The animated short film ‘Sit-In’ was intended to be a live performance,” explains Cleage. “But Covid-19 changed all that, and instead it evolved into something wonderful.”

The show became an animated short film that is still streaming on the Alliance’s web site through June 30th. Produced by the Palette Group, the story involves three young friends as they learn about the Civil Rights era and apply this information to issues they face today.

Cleage wrote the script based on Andrea Davis Pinkney’s book “SitIn: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down.”

“It was an exciting journey,” Cleage says. “I had never written a film script before. It makes you realize how, as an artist, doing something new pushes you.”

“We wanted to create a bridge between the generations. We thought, ‘Let’s give this generation something to be empowered about,’” Cleage says.

“Feedback has been wonderful. A question-and-answer session on Zoom showed that children today don’t understand a lot about what happened back then. They want to know ‘How can I help now as an 11-year-old?”

Many children’s favorite character is the grandfather who shares his memory of the Civil Rights Era, emphasizing the importance of intergenerational conversations.

A slightly older group is also curious about how they can change the world.

Cleage will guide the Alliance’s Palefsky Collision Project again this year. 20 teens will spend three weeks exploring a work of art, culminating in a performance on July 31st.

This year, they will immerse themselves in

Marvin Gaye’s album “What’s Going On.”

Teens picked for this diverse group were chosen for their openness and curiosity. “We want them to react to a basic text, and Marvin Gaye’s album sounds like he wrote it yesterday,” Cleage explains. “We will train them to listen to others, not argue. We will knit their thoughts together into a script for a performance. We want to show them how to address issues through art.”