Jaja (Somi Kakoma), the title character of Jocelyn Bioh’s new play, “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,” doesn’t show up onstage until the show’s nearly over. But, before we ever see her, a portrait emerges. She’s described by her employees in the course of a long day in 2019 at the Harlem shop over which she lovingly lords. To Bea (Zenzi Williams) and Aminata (Nana Mensah), she’s a demanding boss with a proud streak. They take turns affectionately mocking how she says her fiancé Steven’s name—a bit froggy in the throat, the “v” tending toward an “f,” both vowel sounds braggadociously distended. Jaja and Steven are getting married on this day; he’s a well-off-sounding white man, and she’s an undocumented immigrant from Senegal.
To Jaja’s daughter, Marie (Dominique Thorn), who minds the shop and tends to its administrative business, Jaja is a mother with high standards. Marie went to a private school, where she got great grades and ran circles around her more stably situated peers. She was the valedictorian of her class, but now that she’s graduated she might not be able to go to college—she uses the name and the I.D. of a cousin she’s never met. Born in Senegal but an American in every way except in the eyes of the law since she was four years old, Marie is walking a tightrope that’s been thrown across the
Bu hikaye The New Yorker dergisinin October 16, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye The New Yorker dergisinin October 16, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
GET IT TOGETHER
In the beginning was the mob, and the mob was bad. In Gibbon’s 1776 “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” the Roman mob makes regular appearances, usually at the instigation of a demagogue, loudly demanding to be placated with free food and entertainment (“bread and circuses”), and, though they don’t get to rule, they sometimes get to choose who will.
GAINING CONTROL
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REBELS WITH A CAUSE
In the new FX/Hulu series “Say Nothing,” life as an armed revolutionary during the Troubles has—at least at first—an air of glamour.
AGAINST THE CURRENT
\"Give Me Carmelita Tropicana!,\" at Soho Rep, and \"Gatz,\" at the Public.
METAMORPHOSIS
The director Marielle Heller explores the feral side of child rearing.
THE BIG SPIN
A district attorney's office investigates how its prosecutors picked death-penalty juries.
THIS ELECTION JUST PROVES WHAT I ALREADY BELIEVED
I hate to say I told you so, but here we are. Kamala Harris’s loss will go down in history as a catastrophe that could have easily been avoided if more people had thought whatever I happen to think.
HOLD YOUR TONGUE
Can the world's most populous country protect its languages?
A LONG WAY HOME
Ordinarily, I hate staying at someone's house, but when Hugh and I visited his friend Mary in Maine we had no other choice.
YULE RULES
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