from Ariel Lucky’s Website:
Free Land is an unforgettable journey into the heart of American history. During an interview with his grandfather a young white man learns that their beloved family ranch was actually a Homestead, a free land grant from the government. Haunted by the past, he’s compelled to dig deeper into the history of the land, only to come face to face with the legacy of theft and genocide in the Wild Wild West. Weaving poetry, theater, dance and hip hop music in a compelling performance, Free Land challenges us to take an unflinching look at the truth buried in the land beneath our feet.
Ariel Luckey is a nationally acclaimed poet, actor and playwright whose performances dance in the crossroads of education, art and activism. Born and raised in Oakland, California, Ariel was named a “Visionary” by the Utne Reader for the innovation and quality of his first play Free Land. Commissioned by the National Performance Network in partnership with La Peña Cultural Center and the White Privilege Conference, Free Land has toured across the country at over 50 theaters and universities. In 2010, SpeakOut – the Institute for Democratic Education and Culture published a DVD of Free Land and the accompanying Free Land Curriculum Guide, an arts-based model for social justice pedagogy.
Ariel has been a featured artist at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education, the Nuyorican Poets Café in New York and Café Cantante in Havana, Cuba. In 2009 as the Artist-in-Residence at June Jordan’s Poetry for the People at U.C. Berkeley, Ariel released a collection of poetry and lyrics, Searching for White Folk Soul, currently in its third printing. Ariel received The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s 2012 Playwright Commissioning Award, the Kenneth Rainin Foundation’s 2013 Visibility Award and the Zellerbach Family Foundation’s 2014 Community Arts Fund in support of his new play Amnesia. The play enjoyed its World Premiere at La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley, California. He also earned a MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College in 2014. Ariel sees his creative work in the world as an extension of his most precious and important work as father to his two sons.
