According to the 2010 U.S. census, for every 100 black women age 25-54, there are approximately 83 black men in society. Some 600,000 are in U.S. jails and prisons, many sentenced for black-on-black crimes and others victim of the inconsistently harsh sentencing guidelines of the War on Drugs..
Kash Goins‘s V TO X (five to ten), the prequel to his acclaimed VI Degrees (Best Play, NYC Downtown Urban Theatre Festival, 2009), searches for these 1.5 million black men missing from American homes. Goins draws inspiration from the experience of Khalief Browder, who’s diminished mental state due to three years of abusive Rikers Island incarceration, without formal charges, drove him to suicide this June.
Goins’s GoKash Productions is building a reputation with a series of productions focused on bringing African American voices to the stage. V TO X follows recent productions of his VI Degrees and an all-black casting of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. [ The Skybox at The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom Street] October 2-25, 2015; gokashproductions.ticketleap.com.