Shakespeare Theatre Company announces 2022/23 lineup
Shakespeare Theatre Company and Artistic Director Simon Godwin have announced the Tony Award-winning theater’s 37th season. The 2022/23 lineup includes fresh new work and spectacular experiences centered around the backbone of some of The Bard’s biggest titles. “Theater has faced enormous challenges over the last two years,” shares Godwin. “It has loved, lost, and been born anew. We at STC are indebted to the DC theater community for their unwavering support and we are privileged to continue serving this community such vital stories, audaciously told.”
The 2022/23 Season opens with the return of Mary Zimmerman (Candide, Pericles) to STC. The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci explores the writing of one of the world’s greatest thinkers. Science, art, and psychology coalesce in a visual feast directed by the boundless imagination of Zimmerman. “I’m very happy to be returning to STC with a piece that is so close to my heart. It is a series of vignettes that illustrate, or sometimes counter-illustrate, fragments of Leonardo’s private notebooks that have miraculously survived for almost 500 years. All of these little scenes coalesce into a portrait of a singularly attentive consciousness, one that I hope inspires in us a similar attentiveness to the wonders of our world.”
“I am pleased to say that we can at last fulfill our promise of bringing The Jungle and Much Ado About Nothing to our patrons,” says Executive Director Chris Jennings. “Both of these dynamic productions were shelved during the pandemic, and I’m excited to finally bring them to our stages.”
The Jungle, presented in collaboration with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, is an intimate piece that brings audiences into a refugee camp as cultures clash and the dream of freedom pushes their community to action. “This collaboration has been a long time coming for Shakespeare Theatre Company and Woolly Mammoth, and its timing couldn’t be more prescient,” says Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company’s Artistic Director Maria Manuela Goyanes. “Our hearts are breaking for the families displaced in so many parts of our world, and this extraordinary piece of theater asks us to empathize with their plight in a deeply visceral way. We are thrilled to partner with our neighbors at STC to finally bring this show to Washington, DC!”
Due to limited capacity, priority will be given to STC season subscribers or Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Golden Ticket holders.
Godwin’s much-anticipated Much Ado About Nothing brings audiences into a television newsroom to witness the quick-witted repartee of co-anchors Beatrice and Benedick. Missed cues, skewed reporting, and a pinch of screwball fun make this production as heart-warming as it is hilarious.
STC favorite Patrick Page (Hadestown, All the Devils Are Here), who has previously appeared as Macbeth, Coriolanus, and Prospero at STC, returns to perform King Lear. “I have lived with King Lear in my head for the past 40 years,” says Page. “To do the play in the nation’s capital under the direction of Simon Godwin is a true blessing. The play seems as if it were written yesterday.” Godwin is equally enthusiastic about the upcoming collaboration: “Patrick has delivered powerhouse performances time and time again for STC audiences. I can’t wait for the world to see his Lear.”
The season also includes a sizzling new musical inspired by the African myth of Marimba. Goddess is the story of what happens when love, duty, and magic collide. Conceived and directed by Saheem Ali (Merry Wives, Nollywood Dreams) with music and lyrics by acclaimed composer Michael Thurber (Merry Wives) and a book by Jocelyn Bioh (Merry Wives, School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play), this contemporary romance is sure to delight.
“Our final play is currently in the works,” teases Godwin, “but I am confident it will be an exciting addition to an already captivating season, and I can’t wait to tell you more soon.”
In addition to the main season, STC is delighted to announce that Associate Director Whitney White will be leading a week-long workshop on an examination of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. This exciting workshop will culminate in a rehearsed reading available to STC subscribers and donors.
STC will also expand its work on The Shift, an initiative focused on broadening partnerships with local organizations and the next generation of artists to expand the definition of classical theater. “We plan to connect and collaborate with new partners to shift the future of theater using our spaces and teams as resources,” explains LeeAnét Noble, STC’s Director of Equity and Enrichment and the driving force behind The Shift. “We will continue our collaboration with Howard University’s Department of Theatre Arts and The Greater Washington Urban League in the upcoming year. And I am excited to say that a few more schools and institutions will be added to our growing list of partners very soon.”
“The future of STC is bright as we look bravely toward tomorrow,” says Godwin. “We are grateful to our growing community for joining us in this adventure together.”
All titles and artists are subject to change.
Six-play full-season subscriptions are available now. Single tickets for most shows will be available for purchase in late summer. Advance access to single tickets will be made available to STC Subscribers and Donors.
SHOW DESCRIPTIONS
THE NOTEBOOKS OF LEONARDO DA VINCI
Written and Directed by Mary Zimmerman
Tony Award-winner and MacArthur “Genius” Award recipient Mary Zimmerman, the creative leader behind some of STC’s most imaginative productions (Candide, Pericles), brings the writings of Leonardo da Vinci to life in this stunning revival of one of her earliest creations. Comprised solely of text from the surviving notebooks of the 15th-century renaissance man himself, Notebooks is “a true revelation” (The Chicago Tribune) that celebrates the interplay of science, art, and the human spirit in a glorious kaleidoscope of beauty and remarkable insight.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Simon Godwin
The course of true love never did run smooth, especially when the ON AIR sign is lit. Shakespeare’s cherished romantic comedy lands in a cable newsroom, where sparring co-anchors Benedick and Beatrice trade barbs behind the news desk. Helmed by “one of the most insightful and sensitive directors of Shakespeare today” (WhatsOnStage), Much Ado About Nothing is the perfect blend of sparkling screwball comedy and revelatory romance.
KING LEAR
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Simon Godwin
Caught in a carousel of memory, the head of a dysfunctional royal family grapples with power-hungry children and the threat of losing the empire he created. Real and imagined worlds coalesce, creating a political and personal horror that threatens to swallow the mind of the monarch. The incomparable Patrick Page (Hadestown, The Gilded Age) returns to STC as the once-revered king caught in an emotional hurricane ravaging his home, head, and heart.
St. Ann’s Warehouse and Good Chance
THE JUNGLE
By Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson /Directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin Originally a National Theatre, Young Vic, and Good Chance co-production
Welcome to The Jungle where cultures collide and thousands dream of crossing the English Channel to the possibility of freedom. Laughter, tears, allegiances, and prayers are shared by this extraordinary community of refugees caught up in a global crisis beyond their control. STC teams up with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company to bring this exclusive theatrical experience to Washington after sold-out runs in the West End and in New York. Co-directed by Tony Award winner Stephen Daldry (An Inspector Calls, The Crown) and Justin Martin, this “thrilling…ravishing…devastating” play (The New York Times) immerses the audience in the camp’s environment “to astonishing emotional effect” (The New Yorker). Note: Due to limited capacity, priority will be given to STC subscribers or Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Golden Ticket holders.
GODDESS
Conceived by Saheem Ali
Music and Lyrics by Michael Thurber
Book by Jocelyn Bioh
Choreographed by Darrell Grand Moultrie
Directed by Saheem Ali
From award-winning playwright Jocelyn Bioh (Merry Wives, School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play), composer Michael Thurber (Merry Wives), and director/conceiver Saheem Ali (Merry Wives, Nollywood Dreams) comes an exuberant new musical brimming with magical secrets. Following its world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Goddess tells the story of a mysterious singer who arrives at Moto Moto, a steamy Afro-jazz club in Mombasa, Kenya. She casts an entrancing presence on everyone at the club, including a young man who has returned home from America. Will the big plans for his life—stepping into a political legacy and marrying his fiancée—be upended? Inspired by the myth of Marimba, who created beautiful songs from her heartbreak, Goddess is a rousing tale of romance, the supernatural, and the quest of stepping into one’s true identity.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
SAHEEM ALI
Conceiver/Director, GODDESS
Saheem Ali is a proud immigrant from Kenya. Recent productions include Fires in the Mirror (Signature Theatre), The New Englanders (MTC), The Rolling Stone (Lincoln Center Theater), Passage (Soho Rep), Fireflies (Atlantic Theater Company), Dangerous House (Williamstown Theater Festival), Sugar in Our Wounds (MTC), Tartuffe (Playmakers Rep), Where Storms Are Born (WTF), Twelfth Night (Public Theater), Kill Move Paradise (National Black Theater), Nollywood Dreams (Cherry Lane), The Booty Call (Inner Voices) and Dot (Detroit Public Theater). He has workshopped new plays at Playwrights Horizons, Playwrights Realm, MCC, New York Stage & Film, Page 73, and The Lark. He is a Usual Suspect at New York Theater Workshop, Sir John Gielgud SDCF Fellow, and a Shubert Fellow.
JOCELYN BIOH
Book, GODDESS
Jocelyn Bioh is an award-winning Ghanaian-American writer/performer from New York City. Her written works for theater include Merry Wives (adapted from Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor for The Public Theater/Shakespeare in the Park), Nollywood Dreams (MCC Theater), Goddess the musical which will have its world premiere at Berkeley Rep in 2022 and the multi-award-winning School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play which was originally produced at MCC Theater in 2017/2018 and has gone on to have over 40 regional productions. She is a former TOW playwriting fellow (2017 – 2018) and has been commissioned by MTC, Atlantic Theater Co., Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Second Stage. Jocelyn has also written for TV on Russian Doll, Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It, and is also writing the live screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Once on This Island for Disney+.
STEPHEN DALDRY
Co-Director, THE JUNGLE
Stephen started his career at the Sheffield Crucible Theatre and directed extensively in Britain’s regional theaters. In London, he was Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre where he headed the £26million redevelopment. He has also directed at the National Theatre, the Public Theatre in New York, and transferred many productions both to Broadway and the West End. His award-winning 1992 National Theatre production of An Inspector Calls is currently touring the UK. Billy Elliot the Musical has previously played in the West End, on Broadway, Australia (Sydney and Melbourne), North America, Toronto, The Netherlands, UK & Ireland Tours, Hamburg, Tokyo, and Seoul. In 2009, the production won ten Tony Awards including Best Musical, more than any other British show in Broadway history.
His first four films Billy Elliot, The Hours, The Reader, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close together received 19 Academy Award® nominations and two wins. His most recent film, Trash, set in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, was nominated for Best Film not in the English Language at the 2015 BAFTAs. Stephen directed productions of The Audience and Skylight, both were highly acclaimed and went on to win major theater awards, completing sell-out runs in London and on Broadway. In 2017 Stephen directed The Jungle at the Young Vic, an intimate immersive theatrical experience about the ongoing migrant crisis in Europe. The Jungle transferred to the West End in June 2018 and also completed a well-received run at The Curran Theatre in San Francisco and is due to return to the US in 2022.
In March 2018 Stephen directed The Inheritance, Matthew Lopez’s epic two-part play, which, following its sold-out run at the Young Vic, transferred to the West End. Stephen won the 2019 Best Director Olivier Award for The Inheritance. The production moved to Broadway in 2019 and Stephen won a Tony for Best Direction of a Play in 2021. Stephen has previously directed for BBC Radio and Television and was Director, and currently serves as Executive Producer, on the Netflix series The Crown written by Peter Morgan, the fifth season of which is due to be released later in 2022. He is Director of the Pier 55 Performance Park, Little Island, in New York, and was Creative Executive Producer of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Stephen is Chairman of a refugee arts charity Good Chance, which produced The Jungle. His latest production with Good Chance, The Walk, saw a 10ft tall puppet of a Syrian refugee girl, Little Amal, walk from Turkey to Glasgow
SIMON GODWIN
Director, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING; KING LEAR
Simon Godwin joined Shakespeare Theatre Company as Artistic Director in September 2019. Most recently, he returned to the National Theatre to direct Romeo & Juliet, an original film for television (Sky Arts in the U.K./PBS in the U.S.) starring Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley. Simon has also directed at the Royal Shakespeare Company, including productions of Timon of Athens with Kathryn Hunter in the titular role, which was reimagined in early 2020 for Theatre for a New Audience in New York City and Shakespeare Theatre Company; an acclaimed Hamlet, which toured to the Kennedy Center; and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. He has served as Associate Director of the National Theatre of London, the Royal Court Theatre, the Bristol Old Vic, and the Royal and Derngate Theatres (Northampton). While at the Royal Court, Simon directed seven world premieres, including Routes, If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep, NSFW, The Witness, Goodbye to All That, The Acid Test, and Wanderlust. He has directed several shows at the National Theatre including Strange Interlude, Man and Superman, The Beaux’ Stratagem, Twelfth Night, a celebrated production of Antony and Cleopatra with Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo, and the world premiere of Simon Wood’s Hansard. In 2012 Simon was awarded the inaugural Evening Standard/Burberry Award for an Emerging Director.
DARRELL GRAND MOULTRIE
Choreographer, GODDESS
A recipient of the Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship Award, Darrell Grand Moultrie has established himself as one of the most diverse and sought-after choreographers and master teachers. On stage, Darrell has provided choreography for The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park production of Merry Wives, MCC’s Space Dogs, Fat Ham at The Public Theatre, the world premiere of Jeremy O. Harris’s off-Broadway play Daddy, Witness Uganda at American Repertory Theater directed by Tony winner Diane Paulus, Sugar in Our Wounds at Manhattan Theatre Club, the off-Broadway musical Invisible Thread at Second Stage, the world premiere of Redwood at Portland Center Stage Theater, and Evita and Pride & Prejudice at Kansas City Repertory Theatre.
Darrell choreographed El Publico, a new opera at the world-famous Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain directed by Robert Castro and conducted by Robert Heras-Casado. Recent premieres include “Indestructible Light” for American Ballet Theatre, “Dichotomy of a Journey” at Hubbard Street Dance, and “Flight Anew” for Milwaukee Ballet. Moultrie has created and staged works for The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Atlanta Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, BalletMet Columbus, Ailey 2, Tulsa Ballet, Richmond Ballet, Smuin Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, The Juilliard School, North Carolina Dance Theatre, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, and NBA Ballet in Japan, among others.
Darrell served as a choreographer on Beyoncé’s record-breaking Mrs. Carter world tour. Moultrie is a proud New Yorker, born and raised in Harlem, and a graduate of P.S. 144, The Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts, Laguardia High School, and The Juilliard School.
JUSTIN MARTIN
Co-Director, THE JUNGLE
Justin Martin most recently directed Jodie Comer in her West End debut of Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie at the Pinter Theatre. Previous theatre credits include the critically acclaimed, sellout production of The Jungle (Young Vic / West End / St. Ann’s Warehouse / Curran); Woman In Mind (Chichester); sellout productions of Low Level Panic (Old Fitz Theatre, Sydney / Galway Theatre Festival / Irish National Tour); Last Chance: A Plea For the Unaccompanied Children of Calais (Young Vic); The Nether (Seymour Centre, Sydney); Far Away, Skintight (fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne); Fifty Two (The Leicester Square Theatre); Good Chance / No Chance (as part of the Southbank Centre’s Festival of Love); Harvey and Frieda (Arcola Theatre); Street (Mick Laly Theatre, Galway Theatre Festival); and The Kitchen (HM Theatre, VIC). As Associate Director: Inheritance (Young Vic/West End/Broadway); Skylight (West End/Broadway); The Audience (West End / Broadway); Let The Right One In (National Theatre of Scotland/ Royal Court / West End / St. Ann’s Warehouse); Billy Elliot (Broadway / Toronto / Chicago/ North America tour / Korea / Australia); and The Give and Take (Sydney Theatre Company/Melbourne Theatre Company). Film credits include Together starring James McAvoy and Sharon Horgan co-directed with Stephen Daldry (BBC Films/SFP/Shoebox); The Beautiful Game starring Bill Nighy dir. Thea Sharrock (Netflix). Television credits include The Crown (Series 1 and 2); Insider (Fremantle/Amazon – in development); Untitled Refugee Project with Badwolf.
JOE MURPHY and JOE ROBERTSON
Co-Writers, THE JUNGLE
Joe and Joe are British playwrights and the co-founding Artistic Directors of Good Chance Theatre. They began writing together at university, and their short plays include Fairway Manor, Ten Bits on Boondoggling, and Paper Play. Together, they founded Good Chance, which built its first temporary theater space in the Jungle refugee camp in Calais in 2015. Good Chance works extensively around the UK, Europe, and across the world creating spaces of art, expression, and welcome for local and newly arrived people.
Joe & Joe’s first full-length play, The Jungle, opened at the Young Vic Theatre in London in 2018 and moved to the Playhouse Theatre in the West End, before transferring to the US for sell-out runs in New York and San Fransisco. Last year, Good Chance embarked on The Walk, its most ambitious project to date: an 8,000 km moving festival of welcome from the Turkey/Syria border to Manchester in the UK. At its heart was Little Amal, a character from The Jungle, in the form of a giant puppet, representing the hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied children who have been forced to flee their homes.
Joe and Joe are recipients of the Evening Standard Theatre Award (2016), the Peter Brook Empty Space Award (2016), the Southbank Theatre Award (2018), the Genesis Prize (2018), the Mousetrap Award (2019), and, along with the Cast and Creative Team of The Jungle, an Obie (2019).
PATRICK PAGE
Lear, KING LEAR
Patrick Page most recently starred in Hadestown on Broadway (Tony Award nomination and a Grammy Award) after starring as Hades in the off-Broadway, Citadel Theatre, and National Theatre productions. Other Broadway: The Inquisitor in Saint Joan, Valentina in Casa Valentina, Buckley in Time to Kill, Adult Men in Spring Awakening, DeGuiche in Cyrano de Bergerac, Green Goblin in Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, Henry VIII in A Man for All Seasons, Decius Brutus in Julius Caesar, Scar in The Lion King, The Grinch in Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast, and Mackie in The Kentucky Cycle. Other New York: Cymbeline in Cymbeline (New York Shakespeare Festival/Delacort), Max in The Sound of Music (Carnegie Hall). Regional: Page recently created the roles of Dom Claude Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame at La Jolla Playhouse and Papermill Playhouse, and Captain Dragutin Dimitrijevic in Rajiiv Joseph’s Archduke at the Mark Taper Forum. He is an Associate Artist of The Old Globe in San Diego (Cyrano, Malvolio), and the Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington, D.C. (Coriolanus, Prospero, Macbeth, Iago, Claudius). Film: In The Heights, Estella Scrooge, The Sixth Reel. Television: recurring roles on The Gilded Age, Evil, Elementary, Madam Secretary, Flesh and Bone, and guest-starring roles on NCIS: New Orleans, The Good Wife, The Blacklist, Chicago P.D., and Law and Order: S.V.U.
MICHAEL THURBER
Music and Lyrics, GODDESS
Michael Thurber is an NYC-based composer/performer, who has written music for The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Public Theater, Manhattan Theater Club, and The Atlantic. Michael composed Merry Wives at the Delacorte Theatre in the summer of 2021. Michael was the bass player on Season 1 of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and is a co-founder of CDZA, a YouTube music collective that headlined at the YouTube Music Awards alongside Lady Gaga and Arcade Fire. Thurber’s symphonic pieces have been performed by orchestras around the country including The Louisville Orchestra, The Williamsburg Symphony, and The Interlochen Orchestra; recent theatrical writing and performing include The Booty Call (TBG Theater) and Twelfth Night (Public Theater Mobile Shakespeare Unit). Michael’s work has been developed at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Conference, and SPACE on Ryder Farm; he studied music at the Juilliard School and sits on the Board of NPR’s “From The Top.”
WHITNEY WHITE
Director, The Crucible (Workshop)
Whitney White, an Associate Director at Shakespeare Theatre Company, is an Obie Award and Lilly Award-winning director, writer, and musician originally from Chicago. She is a believer of alternative forms of performance, multi-disciplinary work, and collaborative processes. She is the current recipient of the Susan Stroman Directing Award, is part of the Rolex Protegé and Mentorship Arts Initiative and is an Associate Artist at Roundabout Theatre Company. Recent directing: STC: The Amen Corner | WP Theatre and Second Stage: Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (NYT Critic’s Pick) | The Movement Theatre Company/Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company/American Repertory Theater/The Public Theater: Aleshea Harris’ What to Send Up When It Goes Down (NYT Critic’s Pick) | Long Wharf: An Iliad | IAMA Theater Company: Canyon by Jonathan Caren (LA Times Critic’s Choice and recipient of the CTG Block Party Grant) | PlayMakers Repertory Company: Jump by Charly Evon Simpson (National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere). Digital projects include: Finish the Fight by Ming Peiffer (The New York Times, 24K+ viewers) | Animals by Stacy Osei-Kuffour (Williamstown Theatre and Audible), and Soft Light by Aleshea Harris (The Movement Theatre Company). Her original musical Definition will debut at the Bushwick Starr in 2021 and her five-part cycle deconstructing Shakespeare’s women and female ambition is currently in development with American Repertory Theater (Cambridge, MA). Past residencies and fellowships: Sundance Theatre Lab, Colt Coeur, The Drama League, Roundabout Theatre Company, and the 2050 Fellowship at the New York Theatre Workshop. Training: Brown University/Trinity Rep: MFA in Acting, Northwestern University: BA.
MARY ZIMMERMAN
Adapter/ Director, THE NOTEBOOKS OF LEONARDO DA VINCI
Mary Zimmerman is an Artistic Associate of Goodman Theatre, where over the past 25 years she has directed 17 productions including her own adaptations of Candide, The Jungle Book, White Snake, Mirror of the Invisible World, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, Journey to the West, and The Odyssey as well as directed The Music Man, Wonderful Town, All’s Well That Ends Well, The Trojan Women, Pericles, and Silk. Many of these productions as well as her Arabian Nights, Argonautika, The Secret of the Wings, Treasure Island, and Eleven Rooms of Proust have played across the country and internationally. Her adaptation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which originated at Northwestern and Lookingglass Theatre, ran on Broadway for a year and she received the Tony Award for Best Direction of a play. Opera directing credits include Galileo Galilei at the Goodman (with Philip Glass), Lucia de Lammermoor (Metropolitan Opera, La Scala), and Armida, la Sonnambula, Rusalka (Metropolitan Opera). Zimmerman is a Professor of Performance Studies at Northwestern University and an Ensemble Member at Lookingglass Theatre Company, recipient of the 1998 MacArthur Fellowship, and recipient of numerous Jeff Awards.
WOOLLY MAMMOTH THEATRE COMPANY
Woolly Mammoth creates badass theater that highlights the stunning, challenging, and tremendous complexity of our world. For over 40 years, Woolly has maintained a high standard of artistic rigor while simultaneously daring to take risks, innovate, and push beyond perceived boundaries. One of the few remaining theaters in the country to maintain a company of artists, Woolly serves an essential research and development role within the American theater. Plays premiered here have gone on to productions at hundreds of theaters all over the world and have had lasting impacts on the field. Co-led by Artistic Director Maria Manuela Goyanes and Managing Director Emika Abe, Woolly is located in Washington, D.C., equidistant from the Capitol Building and the White House. This unique location influences Woolly’s investment in actively working towards an equitable, participatory, and creative democracy.
Woolly Mammoth stands upon occupied, unceded territory: the ancestral homeland of the Nacotchtank whose descendants belong to the Piscataway peoples. Furthermore, the foundation of this city, and most of the original buildings in Washington, DC, were funded by the sale of enslaved people of African descent and built by their hands.
