Preludes, Interludes, and Epilogues: Readings and musical reflections on The Struggle Continues by Robbie McCauley
Join Jessie Montgomery and an incredible group of Chicago-based artists for an evening of storytelling, celebration and musical responses centered around the release of the new book The Struggle Continues by Jessie’s mother, playwright, director, and performer Robbie McCauley. The book encapsulates McCauley’s seminal plays, essays, and reflections centered on the Black American experience, delivered with poignancy and precision, inviting us to engage compassionately with historical and present realities in the struggle toward true liberation.
The event will feature music by composers Shelley Washington and Kailyn Williams and excerpts from the text read by actor Chris Anthony, interwoven with improvisations performed by violinist Khelsey Zarraga, cellist Tahirah Whittington, pianist John Bitoy, ~Nois Saxophone Quartet, and Jessie Montgomery herself on violin.
Don’t miss this unique celebration of a legendary voice in American avant-garde theater, taking place at The Second Flooor, 5946 W Chicago Avenue.
You can purchase your copy of The Struggle Continues onsite for $20 courtesy of our Co-host and publisher of the book, Theater Communications Group!
The Second Flooor (5946 W Chicago Avenue, Chicago IL)
October 25, 2025
7:00 PM
About The Struggle Continues by Robbie McCauley
“How do I look back, go forward, and be here at the same time?”
— Robbie McCauley
A vital presence in the avant-garde theatre movement since the 1970s, Robbie McCauley worked as a playwright, director, and performer for decades, garnering international acclaim for her thought-provoking, boundary-breaking work. Her plays consistently confronted uncomfortable truths in America while dismantling the traditional divide between performer and spectator. With uncompromising honesty and deep humanity, McCauley’s work celebrated the varied lived experiences of Black women and their indelible impact on global culture.
In this volume, readers will find:
- The full texts of McCauley’s plays Sally’s Rape, Indian Blood, Sugar, Jazz ’n Class, and Mississippi Freedom
- Insightful introductions to each play
- Essays by McCauley and reflections by leading artists and academics on her work and legacy including Daniel Alexander Jones, Omi Osun Joni L. Jones, Charlotte Meehan, Ed Montgomery, Carl Hancock Rux, Maureen Shea, and Pamela Sneed
“Soulful, deeply personal, political… Now McCauley’s incredible artistry can—and should—take its rightful place on bookshelves and reading lists alongside her collaborators and interlocutors, including Ntozake Shange, Adrienne Kennedy, Ed Bullins, and August Wilson”
— Harvey Young
“Robbie McCauley is a formidable actor, writer, and director. As a performer, she takes dramatic risks, exhibiting an almost palpable vulnerability, a terrific intelligence, a breathtaking range of emotions.”
—BOMB magazine
“[McCauley is] a skilled performer and raconteur who knows the subtle difference between speaking with—rather than to or at—her audience.”
— Boston Globe
“Over and over again, [Sally’s Rape] reveals sharp, new facets of American truths, truths we secretly hold to be self-evident, but never discuss, truths about racism and misogyny, oppression and history… [it] makes us start talking.”
— Village Voice
Excerpts from the Premiere Performance of Indian Blood by Robbie McCauley
“History not remembered gets told anyway”
— Robbie McCauley in Indian Blood
Watch excerpts from the live premiere performance of Indian Blood, written and performed by Robbie McCauley, at The Kitchen, NYC, November 1987. Indian Blood is one of the four plays compiled in McCauley’s book, The Struggle Continues.
Indian Blood commemorates while trying to understand the life of her grandfather, who fought in the Indian Wars, and father, for whom the U.S. military was a career path to patriotic service and self-respect. From Elin Diamond’s introduction in The Struggle Continues: “Family memories for Robbie are always entangled in America’s long history of racism. To remember her fathers is to remember his world—the bruising contradictions of African American life through the twentieth century, particularly the lives of Black men whose dignity and pride in military service earned them not praise from a grateful country, but rather the backlash of resentment born of centuries of ingrained white supremacy.” Robbie McCauley quotes her mother, ”Is it correct to stir your fathers in their graves?”
Indian Blood, written and performed by Robbie McCauley, music by Ed Montgomery: excerpts from live performance at The Kitchen, NYC, 1987; with Verna Hampton and April Green. Musicians: Lucy Galliher, piano; April Green, keyboards; Ayodele Maakehru, guitar, mandolin banjo; Ed Montgomery, woodwinds; LA, percussion; Jessie Montgomery, ukulele (on video). Visuals by Ian DeGruchy and Jay Johnson.