Based on Gabrielle Robinson’s Better Homes of South Bend: An American Story of Courage, playwright Caleen Sinnette Jennings has woven together a “great work of black joy!” In 1950, a group of African American workers at the Studebaker factory in South Bend met in secret. Their mission: to build homes away from the factories and slums where they were forced to live. Witness this triumphant true story come to life on stage as these courageous families rise against the entrenched racism of the time.
Better Homes: The Play explores the Great Migration, redlining, and the role systemic racial injustice has played in the development of South Bend's Black community.
- Co-directed by Laurisa Lesure and Bo Petersen
- Performances run November 10 through November 19
- There will be talk-backs after each performance
- Tickets: $35-$25
Wilson Auditorium, South Bend Civic Theatre
Conversations with Author Gabrielle Robinson
Gabrielle Robinson, Author of Better Homes of South Bend, An American Story of Courage, will host discussions before the play on the following dates:
- November 11 and 18 at 6:50pm
- November 12 and 19 at 1:20pm
History Museum of South Bend
Worker's Home
The History Museum of South Bend is transforming their Worker's Home to reflect a typical African American home in the early 1950s. The grand reopening of this exhibit will be November 9 in tandem with Better Homes: The Play
Photo Credit: Claire Reid,
South Bend Tribune
The exhibit "Undesign the Redline" will be featured in the Warner Gallery at CIVIC beginning November 1. Five compelling panels illustrate the devastating impact of redlining, with several featuring South Bend neighborhoods.
The CIVIC thanks our sponsors for making this important production possible.
LEAD SPONSORS
- Cressy & Everett Real Estate
- South Bend Area Realtors
- Indiana Association of Realtors
- Real Services, Inc
SPONSORS
- KeyBank
- AEP Foundation + Indiana Michigan Power
- African American Community Fund (CFSJC)
- Solv Energy
- St. Joseph County Bar Association
- The History Museum
- South Bend Community School Corporation
- South Bend Alumni Association
- South Bend Education Foundation