Episode Description
Most people meet Tituba through Arthur Miller. Nicole Brooks met her differently. The Canadian artist, producer, composer, and performer spent over a decade creating Obeah Opera, a fully sung a cappella theatrical work that centers Tituba and the other women of Salem as healers, wise women, and people who loved and were loved. In this conversation Nicole opens up about the research, the music, the controversy, and the story she believes America is ready to hear.
What You Will Learn
Who Tituba was beyond The Crucible
Why Nicole positions every woman in the story as a healer
How the word Obeah appears in Puritan records and what that tells us
The love story at the heart of Obeah Opera
How the girls who made accusations were themselves silenced and powerless
What Tituba's name means in Yoruba
Why an all-female cast changes how the story lands
How music makes the heaviest history bearable
Guest Nicole Brooks, creator of Obeah Opera
Resources and Links
Sign the Petition to Exonerate the Boston 8
The History of Witch Trial Exonerations in Massachusetts