Pushing Boundaries With Martha Redbone

“These are the stories that a lot of people would not like to be told—to sweep things under the rug and put a pretty little bow on top of it.”

That’s how musical artist Martha Redbone describes the stories and family lore at the heart of her newest work, “Bone Hill,” a musical theater performance that tackles themes like racism, erasure and colonization.

Growing up as a Black and Native woman, Redbone says, she viewed the American ideal through a “white” lens—one that gave little weight to the very existence of her multiracial identity.

“We’ve been forced to erase ourselves and downplay who we are, and I think that we're living in a time where we're not doing that anymore,” she says.

“Bone Hill,” based largely on Redbone’s own history, follows the lives of four generations of an Appalachian Cherokee family. The show weaves a tale of the family’s connection to the land, punctuated by references to the Trail of Tears, U.S. racial reclassification legislature like Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924, and the oft-untold dynamic between Native people and African Americans. 

“We talk about the American Indian Removal Act,” she says. “We talk about the formation of the Bureau of Vital Statistics, which was led by eugenicists who believed that they could turn everyone white within three generations.”

Through gospel, folk music and blues, “Bone Hill” abstractly tells the story of Redbone’s Native family.

“These are the stories that, as an artist—whether it's through dance or music or song or storytelling or writing or painting—these are the stories from the Southeastern people that I come from,” Redbone says.

“It’s really exhilarating,” she says. “It’s very beautiful, and I think it’s needed.”

She says she hopes the show inspires people to find out about the intricacies of where they come from.

“I thought, well, maybe I can share a little bit of my family story through song and hope that I can spark conversations about your own family history and your own contributions to this land, and what that means,” Redbone says.

Redbone created “Bone Hill” with her partner, Aaron Whitby, and says that while she understands that the stories the show is based on are that of strife and struggle, she wanted to create something that showcased her family’s strength.

“Aaron and I said, ‘We are not going to write a bunch of really angry and sad songs,’” she says. “ ‘There's just no way. We've got to write about our resilience in this.’”

And the finished product, Redbone says, is a lot of fun.

“I feel like I have the best band of musicians on the planet, who are also the townspeople [in the show], and so we're all hollering on the stage, and yelling, and then this amazing music comes out, and it's just so much fun,” she says. “It's so much fun. And I'm really, really excited to bring it to the Newman Center.”

Martha Redbone’s “Bone Hill” comes to the Newman Center Sept. 25 at 7:30 p.m. Find out more and purchase tickets here.