 Hey, Jack, sorry, can't, can't just work on starting a touring with me. We're all good. Yeah, it's all good. It's all good. Oh, no. Oh, no. I'll get you back. I'll get you back. Yeah. Yeah. My name is Laugh. We're delighted that you're here with us. This is our fourth season of the Studio 620W M&F video project. We're here for media rights and they're on a boat right now, aren't they? Yes, yes. So, they're not here this weekend. And our great part is filming the M&F. And this program is grown. And so, we are delighted that you're all here. We got a grant last year from the Ford M&F Council. So last season and this season, we focused on Florida writers, what stories are about Florida. And so, we have a delicious menu for you today. Mark has asked me, or asked you, to turn up himself on the M&F. And that there'll be one play, No for Then. One play, then intermission, then No for Then. Okay. Yeah. Presents an adaptation of Selectance. A stage play. Bend your ears. Open your mind. Place this devil's garden. Our story takes place over time. One summer night in 1813 and three summer days. Our story never ever is a pre-quit. Every story has a program. This one has a name, creation. See what began in 1812 on an auction block somewhere in Clinton, Georgia. Not when he forced Fed Adams some fruit. Nor did it begin when some turtle god dug a bird from dirt at the bottom of the sea. For the black seminal, creation began when a slave from the name heaven was bought by a seminal medicine man named Yellow Horse. And taken to Florida's big cypress swamp to live for love. What can I give you for my freedom, sir? Not a thing. Freedom, freedom. Yeah. Can't be. Everything in the world costs. I want to pay you. Let me work your land, sir. Can't. I ain't got no land left to work. Sold it all to buy you freedom. But why? I'm just a woman, sir. Woman, you was heaven. You would man live and die for her. Well, that's true. Can I at least turn your house then? No. Ain't got no house either. I sold it to her for you. Where did we live? Far away. It's a dream. Just wish I could give you something for waking me to it. They love me. Is that all? Ain't it enough? Don't know. They let myself love nothing because I was a slave. They knew if I gave my heart to someone someday, they'd be taking it from me. And I was just losing that someone in my heart. So I never used it for more than a bit. But I'll try to make room inside of you, sir. Since you spent all you had to buy my freedom and since you're sweet enough to put on play. I'll try to love you best I can. It'll be the least I can do. For years, heaven stayed inside Yellow Horse's heart. But for some odd reasons, could not open hers. Heaven tried the best she could. But her heart was too old to grow or make room. But the medicine man was stubborn. He had magical healing hands. He wetted her with kisses and poured on her some lit whispers of him. Love you all. Love you, baby. But still, it wasn't enough. Her heart sickly will not fill her. So I filled my womb instead. I bought the medicine man with twin girls. The oldest was black, beautiful as a knight but no woman and blessed with the gift of bent a queen with her brand. Cherish snow. The other daughter was pale. Pretty as Sunday morning. She could calm or stare at the seas with her bare hands. The native will be more. The birth was hard on heaven's body and she died. Went home to glory the next day. The medicine man was greedy. He vowed to give the rest of his life to help him free men from slavery and teaching them how to love each other. He brought scores of new growths to the swamp lands of the Everglades where they lived free and loved old. His daughters, on the other hand, grew to despise each other for it was their nature to be at odds. When they wore a darkened light the dry season and the season of rain. But this hate was new for it kept the balance of nature and as long as they fought the rains came and quenched the earth followed by wind which carried seeds to wet soil. The Everglades grass grew high and fed both Negroes and Seminoles in a glorious valley called Devil's Garden. The year is 1837. Monsters danked us that night. Posse, the white father's army aimed for miles up and they're looking for Negroes or half Negro Indians like us to sail back into slavery and if they don't get us the Creek Indians might. But when they snatch you they tattoo them up on your face and you bear the shame of it for the rest of your life. What you see? I see pretty. Since when you been pretty cherished you've been the sight that saw as my eyes as long as I've known you. How'd you get growth to blossom on your cheeks? And is that a cracker smile crawling out your mouth? Something's got an end to you and you get it. Nah, I'm just beautiful. I'll wake up looking this way but if I had a reason for blushing cheeks or cracker smiles I'd show when I put it in your ear and God knows your mouth tries to fasten it and stench from stuff scattered and you couldn't keep a secret if I shoved it down your throat and hit it in the back of your mind. You better take a good look. I'm a woman and a woman don't tell gals why they flesh-transpaint. Gals got to discover that why by themselves. Hardish, you're pink not because you're pretty but because you were pig. I saw you growling and moped that man cherished you. You forget nothing gets past me except history. What you know, Ruby? This and that not enough to write home about but just enough to tell pop I've seen you laid your back on wet earth like he was trying to look at stars only you weren't because they weren't out so you would look into the eyes of that white soldier. Like you said that you were a woman though. What's your tongue? You first. You the loud one. I heard you calling out half of heaven my old breath maker and great-grandmother moon and sweet sister sky. I didn't know land with men since I was born. I've been seeing him secretly since the army said can't be on the swamps and he's a good man and I would love it. Well ain't that the saddest song ever sung? You know how pop feels about the white man and you know what pain I'm about to endure as the white man's slave. This is not gonna sit well with him and he's not gonna stand for this. He won't have you to know or tell him. Right Ruby? You the one said I couldn't keep a secret. You can't for this? If you have loved me as your big sis you'd find somewhere to hide this secret. You put so much so you would forget it please Ruby. No. I can't lie to my father. It just ain't and it's probably why I'm his favorite because I'm the good man. I'm about to show him your color cherish and truth be told I'm kind of to go think about it. It caused the sisters of wind and rain the end battle and each is trying to squeeze the breast out of the other though both are weak and tears are torrential rain summoning their love runs as deep as their hate though hate be easier but they'll be clenched cause they'll have their mother blow younger sister got the other hand and ease her arms around the older sister's neck. My face is I'm not going to kill you but you've got to rest you gotta forget this knife. Just drag your teeth into the bullets beyond the trees you must forget this knife. Leaves ribbon wound by a tree and whistles she runs off to Creek Indians Sea Ruby they mark her face and carry her away. Is this Keeper? Of course she's your blood everybody keeps their blood what's gotten into you Cherish it? Nobody I mean nothing Pa nothing I saw them storm clouds above y'all been fighting the kid ain't ya Ruby got mad and run off I tried to chase her but you know how quick she is I feel the white soldiers at the Creek's done got her cause I can't find no one Pa Oh my God not my baby oh Lord not my one I've gots to find out Cherish thought that she'd finally have her father to myself after months of searching for his Ruby Yellow Horse finally returned home to find his other daughter sitting there where he left her but crum as a beach Cherish the nine month ride time has come Lord give me the baby she was just born this month I ain't even named her she don't need a name you know that she won't live long enough to hear it call her that gal got a needle similar in the white man blood in her and them Revis ain't never mixing to one another with great blood she's a holocaust cursed to live she'll bring the spell to our village come on now let me put her to sleep God curse this girl's good as mornin she didn't even crawl but she came out of me after the midwifes snuck that she tumbled to her eyes word and I swear she sweetened the milk with tongue and no teeth show she come to this world bad but she gonna do much good folks gonna tell tales about this one don't make this longer than it has to be her life is meant to be short you made it so when you laid out with the white soldier but he was a good man called and loved me past my skin through blood and into my bones then where is it if your white man is good now will he be good time for him to show up in space he had a lead when his army lost the war he could still have pop sigh how can he live in this swamp and it's any of the need for a word my love could never be but this babe she could kill all of us see these robes on her palms run deep enough to hold the war like yours that means she has hands made to hold back you stay out pop how can he go away to a neighboring village tonight find her mother know him whatever knows there is a stir in notice can you hear it but they would be cherished I didn't come alone Chief John Byrd and the others are here it's false it's getting late it's the time to wait how are you here they come to make sure I did it was best for the village you know what will happen horse, you and your gal is trying our patience we've got long summer waiting it's time to put that babe to rest give her here some horse, horse like rain but I need more time just one more day, I'm a whole lot just one more stretch of sun please the medicine man and the daughter pull and pull on babe no Brad Baker, you be good if you be dark yellow horse he takes the babe to the river he takes the snake tooth across the swamp ruby moon and lurks in the darkness yellow horse lifts the snake tooth over the child and begins to pray what's taking you so long, yellow horse stuff mud in its mouth and brown the child so we can go home hold your breath, Chief John Brown every living thing deserves a good death here's the swamp see the river moon on the other side suddenly the head of an alligator rises from the river swamp snatches the baby and sings all you keep that baby in its head underwater long enough horse yeah, all is well enough Chief John Brown you are a man of your word then yellow horse no one will ever doubt your loyalty to your village or your place as a medicine man and healer I say YOLA but Brad Baker is with you ghost in the night should come back with the sun in her eyes and what would I say again how would I bear it new love is the only song that can heal you now sometimes when time came to heal those wounds new love like new skin lies open open sores shut the clothes sing a song of love and a new man will enter your heart and fill your room again you will forget this night you will heal hold on the way since it took care for me I cried until the spring oh this sister climbs the hills and cries out from the rocks mourning for her child she weeps one hundred days which causes the rainy season in devil's garden then then then in the summer it comes from down the rocks and green themes grows again and color burns blossom sixteen years stop look back that swamp gator took its car go to the shed that stood on the other side for sixteen years that baby was raised and you shall be called half Georgia half because on one side you are half Negro and half Indian and Georgia because the white father of this nation is called George and you have white blood in fact you have all blood and all blood will make you all powerful just like the mark has kept me from my father's arms your blood has kept you from your mother's milk they are curses and therefore so are we we are curses because the world needs someone some two to bear its hate but we have carried it wrong enough our backs are sore it's time to give back so we will share the weather while curses with those who have cursed us and we won't feel the slightest spark of guilt if someone is killed in the curses we are simply plotting out for this prologue and truly cursed at their own thoughts and now it's time for us to play just soon waiting for half Georgia to return seventeen years she waited in the meantime she had another daughter Imogen Ma Ma are you here? Chief John and Lager they're going to warm up I'm going to chop up my blade and get me a horse I'm going to warm up Joe you're staying here with your mom staying here but Pa I'm all a man you saw Ma warm up the other day and then it took your eye out Pa you need me I'm quick I'm cold hearted I'll cut people you're too young you're too young John Coon you know the law no man can be a warrior without going on his vision quest first now I don't want to talk no more about this but Ma I tell em your horse is going to put me on the quest any day now once I finish it I can join you I'll bring up to him that everybody will say look at the cool Joe the chief son bringing up the grill can't you see no but I can see you going in the house and getting rid of a sucker it's bad enough you passed your going down get in the house so I can fix you a plate but Ma that's cause you ain't saying nothing get in the house now so I can make your plate yes ma'am you need to give him something you need to give him something for you go John this going to be hard on him you need to show him something that his vision quest can't you don't want to say goodbye man man man they always beat me to it your car beat me to it when you was two he said bye bye what you didn't like your supper he said yup bye that's not true ma he said bye I remember he said bye and never come back just like my first love just like come on now we need to get you drink what the folks say if the daughter of the medicine man didn't go out to well wish I ain't think they been saying crack that smoke dog gets a crack you don't believe him do you baby you know I'm out by hand do you nah you just out of love been out of it but it's gonna find you ma look I got numbers scatters gone you got the trip on you got to get out of the house so you can trip nah I ain't never been one for travel it's a nice thought we got lots of nice thoughts be why I need you in the gym because you got some imagination now don't you ever let no one take that from you you hear me it's your magic your mind is your gift we go not to fight but to defend we want not to keep our peace of land but for the sake of peace we fear not brother death we know he works whenever we live and we should meet us on the battlefield then we fight him too the warriors are heard cheap John bird leads them it's easy as a pat cherish snow I can see my way into the island any storm you wanna hold me I'm gonna do what what's the don't we you been crying from the rocks for me for half Georgia for sixteen whole years be why I come back to end your reign and bring you summer who you being true like Georgia from the hour gathers you're telling the truth now it's not polite to ask questions you know the answer to me you know who I mean cherish snow just come close smell me you smell like smell like my man strange no not strange familiar family I must be dreaming I've fallen and hit my head now this is true come round bend into me I am don't you remember when we sung this song to I I am your one love your warning why you come back and you did and with the sun in your eyes you did yeah at my field this story comes to a pause listening to the rocks are gonna cry out by Marcus Gardley and directed by Fanny Green with Sean Davis as yellow horse and Jo Koon Fanny Green as creek witch and bird suit Caena Hood as heaven and cherished snow and Jones as chief John Bird Tiffany Schultz as Ruby Moon Emma Gin and half Georgia even studio signing for the hearing impaired Carol Downey I'm your announcer Ron Sadloff the radio theater project is a presentation of the studio at 6 20 and WMNF actually they can hear and I want you guys to talk if they can hear the people watching they can't see just so we can talk to them talking to Marcus and you can tell them working on it a friend of mine Lillian Dunlap you're gonna listen Marcus about what it was like to play Sean actually got the least amount of time because he got texted he mailed the script last I got here today question Ben was telling me that this is a three part like a three part series the characters come to your mind when you're writing so many characters and I feel like they all have a significant role that they play a lot of different characters come about in your head well all the characters are actually based on names I founded I wrote a diary about this period and he is people who have been in this tribe so all the names come from actual people but all we know is their name like their age right in the diary and then so this plays part of a trilogy so the piece we created is from the first and this story is based entirely so we want a legend a legend that is popular and then the second historical document that I discovered about the first black town in the United States and then the third part of the trilogy is based on actually court accounts from a trial that happened in Oklahoma that he served so it goes from legend and myth to historical documents to the court trying to get that down there to do is because actually in reality it's particularly in their own dialogue it's very solid and you have to have the facial expressions going on with it she's on camera too in the last minute I asked myself I was overwhelmed by the reading I thought it was so beautiful it's the best I've ever heard and I'm going to thank Fanny so much for it it's really really beautiful we got to go and walk him back we started the show with Mr. Fats Waller Mr. Duke Alton this is a little number by a blues singer from the 30s named Lil Green I learned it from a guy named Bob not a son what do you respect let me know in the dark we'll go over then in just a moment we'd like to take you back to episode three just from over we have the stars two very important civic leaders are here with us tonight picture yourself at the Saturday morning market alright you're there you're there you're feeling all organic fresh and everything alright ladies and gentlemen we have here to make his campaign kickoff announcement will you please welcome Mayor Foister where did I put my keys something like that I was going to step down to spend more time with my family but they insisted Bill we're fine please give us four more years before you talk here I am saying four more years of course that's not really four years if you consider the holidays, vacations and all the time you spend driving around looking for a parking space they're like three years and a couple of months they've been happening afternoon so there was I thank you Mayor thank you Mayor at the other side of the Saturday morning market we have Mayor Foister's safe appear opponent Ms. Hallibel Chad Radio Theater Project presents the continuing adventures of Noel Berlin Cabaret Detective Episode 4 I was surrounded by softly pleasant lighting and calming smells all around me people were being decent and kind strangers giftless faces smiled warmly and made right-handed compliments the bar school I sat in was perfectly crafted not only to prevent my back from hurting but also to repair the damage from years of sitting on other inferior stools for once in my life I was perfectly content and not the least bit cynical in other words what the hell where am I imagine a place like this it looks like the Alibi Club but so much cleaner and better lit my name is Noel Berlin and I've been known to play the piano now and again I think Joe usual adjusted beaver two jiggers of fresh mango cider a twist as cassava two dollops of passion fruit one squirt of grilled cream and a splash of soda come again ok I'll make it a dope and congratulations on your six month chip six month chip say what no so good to see you I'd like to see you and the piano's all tuned up and I fixed that roof lick over the stage Leo you haven't tuned that piano since you bought the Alibi Club let me use your words here why am I paying up again a player who can play in tune music is the stuff of dreams so a three chair house band would respect is what they've always said oh I don't forget to stop by the orchestra on your way out to get paid you don't mind hundreds do you something is not right here my favorite bartender is serving me alcohol free drinks and my skin pled bosses pay me a cash I thought about pinching myself but I wasn't sure when I wanted that no Berlin I've been looking for you Mayor Oyster listen I wanted to get your opinion I've done a cost benefit analysis of the acreage under an around tropical field I can monetize our real estate asset transform a vast sea of concrete into a state of the art pedestrian friendly residential and retail community that rises along our main transportation algorithm resulting in immediate financial upside at around $565 million we plan to divide these dollars among all our arts institutions that sounds great but what about the rates throw sports in St. Pete's ridiculous let's simply pay for all that crap you're a St. Petersburg for heaven's sake oh I've got to talk public transit coffee later now I know I've lost it Mayor Oyster is suddenly making sense I needed a drink as fast and not another postmodern Shirley Temple I know at last it was Belle the better half of my nightclub act Belle is to women what single malt is to scotch one taste and you wonder how you live so long without it it's more expensive generally by you Belle the whole world's turned upside down get me out of here will you no I want you to me you don't say heaven, monchorias we're starting a death metal bossa nova band called demon zombie from heaven and then dance Belle Belle what's happening to me Belle wake up we're facing opposite land and disappeared I felt cynical and I needed a drink I was right with the world again except that our friend Rose was still dead and so was Larry the dark secrets man and we still didn't have a line and who was doing the killing thank god we were dead again Belle it was worse than death I was sober and you were flying off to the third basement and you know what we don't have time for cheap dream sequences it's a short leaf from those two flashbacks now I remember a time when my childhood my aunt asked for it except the same thing yeah no no stop out of it sorry where am I you're safe we're with marionette this is an e-files office in the saturday night market we found you passed out in Larry's dark secrets wow marionette is the same people assistant PA in charge of the e-files that's e for extra weird Sam I mean detective o'rami's boys brought you over here o'rami's out searching for Larry now good luck Larry's on the floor dead he was telling me about someone named Mr. Invisible who's calling the shots around St. Pete when I heard this coming noise and Larry's head exploded it was exactly like my mom's crystal face that day when I definitely wasn't at all there wasn't anyone else in the shop when we found you the place was empty just you mumbling something about ordering a Justin Bieber Justin Bieber what's a Justin Bieber it's a Shirley Temple for people who young to know who's Shirley Temple that's good you think that was Shirley is this Mr. Invisible no but that would be scary oh right Shirley Temple so did Larry say Mr. Invisible was nobody did say one important thing that you were too worried about the president no one aged past who always prescribed the body to what did he mean I don't know what I'm going to find out not so fast Buster you keep disappearing and turning up all this data I can't afford to lose you oh you do care that sweet I just can't afford to train a new piano player obedience school isn't cheap look we got to go Larry's last words have given me an idea I know dear that's why I got you an iPhone with a GPS tracking so I can find you when you run off no no no I told you when we met I was a rotary guy in a digital world if you insist alright I stuck the hellish device in my pocket and Bell and I took off we left the underground markets of the Saturday Night Market we caught the trolley over to the office of the Tampa Bay Times what are we doing here it's time to pay a visit to the morgue they've got dead people at the time the morgue used to be a trade name for the archive room but times are tight at times so they printed out space to the city for actual courses they used the money to help fund the art section we're going to the art section we pushed through the revolving doors into a lobby packed with trench coats notebooks and spin doctors we ran smack into Florida's Governor Rich Schnot oh, isn't it when last we met, I was rich and you were an alcoholic amateur sloop how are you now you won't get away with this what? exactly what? did I just read about you ignore what you read in the fish wrappers and you'll be a much happier person I know I am so I fired all the environmental agents so what? I needed a new hot tub in my limo and the budgets got a balance this week the Times is blaming me for pythons in the Everglades the Catholic sex scandal and the new Schwarzenegger movie I told him to stay retired you can't pin that click on me I'm off to a charity deduction watch your back, Berlin I've got a long memory yes, I'm in the boat give me all the more oh, it's a computer lab jeez, things have changed since my last visit no Johnny this is Belle, Belle, Johnny here is the god of the more I have a t-shirt that says so my Johnny Johnny, where's the micropeach? over in the back with the Gutenberg machine and the tin cans and string what are you looking for? 1967 anything about the year when they built that upside down pyramid up here you know what they're tearing that down, don't you? yes, somebody's not happy about it that's why we're here here you go, I had it down for the other fella what other fella? exactly, what's this picture? the St. Pete Pier committee 1967 looks like a big civil project all that movers and shakerers I looked at the photo there they were in black and white Bill Herum Gelsen Pinter Dick Weynacht all the big dogs and who's that in the back? no, he doesn't look familiar he was a funny looking guy wearing what looked like a college beanie I wrote down his name and we went off to talk to Bill Herumph Mr. Merlin, is it? this is Belle, my bodyguard let me see that photo I don't see it so well anymore 1967, huh? somewhere in Doug's, wasn't it? you think of me, yeah well, that's when I was a child yeah Mr. Herumph, what do you remember about this person right here? the Pimp-D Quirilisik what's my name, is that? no vowels apparently that's how they spell her names in Albania who they mentioned he was from Albania or Arkansas yeah, we didn't know that now we didn't think much about it they lost our names that guy they lived in a military style compound on Snell Island with a pool named Jesse and he was on the committee for the new pier in 1967? by the committee he was chairman and personally put up the money for the whole damn thing so there was this civic duty drawings with him from little Albania, where I can sell inverted pyramids were a guaranteed tourist draw why is he wearing a beanie? never without it just to glow in the dark rich folks, huh? and after the pier was built they just disappeared back to Little Rock that's in Albania, right? then we never heard from again yeah, thanks we left Bilharov's beach drive office pushing through a line of arts administrators waiting for a handout outside I could see the old pier glinting out on the bed it gave me the oddest sensation now I don't know how to say this but the sight of that old pier was making my pants buzz that's your eye-finding I pulled the damn thing out of my pocket they'll punch something on the side letters started scrolling across the screen Noel Berlin leave the pier alone or it's curlers for youth leave the pier alone or it's curlers for youth? here's another message coming damn you autocorrect Noel Berlin leave the pier alone or it's curtains for you well, that's more like it where the hell's the show? two slow gin fizzes coming right up coming next month for the next episode of the continuing adventures of Noel Berlin Cabaret Detective Noel Berlin was written by Paul Wilborn and Matt Cowley tonight's episode featured the voices of Paul Wilborn Eugenie Bonderant Jim Wicker, Bonnie Agan and Bob Hyde in studio signing for the hearing impaired Carol Downer I'm your announcer, Ron Satloff the Radio Theater Project is a presentation of Studio 620 and WMN The Radio Theater Project presents Francisco Menendez by Bob Devin Jones directed by Lisa Power as Tacoma The Wild in Heaven I will be thy name by kingdom come I will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day give us this day our daily bread Padre and the star in heaven Sanofi Carlos C. Artinombre Liga how they say to volunteers come, this is the man what is the challenge insubordination disobeying direct orders and he's puzzling the morale of the crew with their slanderous words, sir well, sailor what say you What say you to these accusations? My dog will speak when I kill the captain. Your dog, that is the captain. No, he is nothing but a slave. I am a servant of the Spanish Empire. I take orders from the slave. You see the situation, sir? I do. You know the punishment for insubordination, sir. Three nights in the brig with half rations and 20 lashes. He must be made an example of captain before his cause is raised. I see. Say, you find yourself in danger. You realize that? I see. But you are nothing, captain. For that, we could kill you. However, I believe the problem is one of comprehension. It's happened many times before. I will address the comprehension by way of a story. And if that fails, the reiteration of relevant facts, names, dates, and places, were purposed to illustrate and illuminate my particular history. And chronicle my capture as a young boy for my native Mandinka in West Africa. I will relate the harrowing battles, the inhospitable climes, and the unrelenting bedlands I face. And therefore, Francisco Menendez, humbly and proudly, placed this modest narrative before your ears that this may lead you to become a loyal and obedient member of my crew. I will keep you. My arrival to British Carolina in the earliest years of the 1700s was preceded by several perilous months at sea. On that ship, I was strapped, cramped, into a space the dimensions of which resembled the weight of a colonial footprint suffused with the remnants of festering and smoldering coal. The ship was filled beyond capacity with human trade. The air inside the vessel was close and tight was one of the timbers of the ship's construction. And with three-fourths of the human cargo aboard that ship lost province of this life and never made it to the British territories, these appellous souls with indifferent barrier were discarded from the way at sea. Now that bit of ship was seaward, remarkable, so secure, filled with the cries and the monstrous epic of our displacement. My country, reluctant travelers, all each of us bound and obligated to a journey, a journey certain to become more affluent and loathsome with the fading of each new moon. The stench and squalor aboard that ship was unavoidable as it was almost entirely unbearable. Even at my young age, however untenable when misfortune of this passage, I was determined to bear it. And although I could not entirely comprehend or even understood what that meant, I somehow apprehended the ocular prospect before me. I must survive this journey. And I did. I did, perforce, survive it. Arriving in the British colony some two months and several days in front of what I could determine as the eighth year of my birth, I was immediately forced to work on a variety of layers, indigo, right, tobacco cotton, which comprised the main commerce of that English colony. Toil without ceasing, severe punishment without provocation. Gradually, I demonstrated an ability to learn and understand the language of my captives. I was given a variety of further duties on that English plantation. And I excelled at all of them. Now, see, you were just a slave. Yes. Yes, for nearly 10 years I labored as a slave in British Carolinas before the division of that territory into North and South. After years of learning and struggle and struggle and learning and learning, the promise of freedom cried the hard way. Eventually allowed me to organize the fullest capacity of my mind. I escaped from British Carolina into Florida and lived initially amongst the Indian of the region, for whom I was the most apt and voracious people. They taught me how to master British fire arms, how to move through the forest without sound or footprint, detection or discovery, and most importantly, most importantly, how to strategically fight and vanquish the English. I was more than three years in the wilderness living amongst the other Indian tribes in the region. The Yamase, the Seminole, and the Swandy, all the while avoiding capture when I did it for gain and their rapacious bounty hunters, for whom my re-enslavement would be a boon of the highest order, a runaway slave who could not only read but think. Yago, faloo, yago, faloo, yin, yah, yin, yah, ti, re, yin, yah, yin, yah, ti, re, yago, yin, yah, ti, re, yago, faloo, yin, yah, ti, re, yago, yin, yah, ti, re, yago, yago, yin, yah, ti, re, yago, yin, yah, ti, yago. I tried with insufficient success to keep alive the memory of my country and of my mother and of my father, for whom I imagined it was their belief, their understanding. There was to be no reunion of them ever seeing their son, their little boy again. Somehow, his realization hurt as well as he did. During this time, I learned of the second. What is the second one? The proclamation issued by King Charles II that promised that English slaves, slaves that made their way to Spanish Florida would be given their living, their freedom. Spanish Florida would prove to be my balm and guinea. An absolute inability like raindrops to find their purchase in the soil. I needed to be planted in some other place on this new continent to a land where I would be free, where I would be free and that place, that soil, that dirt by divine providence or some explicit heavenly intercession was for me to be clothed. Yes, yes, you are correct. I have been a slave more than once. In the early winter of 1724 upon my arrival in St. Augustine and my quest for emancipation, I was sold twice more. First by the Yalisi Indians to the Spaniards, betrayed for a bottle of rum and a small harvest of coal. Subsequently, Manuel, the Montana Governor of Florida, sold me to a wealthy nobleman of the Spanish crowd, down Francisco Menendez Marquez, for whom I've appropriated my patron. So you are a thief as well. That means is where he got his name, though. One more word and you'll be dragged behind the boat. To continue. I was conferred as a Catholic, except you, and granted my freedom. My time in St. Augustine was distinguished by extraordinary opportunity and advancement. Because of our king's generosity and enlightened Spanish rules, governing slavery, laws which are inimical to the English, as we could buy or petition for our freedom, own property, testify in proceedings in courts of law, and the prohibition of separating families. I have a family of little, white and poor children. Well, in 1726, I was appointed by Governor de Montello to be the commander of the freed militia in St. Augustine, as I was becoming sufficient and fluent in the reading and mastery and speaking of Spanish. I was also becoming indispensable to the crowd. In autumn of 1738, the governor determined fortified settlement was to be established two miles north of St. Augustine, among the salt marshes and along the banks of the Mose Creek. The site was an abandoned Appalachian Indian village. I didn't learn from it, you still did. This northernmost Spanish settlement was christened Gracia Real de la Santa Rosa de Mose. Fort Mose was the first settlement to freed people in North America. Now, Fort consisted of a small moat, a church, fresh water well, a long fence accepted with some several towers, which included a watch tower, and 22 houses. A hundred former slaves, people of diverse origins, Africans, Caribbean, mulattoes, noroons, and Indian peoples inhabited those houses. The residents conducted much of the construction and the building of Fort Mose. Under my direct supervision, now the main crop was corn, which was shared to augment the stores in St. Augustine. Now, if the stores proved insufficient, government and limited supplies of beef, pork, rice, and biscuits, it's a denser trade, hunting, between your majesty, our majesty's Indians is a common practice. And we observed mass every day. I am student possession of a small medallion, St. Christian, presented to me by the governor more than 20 years ago. My grandfather, that's the same medallion. Then I am in good company. The militia has been under my near continuous command, and each of us, too, a man, has vowed to be the most cruel enemies of the English. A vow of no doubt you have made. And to spill our last drop of blood in defense of the great crown of Spain and the Holy Faith. Now in the year of 1740, the British led an attack of the war of Jenkins year. Fort Mose was set, but ultimately we fought the British back. The successful recapture and rebuilding of Fort Mose reignited, and returned this vile colony to the Spanish ground. In service to your same Spanish king, I had innumerable times circled my exodus back into the British territories and led successful raids against the English in South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana. During my campaign as a co-sup, a privateer raiding English merchant ships, deceased supplies for St. Augustine, I was captured by the British and sold him to serve two one more time. I was severely tortured and threatened with castration. As I attempted to orign my release and that of my men, my captives became increasingly agitated. It led up to their initial understanding, a lowly, subhuman African slave who had the temerity and command not only of their English tongue, but Spanish as well. Thus their agitation grew to end and to fear and finally to rage for my true identity was discovered. I was whipped with a lash twice 100 times. The first 100 strokes came in a rapid succession, and as my torment drew more blood than tears, I was bribed, pickled and whipped 100 lashes more. Remanded and changed to the Bahamas, but fear was telling of the day. I escaped and within several weeks, I returned to my most unwavering and constant outlaw. I humbly submit. My fidelity to his masters allowed me to be outwit, outfox, outright, and outpersevere my English non-factuals. And now, now, regrettably, even now, my family, after all these years, years of memories, memories that I have turned into legend and into lore now, even now, I must flee by the love of Florida. The very prospect of leaving for us, of course actually, kills me with a deep, entirely profound and overwhelming sadness. The likes of which I have now felt since I was a child. But first, I arrived in this new chemistry, and I tread the waters of the shores, waters that I have navigated, explored, harvested, and defended most of my life. I have done the state some service, and they know it. I have commanded over a dozen Spanish ships. I have boarded and plundered countless English ones. And I have remanded to the Spanish crown, treasures, lives, and unrivaled prosperity and dominion of these new lands. Thus, His Majesty the King has given us his backing in establishing a new and lasting quality in Cuba, in the honor and the glory and the greatness of Spanish human life. So, say it. Well, listen to my story. Have you anything to say? The Jew shows sign of freeing with your permission. I see to it, capture very well business. Well, I think I will be made in the Kingdom of Cuba. Francisco Menendez was written by Bob Devin Jones and directed by Lisa Palos-Tacoma, featuring the voices of Bob Devin Jones, Bob Heitlund, and Desmond Clark. In studio signing for the hearing impaired, Carol Nunn, sound effects by Matt Cowley, reporting mixer, Mark Perfetti, house mixer, Blake Westlake, technical coordinator for the studio of 620, Josh Brown. I'm your announcer Ron Satlock. The Radio Theatre Project is a presentation of Studio of 620 and WMNF. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you so much. I'll see you tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, thank you. I'll see you. I'll see you tomorrow. I'll see you tomorrow. She had a hip operation. She just had a hip operation. She was a bit wobbly. But, you know, when she gets back together, some Sunday or something like that, it's been making a good time. Okay, good to see you.