2022
SOUTH SIDE SUMMER
2w
Gun Violence Type(s): Police Shooting
Perspective: Black Lives; Family / Sibling
Narrative Style: Chorus / Multi-Voice
By McKennzie Boyd
A young mother, her son and her daughter share their experience of living on the southside of Chicago, where guns don't discriminate based on how young or old you are but it's the color of your skin that can change which way the gun faces.
SYNOPSIS
A mother and daughter, JOY and EVA, stand in a cemetery preparing to bury EMMANUEL, the youngest in their family. As they dress for the funeral and reflect on the night he died, a fuller picture of their life on Chicago’s South Side begins to emerge. Joy recalls the precautions she and her partner David took to keep their children safe: Emmanuel wasn’t allowed out after dark, and she strictly enforced curfews, knowing how quickly a Black boy in a hoodie could be misunderstood—or targeted. Eva remembers the sounds of their neighborhood: music, sirens, sleepless nights, and the unease that always came with summer.
Despite their efforts, Emmanuel longed for freedom. One night, he slipped out of the house and went to the corner, hoping to feel the wind on his face. A police car passed. He reached into his waistband, possibly to adjust his shorts, and was shot. Now, Joy wrestles with guilt, asking whether her restrictions pushed Emmanuel into that fatal act of rebellion. Eva struggles with the fear that her brother will be remembered only as another statistic—another dead Black boy on the news—rather than the playful, joyful kid he really was.
Their dialogue moves between memory and mourning, anger and tenderness, as they search for a way to honor Emmanuel beyond the violence of his death. Joy urges Eva to tell a true story about her brother at the funeral—something real, something beautiful. The play ends with Eva beginning that story, reclaiming his narrative before others can reduce him to one.
The writing in this play is so strong and, at moments, extraordinary. This is a writer with a singular and compelling voice. The play has a formal scope and ambition.
naomi iizuka
Playwright & ENOUGH! panelist
themes & technique
THEMES
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Youth & Survival — Explores how Black children are raised in a constant state of alert, where joy is policed, freedom is dangerous, and childhood is a calculated risk.
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The Violence of Normalcy — A child stepping outside at night becomes a fatal act, revealing how normalized danger reshapes what is considered routine or permissible in overpoliced communities.
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Seeking Reclamation — Rather than forgiveness or justice, the emotional arc hinges on reclaiming Emmanuel’s full humanity—insisting that joy, mischief, and dreams outlast his final moment.
NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE
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Two-character memory play — A quiet, emotionally layered conversation unfolds in a single location, blending present-day mourning with vivid recollections to reconstruct a fuller truth.
"Till the courtroom becomes their center stage
Where their crocodile tears will keep them from the cage"
McKennzie Boyd
Southside Summer
Playwright's Bio
McKennzie Boyd (she/her) was a generally shy kid from Chicago before she discovered writing poetry as a way for her to speak up about what she was experiencing. From there McKennzie has realized how vital the arts are to expressing serious topics and reaching many groups of people. Since the 6th grade, McKennzie has been a part of the Viola Project, a program that teaches non-men an alternate way to feminize Shakespearean text in order to bend or break ancient gender roles. She has also acted at various theatres in the Chicagoland area including with the City Lit Acting Company where she did THE VOICE OF GOOD HOPE, a play about Barbra Jordan, the first Black woman elected to the House of Representatives who paved ways for Black people to represent themselves and their communities, while challenging segregation and the political climate. McKennzie has managed different plays at her school and organized the assemblies and classes related to Black history month. She’s begun to adapt some of her poems into plays. Currently McKennzie is a part of Steppenwolf’s Young Adult Council and fights to challenge the silence that confines Black and LGBTQ+ voices.
