Chicago First’s "Project Unspeakable"

In a bold, cultural, community-building event, First Church of the Brethren in Chicago offered a presentation of Project Unspeakable, a reader’s theater presentation on the assassinations of President Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Bobbie Kennedy in the 1960s. Based on the book JFK and the Unspeakable by theologian, researcher, author and activist Jim Douglass, the script uses quotes from historical figures to show how faithfulness to a vision of a just and viable future brought out, and continues to bring out, the wrath of the powers that be, up to and including assassination for acting on that faith.

Twelve readers recruited from First Church, Chicago Community Mennonite Church (co-housed with First Church) and a variety of local, regional and international ministries and organizations brought the script to life on Friday evening, February 28. The crowd of fifty, including many first-time visitors, listened intently as they portrayed living and deceased witnesses who did not let fear of the Unspeakable deter them from confronting a system of war and greed with the power of their vision and faith.