All God’s Children
All God’s Children is a ballet based on a poem by Sojourner Truth.
If God created all people, then He created every shade of skin color, which leaves little room for prejudice. The ballet approaches the issue of racial tension and diversity from a fresh perspective. We are observers of another time, another world and watch the development from primal Man to full-fledged culture. By re-framing the issue in another world and starting from scratch, we can see ourselves more clearly. Whimsical, satirical and compellingly fresh, the ballet shows the development of culture and the beauty of what makes us distinct, without forgetting what binds us together.
Premiere: October, 2017
Inspired by: “The Great Sin of Prejudice Against Color” by Sojourner Truth Choreography: Julianna Slager
Costumes: Lorianne Robertson
The Great Sin of Prejudice Against Color
by Sojourner Truth
Children,
who made your skin white?
Was it not God?
Who made mine black?
Was it not the same God?
Am I to blame, therefore,
because my skin is black?
Does it not cast a reproach
on our Maker
to despise a part of His children,
because He has been pleased
to give them a black skin?
Indeed, children, it does;
and your teachers ought to tell you so,
and root up, if possible,
the great sin of prejudice
against color from your minds.
While Sabbath School Teachers
know of this great sin,
and not only do not teach
their pupils that it is a sin,
but too often indulge in it themselves,
can they expect God
to bless them or the children?
Does not God love colored children
as well as white children?
And did not the same Savior
die to save the one as well as the other?
If so,
white children must know
that if they go to Heaven,
they must go there
without their prejudice against color,
for in Heaven
black and white
are one in the love of Jesus.
Now children,
remember what Sojourner Truth has told you,
and thus get rid of your prejudice,
and learn to love colored children
that you may be
all the children of your Father
who is in Heaven.