Unbossed and Unbowed: The Shirley Chisholm Story

Unbossed and Unbowed is the largely unheard story of Shirley Chisholm, a Brooklyn-born politician of immigrant parents, who in the 20th century, was the first African-American woman to win a seat in the U.S. Congress and to run for the Presidency of the United States. Using humor, history and a call for present day activism, Shirley Chisholm is back with a forthright crispness and clarity that were distinctly her, inviting audiences to consider and redefine personal success and to understand the power of social commitment.

Unbossed & Unbowed journeys back to Shirley Chisholm’s childhood to show how race and gender determined how far she would go in life, why she chose to fight for the disenfranchised and what it took for her to rise. Her parents arrived to the U.S. in the early 1920s. By the end of the decade came The Depression, and in order to make ends meet, they decided to send 3-year old Shirley and her younger siblings to live with their maternal grandmother in Barbados. Shirley’s years in Barbados reinforced her Caribbean heritage which manifested itself in her bearing and speech pattern. The show covers the period from when segregation in the U.S. was the law to the time it was outlawed, when Black soldiers were sent to fight for their country in WW II and Vietnam and were still treated as 2nd-class citizens upon their return. It was an era when great numbers of Black people were migrating from the South to the North only to find similar inequities in the North. West Indians (Caribbeans), like Shirley Chisholm’s parents, also migrated to the U.S. in droves and they too felt the racial barriers and attitudes of racist America. Unbossed & Unbowed dramatizes the Civil Rights era, the unrest of the 1960s, the patriarchal system and the all-boys network Shirley Chisholm was up against, many themes we still see in the politics of today. Unbossed & Unbowed hopes to inspire the disenfranchised and to connect to those who benefit from the status quo, helping them to examine the flaws in our system and reconsider what’s best for humankind.

Ingrid Griffith Solo Show Artist / Writer / Actor (SAG/AFTRA, Dramatist Guild)

Ingrid is the writer and performer of Unbossed & Unbowed, a story inspired by the life and times of the icon/trailblazer Shirley Anita (St. Hill) Chisholm. “I’ve been moved to write and share Shirley Chisholm’s story in the hope that more people will become aware of her contributions and appreciate how her voice resonates today.”

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The City of Roswell’s Recreation, Parks, Historic and Cultural Affairs, presents Roswell Celebrates Juneteenth. A series of events and programs will take place starting Friday, June 14 and run through the weekend, ending on Sunday, June 16.

Juneteenth commemorates the effective end of slavery in the United States. Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. Juneteenth was originally celebrated in Texas, on June 19, 1866. It marked the first anniversary of the day that African Americans there first learned of the Emancipation Proclamation, more than two years after it was initially issued. In 2021 Juneteenth was made a federal holiday in celebration and recognition of the end of slavery and to honor the culture and achievements of African Americans.