The Woods

The Woods – Since its creation, the United States National Park Service has been tasked with preserving, arguably, this country’s most stunning monuments to the “American Dream” – majestic swaths of untamed land, symbolizing the unbridled American spirit that forged a world power; a birthright theoretically available to all Americans, regardless of race. However, dwindling Park attendance nationwide has sent the NPS scrambling to ensure its survival. The mission? To engage those they’ve traditionally left out of the narrative of the great outdoors — people of color. But how do you excite when for many, the environments are symbolic of misery?

The Woods, using comedy and acute perception, explores our learned relationships to the American landscape and the consequences those cultural narratives have on young Black Americans and asks: Going forward, might there be a way to manifest a more positive narrative surrounding the natural environment, for the sake of those next in line to inherit it?

**Note: For mature audiences. Contains sexually explicit material.