RADICALISM - REVOLUTION - RESISTANCE

 

The Young Lords – The Musical is a two-act stage play that examines radical social change, community advocacy, and the difficult internal debates faced by its members.

 

ACT ONE follows Jimenez in Chicago, where he discovers the influential writings of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. during his incarceration, and traces the founding of the Young Lords, made up primarily of Puerto Rican and Latinx members. Demands for community initiatives such as education, housing, and healthcare.

 

ACT TWO opens with the Young Lords Party in New York City at Tompkins Square Park, where party leader Felipe Luciano and other key members face a series of struggles and confrontations. Protecting children exposed to lead paint poisoning, defending pregnant mothers denied general access to emergency treatment and public health care services, and a bureaucratic system where health inequity runs rampant. The musical reaches its dramatic climax with the 1970 takeover and occupation of Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx.

 

The musical features 22 original, rich, and diverse musical genres having massive crossover appeal and follows a historical sequence of events. It adds a new dimension to the mainstream perception of that time, that these young radicals were destructive, and how their actions are so highly relevant today

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