Free Essay

Hurt Village

In: Film and Music

Submitted By tyarrahwalker
Words 716
Pages 3
Ty’Arrah Walker
Professor Ruffin
Blacks in the Arts
November 1, 2013

Hurt Village

Hurt Village is a play that takes place in the projects in Memphis, Tennessee. The play starts off with one of the main characters, a 13-year old by the name of Cookie rapping in the dark. The raps are filled with frustrations that Cookie experiences while growing up in Hurt Village. As the play transitions into different scenes, Cookie, her family, and other Hurt Village residents sing nursery rhymes and rhymes to show their deprivation. These songs are a big part of the understanding of the play. Hurt Village did a phenomenal job in presenting the struggles of the black community in the projects everywhere, not just Hurt Village. The struggles that the families face in Hurt Village face are a reality for many black families in the projects. Drugs, poverty, and crime seem to be the typical stereotype amongst African-Americans as a whole. In the case of the people living in Hurt Village, this statement is true, but the story is based on Cookie’s family trying to make a way out. A struggling black mother and grandmother, who they refer to as, “Big Mama,” throughout the play tries to make a better life for her granddaughter (Cookie), Cookie’s mother (Crank), and her grandson (Buggy), who is also Cookie’s father. Big Mama makes her living by cleaning hospital and consistently working overtime. After becoming mentally ill after the war, Buggy returns home, and it seems like he comes home just in time to help his grandmother in her time of need. Big Mama’s goal is to move her family out of Hurt Village into a better neighborhood, where Cookie can meet her full potential academically. It is heartbreaking to see Big Mama get on her knees and beg to a social worker to be put on Section 8, so that she and her family can move out of Hurt Village. Her opportunity is taken away from her as the social worker tells her that she makes $347.00 over the maximum amount accepted for those living on Section 8. Like many African-American men, when the going gets tough, the first thing that they rely on is fast money. The only way that Buggy thinks he can help his grandmother with the money that she needs to move them out of Hurt Village is to sell drugs. But there is only one thing faster than fast money, and that’s quick trouble. Buggy runs into a world of trouble when he begins selling drugs again. Not only does he bring trouble upon himself, but he also brings trouble amongst the people he cares about. Not only does Buggy’s old time friend, Cornbread and his baby mother have to flee because of the drugs, but they leave the product with Cookie’s mother, who is a recovering drug addict to look over. During this scene, we see where Crank battles with whether she should use the drugs or not. After being clean for three years, Crank mentally gives in, and she begins to get high in Big Mama’s living room. These particular actions in the play represent reality. It represents how easy it is to get involved with drugs and crime because of poverty, and how hard it is to get out. It also shows how drugs will ruin a whole family and community.
Violence is seen through out the play as well. Tony C, the notorious drug lord in Hurt Village is ultimately responsible for killing Buggy’s mother, and is the responsible for killing Skillet, the dumb sidekick. When it comes to the drug game and what will people do in the name of the almighty dollar, there is no remorse, and this is all seen through the play, Hurt Village.
Hurt Village is the truth. It opens the blind eyes towards the poverty stricken families, drugs, and crime. Although at the end of the play, Big Mama and Cookie finally move out of Hurt Village, Crank is not allowed to move with them because of her using drugs again. Hurt Village shows how we are still modern day slaves to the system, and how no matter how hard people like Big Mama try, they’ll still be beat down by the system.

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