This FST Forum Discussion is inspired by themes presented in FST's Mainstage production of brownsville song (b-side for tray).

ABOUT brownsville song (b-side for tray):

In this poignant drama about family, loss, grief, and hope, Kimber Lee introduces us to Tray Thompson, an eighteen-year-old young black man doing everything right in the violent neighborhood of Brownsville in Brooklyn. Tray is shot and killed after being in the wrong place at the wrong time during a gang dispute. His grandmother Lena, his sister Devine, and his stepmother Merrell must come to terms with his loss, while dwelling on the life he left behind, and discover how they must live together in the space he left behind. This play presents just one example of how the cycle of poverty and violence are killing our black men and boys, through the lens of one young black man. He is not just a statistic, not just a one-day local headline; he is a person with triumphs and losses, strengths and flaws. He was a human being, a brother, a son, a grandson, a scholar, and a boxer, and his name was Tramaine Berry Thompson.