Nice-Nice

Jaja’s African Hair Braiding

Talk about a play being timely. Just as the news is reporting that following the inauguration of the new President, a sweeping mass National Deportation Plan is set to begin in Chicago, a dazzling and lively new play that focuses on a community of African immigrants is playing on Navy Pier. Jocelyn Bioh’s 2023 Broadway hit is part of a limited National Tour. The comic drama has just opened in the Windy City and, coincidentally, its plot points seem to be ripped from tomorrow’s headlines. Both the Mayor and the Governor of Illinois have promised that Chicago’s still a Sanctuary City and that immigrants will be protected. But the events that transpire in the final scene of JAJA’S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING will remind audiences of the prescience of Bioh’s play. Of course, the comic drama actually takes place in Harlem, New York back in 2019, during Trump’s first term. But with his re-election, the nightmare has returned for every immigrant who this new administration determines is “illegal.”