Word for Word and Z Space present
THE Tell Tale Heart: A Rap Adaptation
A Litquake Event
Tuesday, October 21, 7pm
at Z Below
The Tell Tale Heart adapted by Carlos Aguirre is a Hip Hop musical layered with themes like indigenous erasure, internalized racism and the price of a guilty conscience. Using a blend of rap, classical music and vocal percussion it tells the story of an unnamed narrator in an Indigenous community obsessed with ridding himself of his own roots by meticulously planning, executing and burying his elderly neighbor who’s “vulture eye” he sees his own past reflected in. However, his growing paranoia and belief that he can hear the old man's heart beating in the form of a haunting drum circle underneath the floorboards leads to his confession revealing his true madness. You cannot bury who you are. The ghost of your ancestors will haunt you like the “beating of a hideous heart…”
