Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome was a groundbreaking play, written by critically acclaimed theatre maker Kamal Sinclair and based on the research of sociologist Dr. Joy DeGruy, that delivers a gut wrenching, eye-opening, and ultimately uplifting perspective on the complex and emotionally charged issues of contemporary race relations.

The play illustrates the present effects of racial-inequity-based multi-generational trauma in North Americans of African and European descent. Dr. DeGruy’s theory of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome serves as the overarching context for exploring race relations in the United States. Her work postulates that the African American community has suffered from the causes and exhibits all of the traditional symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and explores the idea that North American chattel slavery itself was the inevitable consequence of a collision of fundamentally different value systems or axiology. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome investigates these ideas using theatre, dance, music, and performance art to create a multifaceted, theatrically and emotionally charged work that viscerally illustrates Dr. DeGruy’s strictly academic approach.

Originally, the play was produced at the Henry Street Settlement in New York City (September/October 2001) under Fractured Atlas and Universal Arts, with co-direction by Obie and Bessie Award Winner Robbie McCauley. In 2002, Kamal Sinclair made substantial rewrites to the second act, which focuses on the parallel psychological injuries suffered by White Americans.