cullud wattah
Erika Dickerson-Despenza
Performance Dates: May 7-16, 2026
*Michigan Premiere*
Winner of 6 prestigious awards including the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
It’s been 936 days since Flint has had clean water. Marion, a third generation General Motors employee, is consumed by layoffs at the engine plant. When her sister, Ainee, seeks justice and restitution for lead poisoning, her actions reveal the toxic entanglements between the city and its most powerful industry, forcing their family to confront the cost of survival. As lead seeps into their home and their bodies, corrosive memories and secrets rise among them. Will this family ever be able to filter out the truth? cullud wattah is a haunting, lyrical, and unflinching portrait of the strength, resilience, and generational power of Black women in the face of environmental and systemic injustice.
Directed by Demetria Thomas