09/01/2026
Some stories entertain us. Others ask us to remember.
Wes and I had the opportunity to see Sovereignty by Cherokee playwright and attorney Mary Kathryn Nagle, and to meet the incredible cast afterward.
Inspired by true events, Sovereignty moves between the Cherokee Nation of 1835, in the shadow of the Treaty of New Echota and the Trail of Tears, and present day, where a young Cherokee attorney fights to protect her Nation’s right to prosecute non-Native perpetrators of violence against Native women.
Past and present exist side by side, reminding us that history is not something that simply happened. It lives in families, in communities, in our bodies, and in the systems we are still navigating today.
What stayed with me most was how this story explores sovereignty on more than one level: the sovereignty of Native nations, yes, but also the sovereignty of women and the right to safety, dignity, and ownership of our own bodies.
Powerful. Painful. Necessary.
So grateful to Three Bone Theatre and this remarkable cast for bringing this story to the stage and giving audiences the opportunity not only to witness it, but to sit with what it asks us to remember.
Sovereignty runs through September 6 at Three Bone Theatre in Charlotte.
