Road to Green Hill

THE ROAD TO GREEN HILL introduces the world of Asher, a slave boy born in 1841. Asher's world quickly becomes one of secrecy, walls, privacy, lies and deceit, which build a unique family and society that remain small enough to permit Asher to pursue a daring dream that haunt him, his "e;brother"e; and "e;aunt."e;But the outside world impinges on the one that Asher has constructed in ways that strengthen and undermine Asher's private space. A forbidden love affair empowers Asher in ways that set him on a path to fulfill his dream, but also hangs over his head like the sword of Damocles, and causes Asher to assent to what may be a disastrous decision that leads to an abandonment.And there is a mysterious world that first made itself known to Asher when he was a young boy who danced at secret slave religious services, and learned how to do it better by the beat of African drums that he alone hears but that come to have a wider audience in the world of Asher. The indelible stain of racism, a hallmark of the outside world of America, triggers a moment in which all of the worlds that lay claim to Asher collide.THE ROAD TO GREEN HILL takes its place in the large number of artistic works that have appeared recently that explore the American slave experience, and also in that smaller subset of these works that explore gay relationships involving slaves.