Pittsburgh’s Hill District, 1904: 285-year-old former slave Aunt Esther witnesses developing civil unrest after a senseless tragedy at a local steel mill. When a young man seeks asylum in her home, they embark on a harrowing spiritual journey to a “City of Bones” in the middle of the Atlantic ocean.

A play about kinship, perseverance and atonement. Gem of the Ocean illustrates the perseverance of Black people creating community and kinship during migrations from the south to escape Jim Crow and racial terror.