Actress and playwright Jazmin Miller, who is a 2008 Rhodes alumna, has returned to her alma mater with a one-woman show titled “Thirteen” which sheds light on human trafficking in Memphis. The play is the creative compilation of research and multiple accounts told by victims and witnesses.
Miller says in an article on the Connecting Memphis website that she was inspired to write the play after a trip to Uganda where she learned about children being victimized. However, when she returned to Memphis, she realized human trafficking exists locally in the United States.
“I want the audience to take away information from the show but also to leave with a determination to be proactive,” says Miller in the article. “Thirteen is about a little girl in the foster system who has never learned to read. She meets a friendly, funny man in the park who promises to teach her, and before long, he is in total control of her life. It’s a story of how he gains her trust and why she comes to feel that she owes him a debt she can never repay.” Read more.
Miller will perform her show on campus Jan. 21.