The St. Louis Attitude

Angela da Silva will present The St. Louis Attitude at .ZACK from Sept. 14 to 17.

Set in The Gateway City in 1899, the original play with original music spotlights the predominantly Black area of Chestnut Valley, which was just 17 blocks yet seemed like the center of the universe.

When St. Louis Union Station was completed in 1894, Chestnut Valley was in its prime. Legends were born here, and the play tells the true stories of two. They are St. Louis stories, and they are Black stories.

Writer and producer Angela da Silva is bringing the production back after 32 years. “There are new generations who know nothing about this Black history,” she said in a recent press release. “[They] don’t know the important role that St. Louis played in music, American folklore and early Black prosperity.”

She hopes to change that with The St. Louis Attitude.