Jaja's African Hair Braiding at The Yard at Chicago Shakespeare on Navy Pier

__Straight from a twice-extended Broadway run, making its Regional Premiere__ This comedic play offers a glimpse into the lives of a group of West African immigrant women who find community in a Harlem hair salon. Over the course of a sweltering summer day, love blossoms, dreams flourish, and secrets are revealed. Uncertainty simmers below the surface, and when it boils over, this tight-knit community is forced to confront what it means to be an outsider on the edge of the place they call home. “I am thrilled and honored that audiences beyond Broadway will get to come to ‘the shop’ and meet the vibrant women of Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,” says acclaimed playwright Jocelyn Bioh. “This play means so much to me as both a native New Yorker and as a first-generation Ghanaian American as it speaks to the heart of what makes our country so beautifully unique: its rich diversity of people and culture. There is a real universality to these women’s experiences, and I can’t wait for audiences to connect and fall in love with each of them.”

Authors

• Jocelyn Bioh