Last week, I watched a play about race in a room full of people who do not know how to value my humanity and I came away with my eyes opened. 

The Niceties, a play written by Eleanor Burgess, opened at Portland Stage last week (read a full review by theater critic Megan Grumbling on page 20). In the play, we are pulled into a conversation between Zoe, a Black college student at an Ivy league college, meeting in the office of Janine, her white history professor, to discuss Zoe's thesis. 

TheNiceties

Janice (Susan Knight) and Zoe (Alexis Green) in The Niceties [Photo by Aaron Flacke]