The Preyed and the Prayer by D'Miya Richburg is a one-act play on the psychological and familial effects of the Vietnam War on African Americans. It addresses the question, "What did these veterans have to come back home to?" Especially for the courageous nurses who served in this conflict. The war took place at the height of the American Civil Rights Movement, when African Americans were protesting racial injustice and segregation in the United States. And, despite fighting in their own country, they were forced to fight again when the Vietnam War began. Particularly given that the majority of the men on the front lines were black. (Making up a third of the force) One of them being D’Miya’s cousin, Christopher Donnell Williams. After seeing the effects the war had on her family and him up until his death in 2010, she was inspired to write a piece in their honor.
Written in October of 2022, The Preyed and the Prayer is one of D’Miya’s most successful works. In February of 2023, the play was presented as a concert reading in Statesboro, GA at the Region IV Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Along with being one of the two plays to be awarded the John Cauble Award for Excellence in One-Act Playwriting. As a playwright, D’Miya stamps all of her projects off with the phrase, “written in truth.” Emphasizing her style of writing stories that are rooted in her family and community's truth.
In The Preyed and the Prayer, she wanted to share the truth of not only her family but the many amazing black women who stood alongside the soldiers in this war. This is incredibly significant as the play has themes of breaking generational trauma, mental health in the black community, and how the state of the world around us impacts our relationships with each other along with the struggles of our past. But most importantly, it recognizes that we as African Americans were there fighting in those wars and acknowledges that we had to come back home fighting more. It truly never stops. And although this play is only thirty minutes long, you will be getting a peek at LIFE and this war through the black experience.
