Janet Langhart Cohen
Playwright
Langhart Cohen said, “I wrote the play as a call to action to help eradicate racism and anti-Semitism". Anne and Emmett, two very different teenagers, lived in societies that couldn’t protect them because of hatred and the inaction of silent witnesses.
While the hate that took their lives still lives, the play not only reminds us to remember but to act. Towards that end, she and Secretary Cohen founded Race and Reconciliation In America, a non-profit organization that holds conferences that invite people of all races and ethnicities to engage in open and honest dialogue to bring about understanding, tolerance and a higher level of humanity in our conduct.
“Anne & Emmett,” Janet Langhart Cohen’s groundbreaking play, is an imaginary conversation between Anne Frank and Emmett Till. Frank recounts her experience hidden in an attic during the Holocaust, and Till tells his tragic tale of racial hatred and violence in the American South. They then share in the search for reconciliation and hope in this unforgettable work that has received critical acclaim throughout the United States and as far away as Jerusalem.
