“I have three words: Young. John. Lewis. Would you be willing to write it?”
When Matt Torney, then Associate Artistic Director at Studio Theatre, posed the idea to playwright Psalmayene 24 over coffee, the scale of the proposal took a moment to settle. Writing about John Lewis, civil rights icon, longtime congressman, and moral compass of a nation, felt monumental.
“I didn’t know the specifics of his life and journey,” Psalmayene recalls in a video interview with DC Theater Arts. “But I knew enough to say yes.”
Seven years later, that yes has become Young John Lewis: Prodigy of Protest, a hip-hop-forward musical with book and lyrics by Psalmayene 24 and music by Kokayi, opening March 26 and running through April 26, 2026, at Mosaic Theater Company. The production explores the formative years of John Lewis, from ages 18 to 28, before history would come to know him as the “conscience of Congress.”
Rather than mythologizing Lewis, the musical insists on meeting him as John: a young Black man navigating fear, faith, ambition, and the cost of commitment. The show follows Lewis as he participates in sit-ins, risks his life during the Freedom Rides, helps lead the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and emerges as one of the youngest speakers at the 1963 March on Washington, all while grappling with whether nonviolence can truly dismantle an unjust system.
Mosaic Theater Company Artistic Director Reginald L. Douglas directs the show. “This is the biggest production Mosaic has ever produced,” Douglas said in a video interview. “I want audiences to meet John Lewis before he becomes a legend. To see a humble, braggadocious, scared, courageous young man at a crossroads. When we humanize our heroes, we better understand their courage, and that we, too, can be like them.”
Psalmayene’s research process brought him into close collaboration with the John R. Lewis Legacy Institute and the John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation, as well as to Lewis’ hometown of Atlanta. Though he never met Lewis before his death in 2020, those conversations deepened his understanding of the stakes involved.
“I quickly understood why this man’s life demanded to be turned into theater,” Psalmayene said. “He was quite young and engaged in important, groundbreaking activism that changed the course of American history, and arguably world history.”
That legacy of activism feels especially resonant now. For Mosaic, Young John Lewis arrives at a time when questions of civic responsibility, historical memory, and democratic participation feel increasingly fraught. The musical weaves in historical figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Ella Baker, Medgar Evers, Emmett Till, and Stokely Carmichael, not as distant icons, but as active forces shaping Lewis’ moral education.
“There are so many parallels between the era of the play and what we’re living through now,” Psalmayene said during a post-show talkback at Ford’s Theatre’s First Look Festival. “The reason this musical exists is what happens after the show. John asks, ‘What do I do now?’ That’s our question too. Do something.”
Musically, the show spans R&B, soul, reggae, Afrobeats, rap, and spoken-word poetry, performed by a quadruple-threat ensemble backed by a four-piece band of bass, drums, piano, and DJ. The contemporary soundscape bridges the 1960s and the present, grounding history in the rhythms of today.
A pivotal rap number performed by characters portraying Medgar Evers and Emmett Till crystallizes the musical’s central debate. Along with Lewis, the characters question whether a nonviolent approach to activism is effective in creating social change.
“There’s such a great flow and bounce to it,” Psalmayene said. “The ensemble chimes in, creating this choral texture peppered into the rap.”
The musical is fun while still asking serious questions, pairing exuberance with rigor in what Douglas describes as joyful activism. “Psalm and Kokayi’s work is a story of persistence and pain, but also joy and possibility,” he said. “This city needs to hear a story of hope. A story of stoking fire.”
Honoring Lewis’ belief that activism is communal, Mosaic has paired the production with A Season of Good Trouble, a citywide reflection series spanning all eight wards of Washington, DC. The programming includes conversations with elected officials, civil rights veterans, artists, educators, and organizers, alongside partnerships with local high schools and the DC Public Library.
Early events have featured voices such as Congresswoman Cori Bush and Representative Jamie Raskin, with upcoming programming welcoming members of the SNCC who marched alongside Lewis.
“We all can be community leaders. We all can be changemakers,” Douglas said. “This isn’t about remembering 1965. It’s about 2026. We want people to leave inspired to stand up now, to fight back now, and to do so with joy and determination.”
In Young John Lewis: Prodigy of Protest, history is not treated as a closed chapter but as an ongoing responsibility, one that asks audiences to consider what comes next.
Mosaic Theater Company’s Young John Lewis: Prodigy of Protest plays March 26 to April 26, 2026, at Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H Street NE, Washington, DC. Tickets ($42–$70) are available online or through the box office, (202) 399-7993 or boxoffice@atlasarts.org. Information about discounts is here. Tickets are also available through TodayTix.
Running Time: Two hours, including one 15-minute intermission.
SEE ALSO:
Mosaic Theater Company launches ‘Young John Lewis’ reflection series (news story, October 9, 2025)
Michael Bahsil (as John Lewis) and Band during video shoot for Mosaic Theater Company’s ‘Young John Lewis: Prodigy of Protest.’ Photo by Chris Banks.
