Film of Henrietta Lacks Play Returns to Kalamazoo Valley Museum

'HeLa' details her role in medical breakthroughs and local family connections

The "HeLa" play cast on the stage
of the Kalamazoo Valley Museum's
Mary Jane Stryker Theater

The Kalamazoo Valley Museum this weekend offers an encore screening of the film version of the "HeLa" stage play to increase awareness about the underreported story of Henrietta Lacks, whose cells, taken without her consent, led to many of the world's biggest medical breakthroughs.

It will be shown on Sunday, Oct. 1, at 1 p.m. in the museum's Mary Jane Stryker Theater. Seating is first come, first served. Admission is free.

The play was written by Kalamazoo playwright Buddy Hannah. The theatrical production debuted at the museum last fall before a live audience, thanks to a grant from the Kalamazoo Valley Community College Foundation. It accompanied a limited run of the museum's mini-exhibit about Lacks, which utilized some of the memorabilia of Lacks' great nephew, Kalamazoo resident Jermaine Jackson.

At a time when informed consent did not exist, cells were removed from Lacks in 1951 without her knowledge during a medical procedure and later used in experiments worldwide. The play gives a glimpse into these facts as well as Lacks' personal side and her great nephew's journey from initial boyhood skepticism to his adulthood awe of his aunt's cells. His grandmother Bessie Lacks, of Kalamazoo, and Henrietta Lacks married brothers. Lacks, a mother of five, died on Oct. 4, 1951, at age 31, from cervical cancer.

In 2022, the city of Kalamazoo declared Oct. 4 as Henrietta Lacks Day. A proclamation announcing the day was read by Kalamazoo Mayor David Anderson at the Oct. 1, 2022, public reception at the museum celebrating the opening of the "HeLa" play.

Researchers continue to utilize Lacks' cell line, known as HeLa cells, because, unlike other human cells, hers have the unique ability to multiply on their own outside of the body; hers were the first to do so in a lab setting. Among many things, Lacks' cells led to the polio vaccine and AIDS and cancer treatments, and to Nobel Prizes to several scientists for their discoveries.

Zaynee Hobdy, a member of Face Off Theatre Company in Kalamazoo, plays Henrietta Lacks, and director/actor Sid Ellis is Jermaine Jackson. Also starring are D. Neil Bremer, Jennifer Clark and Aija Hodges, with Angela Anderson and Kim Chandler serving as narrators. The play is interwoven with poems and essays from area writers William Hatcher, of Battle Creek; Aija Hodges, of Kalamazoo; Charles E. Peterson Sr., of Bangor; and James J. Smith, of Battle Creek. Kalamazoo artist Kenjii Jumanne-Marshall created the digital scenery for the play.

For more information, visit kalamazoomuseum.org. The Kalamazoo Valley Museum is operated by Kalamazoo Valley Community College and is governed by its Board of Trustees.