What is the theme in The America Play, and Other Works by Suzan-Lori Parks?

Transcending racial oppression is a theme in the book. One of the ways, the author suggests in both her essays and her plays, to get out from under the white-defined definition of being African American is to transcend or combat the social, cultural, moral, economic, political, and personal oppressions experienced by African Americans both as individuals and as a racial community. Claim individual and racial identity, the author says both thematically and narratively. Once that identity has been both claimed and defined, oppression and those who practice it will no longer be able to define or control it.