In Resmaa Menakem's new play 'Mothership,' AI stands for 'ancestral intelligence'

In a recent interview with host Sanni Brown for MPR’s Carbon Sound, Minneapolis-based therapist and author Resmaa Menakem shared this advice for creatives: “Do the weird stuff. Play!” he said. “Creation springs from those types of things.”

Menakem has a new creation. He teamed up with playwright Kristen Adele Calhoun to write an Afrofuturist play called “Mothership,” about five humans who flee Earth aboard a sentient spaceship. It is showing from Sept. 8 through Oct. 4 as the opening production of Penumbra Theatre’s 50th anniversary season. Menakem joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about his latest work.