LEFT BEHIND

The lives of an African princess from an ancient civilization and a present day heiress have little in common, but both women are facing the annihilation of everyone and everything they know. 


The year is 145 BCE and Rome has just sacked the North African city of Carthage. Rome is expanding at a rapid pace, but a Roman aristocrat’s obsession with a West African princess has planted a seed that could be the undoing of his entire empire. A Celtic envoy brings stories of the rape, plunder, and enslavement that their people are suffering under the expansion of the Roman empire and plead for the princess to assist them. The burden she will bear to ensure the safety of future generations terrifies Nia, but she is soothed by her growing romance with the Celtic prince who has sought her out for help. 


Meanwhile in present day Los Angeles, Nia, an heiress and art student, has no knowledge of the ancient Nigerian kingdom of Nok that flourished thousands of years ago or how her life is about to look remarkably similar to the Nok princess who lived then. Working tirelessly to pass her final, Nia is unaware that she’s being stalked by a very powerful man who is planning to kidnap her, until an eclectic stranger enters her life and offers her protection, but not without a price. Should she accept the exchange? This man almost seems more terrifying than the idea that she could be kidnapped. So begins her breathtaking adventure of love, loss, betrayal, and hope as Nia is flung into a world she never knew existed. 


As we follow Nia through her life as a princess in ancient Nigeria and an heiress in present day Los Angeles, we are confronted by the chilling question: Are we the captives of history repeating itself or is there a way out?


About the Artists

Jolie and Ren Gallagher work exclusively as artistic partners. All of our projects are co-produced from concept to completion. Our art reflects our interests in decolonization, revisionist history, healing diasporic wounds, and the particular ways that women of all races are affected intergenerationally by current and historic imperialism.