Founding father Benjamin Franklin hardly seems a novel subject for a play.

But local artist and educator Dr. Amanda Kemp brings a unique perspective to examining the storied statesman and inventor.

Her touring production, "Show Me the Franklins: Remembering the Ancestors, Slavery & Benjamin Franklin," has been shown many times locally and was performed last month in Washington, D.C., as part of inaugural festivities.

"On one level, the play is about the free and enslaved Africans who lived with or interacted with Benjamin Franklin and his wife, Deborah," Kemp said.

"On a deeper level, it's about remembering — that is, mending together what has been disremembered — forgiving, and creating new possibilities in our lives based on having participated in healing the past."

Age: 42.

Background: Born in Biloxi, Miss., but raised in New York City. My mother wasn't able to take care of me so I grew up in foster care in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. I spent my school years up to high school in public housing in the South Bronx and then went to an elite all-girls boarding school. My mom's people are from Mississippi and Alabama, but since I grew up away from them and the land, I don't feel connected. We're still healing that rift.

Residence: Lancaster city.

Family: Son Gabriel, 9, and daughter Makeda, 7, whom I co-parent with Doug Anthony.

Education: Bachelor's degree from Stanford University; master's and doctorate from Northwestern University.

Current occupation: Artistic director/producer of Theatre for Transformation; research associate at Franklin & Marshall College.

Current preoccupation: I'm on a mission to heal the planet.

The reaction I've gotten to "Show Me the Franklins": After the first iteration of the play in 2004, most people walked away with, "Wow, I can't believe Benjamin Franklin owned slaves." I felt dissatisfied with that response.

Now with the various changes ... made in the script and I have made within myself, people come up to thank me for giving them a chance to forgive or be forgiven. Children tend to want to know, "So why did we have slavery?" A Stanford freshman asked me, "Now that I know all of this, what can I do with my life? I can't just go back and study for finals."

When and why I started Theatre of Transformation: I founded the company in fall 2007 while at Pendle Hill, a Quaker center for study and contemplation. I wanted to heal the past and transform our ways of thinking and being with each other. I wanted to take all of what I knew, including theater, yoga, ritual, Reiki (a spiritual practice), historical research, meditation, and connecting to God within, to create a new performance technology that actually healed people and transformed our collective consciousness.

Specifically, I create and tour plays that help us remember slavery and forgive ourselves and our ancestors and to create new possibilities for race in America.

The people in history I most admire: Since I was about 7, I've been an admirer of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I consider him part of my ancestry and am touched by his courage, vulnerability and example of love in action. I am currently working on a piece about Phillis Wheatley, the first African-American to publish a book, in 1773.

Initially, I dismissed Phillis as a sell-out when I was a young militant; now I know better. She was a gutsy young artist/intellectual who dared to seek an audience with George Washington at a time when most of the celebrated thinkers of the Enlightenment thought she was closer to an ape than a white man.

The living person I most admire: Barack Obama — he shocked me into looking at my own self-imposed limitations. Now my question is: Who says I cannot? His campaign pulled me back into electoral politics and opened my heart. I also love the partnership that he and Michelle display. As my poet friend Vision says, "Black love is back!"

I also admire my children. They are incredibly intuitive and gifted. Gabriel is a warrior/leader, and that's hard for me because I want to protect him. Makeda, also potentially a healer/teacher like me, presents the challenge of a child who is very similar to the parent.

The best books I've read lately: I love "The Fifth Sacred Thing," by Starhawk, and I reread regularly "Radical Forgiveness," by Colin Tipping.

The music I like best: 1970s soul music that infused my childhood in the Bronx: artists like Marvin Gaye, Teddy Pendergrass and Aretha Franklin.

A TV show I don't like to admit I watch: Reruns of "Hill Street Blues."

Magazines I read: I don't purchase any, but I'll read anything that has the Obamas on the front cover.

Words to live by (from a poem I wrote):
You know

the ancestors are calling on you.

You know the ancestors are calling

on you.

They say

Remember me

They say

Forgive me

They say

I forgive you.