30 January 2024
Sarah Bellamy is taking a leave of absence as president of St. Paul’s Penumbra Center for Racial Healing in the wake of a lawsuit that her family has brought against Hennepin County jail alleging the wrongful death of her brother, Lucas Bellamy, while in custody in 2022.
The move will mark the first time a member of the Bellamy family will not be leading what was first opened as Penumbra Theatre Company in 1976 by Sarah Bellamy’s father Lou Bellamy. Chief Operating Officer Amy Thomas will fill Bellamy’s position during her absence.
“This is an extremely difficult time for my family, but we know that we must do what we can to increase accountability and push for reform. His was a sacrifice too costly to ignore,” Sarah Bellamy wrote in an open letter to the Penumbra community sent Monday afternoon. “I am taking leave of my role as president of Penumbra in order to attend to the harm that this has caused within, and to make space to remember and grieve my brother.”
According to the lawsuit filed last week, even though Lucas Bellamy “suffered from drug addiction,” he “was much more than his drug addiction. He was a father, a son, a brother, an actor, and a loved member of his community.”
He was arrested early July 18, 2022, and brought to the Hennepin County jail, where he disclosed he’d ingested a bag of drugs. He was taken to the Hennepin County Medical Center’s emergency department, monitored for several hours and found to be “stable for discharge,” to continue to be monitored at jail, a physician’s assistant wrote, and “has very low risk for any toxic effects from opioid medications at this point.” The report added that Bellamy should return to the emergency department “for any new concerning symptoms.”
Over the next several days, Lucas Bellamy asked staff numerous times to return to the hospital. He was often in “such severe and obvious pain that it took him 45 seconds to crawl out of his cell on his hands and knees” when his cell was opened, the lawsuit said.
Bellamy was found face-down in his cell at about 12:30 p.m. on July 21 and he was soon after pronounced dead from an infection because there was a hole in his small intestine, according to the lawsuit.
He “endured unimaginable pain and suffering like you would see in a horror movie,” said Bellamy family attorney Jeff Storms in a statement at the time. “He was forced to stare death straight in the eye in his final hours. He begged and pleaded for his life, but no matter what he did, he could not convince a single employee from Hennepin County or Hennepin Healthcare to save him. Lucas should be here today with his family, and he is not because of the deliberate indifference exhibited by those who were charged with caring for him.”
It was the second recent loss for the Bellamy family. Actor, director and founding Penumbra company member Terry Bellamy was found dead in his home on Jan. 21, 2023. He was 70. At the time, Sarah Bellamy said Terry had died from COVID: “He spent the last of his days seeking help from a healthcare system that kept denying him, sending him away. His family members tried to help from afar, suggesting workarounds from over the phone. But on Friday the phone just kept ringing.”
Lou Bellamy founded Penumbra in 1976 with an eye toward giving the Black community an artistic outlet. Minnesota’s only professional Black theater, Penumbra has staged nearly 200 plays and more than 30 premieres and helped launch the careers of playwrights including two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner August Wilson.
In 2017, Lou Bellamy stepped down as artistic director, but has continued to work at the theater. He’s currently in rehearsal for Alice Childress’ “Wine in the Wilderness,” which will open as planned on Feb. 20. Sarah Bellamy assumed her father’s role and, in 2020, oversaw its transformation into the Penumbra Center for Racial Healing. The move is meant to “extend (Penumbra’s) legacy through fresh artistic endeavors, robust equity and inclusion training, and wellness services.”
“We feel confident that we can navigate the organization through this period so that Sarah can focus on what she needs to right now,” Thomas said in a news release. “I know that I am not alone and I’m honored to be able to step up to serve Penumbra in this way.”