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The Half-God of Rainfall is so much more than a story about a superhuman hoops star. The play fuses Yoruba folklore and Greek mythology, and in the end, the audience is confronted with a parable for the ‘Me Too’ era.

“Little Amal represents displaced people all across the globe,” said Muñoz. “Art is a beautiful provocation, a tool for collective understanding, for mutual understanding. This project allows an entire community to welcome this young girl who is a beacon of hope to understand this crisis more deeply.”

“I think we sometimes get overwhelmed with the news and all the struggles that we’re facing and then art comes along and theater and it grabs us and it moves our hearts and it gives us energy and gives us hope,” said Diane Paulus of the American Repertory Theater.

During the event, which was supported by the American Repertory Theater and the Harvard University Committee for the Arts, Amal — the product of the Handspring Puppet Company — arrived in Science Center Plaza just past 7 p.m. to an enraptured crowd, some of whom cried out, “Welcome!” and “Have a safe journey!”

“Our story is more than a play about Black dynamics and race dynamics,” says Jennifer Mogbock. “I hope [audiences] leave feeling connected to the story in a personal way, and feel changed, feel empowered, feel excited.”