Television writer and playwright Stephanie Liss has never shied away from controversial or complicated stories. Her latest play Sister Africa takes on the issue of sexual violence as a weapon of war.

Liss, who is Jewish, was inspired by the work of Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis, who started Jewish World Watch, group dedicated to fighting genocide and mass atrocities. 

She traveled with the organization to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where rape has been used as a tool of war in the armed conflict that has engulfed the region since the 1990s. There, Liss interviewed former child soldiers and the victims of sexual violence. Their stories became the basis for Sister Africa, which will make its first staged premiere in Chicago this summer.

Liss joins us to discuss her time in the DRC and what she hopes audiences will take away from Sister Africa.