Press Release: Playwright Jacqueline E. Lawton Facilitates Artist as Activist Discussion at Woolly Mammoth's Trayvon Martin Town Hall Event
On Friday, August 23, 2013 from 7pm to 10pm Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company presents From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin: A Town Hall Meeting on Black Bodies and American Racism. Playwright Jacqueline E. Lawton will facilitate an Artist as Activist discussion as part of the breakout sessions.
On the eve of the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s historic March on Washington, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company will host From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin: A Town Hall Meeting on Black Bodies and American Racism, to take place on Friday, August 23, 2013, from 7-10pm.
The event—at which discussion topics will include the recent Zimmerman verdict in the State of Florida and racial profiling and race relations in Washington, DC—aims to foster a dialogue among activists, academics, artists, policy makers, and interested community members to identify potential next steps and an action plan for change.
Key stakeholders and organization leaders including, Carolyn Boyd, Minister of Organizational Development at Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ; Louisa Davis, activist and Adjunct Professor of Religion and Ethics at Montgomery College; Jessica Frances Dukes, Woolly Company Member; Dr. Dennis B. Rogers, Lecturer in the Department of History and Government at Bowie State University; and Dawn Ursula, Woolly Company Member (and cast member in Woolly’s production of We Are Proud to Present…) will sit on a facilitated discussion panel and lend their voices to this national conversation. The panel will be followed by a question-and-answer session. Participants will then break out into smaller groups, in order to brainstorm, network, and coordinate future community mobilizations and actions.
“We don’t know what will come out of this Town Hall meeting,” says Connectivity Director Jocelyn Prince, “but it is vital for us to provide a safe space for the city’s community members to share, process, and organize around this verdict. I continue to believe that theatre is uniquely poised to facilitate cross-cultural dialogue and art-making, and that this exchange can positively affect both individuals and our society at large. Through Woolly Mammoth’s season-long exploration of what lies under America’s sunny exterior, and in particular, through our productions of Appropriate and We Are Proud To Present..., we hope to continue this conversation about race and racism, and become a springboard for activism in our community.”
"This Town Hall Meeting is necessary and it makes sense to me that Woolly Mammoth is leading this conversation," says Playwright Jacqueline Lawton. "It's important to convene a high level of discourse and create art around social and civil tragedies. Theatre is a space for community building. As theatre artists, we are charged with creating safe spaces for catharsis. It is here where choices can be examined, actions are held accountable and where social change can take place. I'm honored to take part in the Town Hall event and look forward to leading a discussion with passionate artists in this community."
Leading organizations will partner with Woolly around this initiative, including African Continuum Theatre Company, Hannah Mothers Campaign, Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ, Rock the Vote, and Washington Peace Center are event partners and are positioned to be involved in the identification of and planning for prospective initiatives and actions that might arise out of this joining of community members and leaders. Community leaders—including DC-based playwright Jacqueline Lawton and Woolly Claque Member and Performance Poet Ray M Crawford Jr.—will fulfill the roles of breakout session facilitators and lend their expertise towards organizing future activist initiatives and actions.
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton—who met with Tracy Martin (Trayvon Martin’s father) and Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump at the recent inaugural event of the Congressional Caucus on Black Men and Boys entitled The Status of Black Males: Ensuring Our Boys Mature Into Strong Men—is also expected to attend and make brief remarks.
The Town Hall Meeting will be held in The Melton Rehearsal Hall, in the lower level of the Kogod Lobby at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, 641 D Street NW. This event is free and open to the public. The event is limited to 100 guests, so reservations are required and can be made online at woollymammoth.net.
On the eve of the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s historic March on Washington, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company will host From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin: A Town Hall Meeting on Black Bodies and American Racism, to take place on Friday, August 23, 2013, from 7-10pm.
The event—at which discussion topics will include the recent Zimmerman verdict in the State of Florida and racial profiling and race relations in Washington, DC—aims to foster a dialogue among activists, academics, artists, policy makers, and interested community members to identify potential next steps and an action plan for change.
Key stakeholders and organization leaders including, Carolyn Boyd, Minister of Organizational Development at Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ; Louisa Davis, activist and Adjunct Professor of Religion and Ethics at Montgomery College; Jessica Frances Dukes, Woolly Company Member; Dr. Dennis B. Rogers, Lecturer in the Department of History and Government at Bowie State University; and Dawn Ursula, Woolly Company Member (and cast member in Woolly’s production of We Are Proud to Present…) will sit on a facilitated discussion panel and lend their voices to this national conversation. The panel will be followed by a question-and-answer session. Participants will then break out into smaller groups, in order to brainstorm, network, and coordinate future community mobilizations and actions.
“We don’t know what will come out of this Town Hall meeting,” says Connectivity Director Jocelyn Prince, “but it is vital for us to provide a safe space for the city’s community members to share, process, and organize around this verdict. I continue to believe that theatre is uniquely poised to facilitate cross-cultural dialogue and art-making, and that this exchange can positively affect both individuals and our society at large. Through Woolly Mammoth’s season-long exploration of what lies under America’s sunny exterior, and in particular, through our productions of Appropriate and We Are Proud To Present..., we hope to continue this conversation about race and racism, and become a springboard for activism in our community.”
"This Town Hall Meeting is necessary and it makes sense to me that Woolly Mammoth is leading this conversation," says Playwright Jacqueline Lawton. "It's important to convene a high level of discourse and create art around social and civil tragedies. Theatre is a space for community building. As theatre artists, we are charged with creating safe spaces for catharsis. It is here where choices can be examined, actions are held accountable and where social change can take place. I'm honored to take part in the Town Hall event and look forward to leading a discussion with passionate artists in this community."
Leading organizations will partner with Woolly around this initiative, including African Continuum Theatre Company, Hannah Mothers Campaign, Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ, Rock the Vote, and Washington Peace Center are event partners and are positioned to be involved in the identification of and planning for prospective initiatives and actions that might arise out of this joining of community members and leaders. Community leaders—including DC-based playwright Jacqueline Lawton and Woolly Claque Member and Performance Poet Ray M Crawford Jr.—will fulfill the roles of breakout session facilitators and lend their expertise towards organizing future activist initiatives and actions.
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton—who met with Tracy Martin (Trayvon Martin’s father) and Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump at the recent inaugural event of the Congressional Caucus on Black Men and Boys entitled The Status of Black Males: Ensuring Our Boys Mature Into Strong Men—is also expected to attend and make brief remarks.
The Town Hall Meeting will be held in The Melton Rehearsal Hall, in the lower level of the Kogod Lobby at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, 641 D Street NW. This event is free and open to the public. The event is limited to 100 guests, so reservations are required and can be made online at woollymammoth.net.
Jacqueline E. Lawton was named one of 30 of the nation's leading black playwrights by Arena Stage’s American Voices New Play Institute. Her plays include: Anna K; Blood-bound and Tongue-tied; Deep Belly Beautiful;The Devil’s Sweet Water; The Hampton Years; Ira Aldridge: the African Roscius; Lions of Industry, Mothers of Invention; Love Brothers Serenade (2013 semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference), Mad Breed, and Our Man Beverly Snow. Lawton’s work has been developed and presented at the following venues: Active Cultures, Classical Theater of Harlem, Folger Shakespeare Library, theHegira, Howard University, Kennedy Center’s Page to Stage Festival, Rorschach Theater Company, Savannah Black Heritage Festival (Armstrong Atlantic State University), Shakespeare Theatre Company, Source Theatre Festival, Theater J, and Woolly Mammoth Theater Company. She is published in Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic: Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project (University of Texas Press). Ms. Lawton received her MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a James A. Michener Fellow. She participated in the Kennedy Center’s Playwrights’ Intensive (2002) and World Interplay (2003). She is a 2012 TCG Young Leaders of Color award recipient and a National New Play Network (NNPN) Playwright Alumna. She has been recognized as a semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference and the Playwright's Center PlayLabs, and as a SheWrites Festival finalist. A member of Arena Stage's Playwright's Arena and the Dramatist Guild of America, Ms. Lawton currently resides in Washington, D.C.