PRESS RELEASE: The Hampton Years featured as part of Operation Understanding DC's Benefit Fundraiser
On Tuesday, June 18, The Hampton Years by Jacqueline E. Lawton will be featured as part of Operation Understanding DC's Benefit Fundraiser: Blacks and Jews: Refugee Scholars at Black Colleges. Enjoy an evening of film and theatrical presentations as well as discussions to learn about how refugee Jewish professors and their Black students forged profound connections from their shared, firsthand experience with brutal oppression and came together both to learn and to fight prejudice, a connection and a goal that OUDC continues to advance and support today.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
In the 1930s, Jewish intellectuals fled Nazi Germany for refuge in the United States, where they hoped to resume their teaching careers. At the hallowed universities of the East, they were met with anti-Semitism and anti-German hostility. Without a home and unable to further their scholarship, they finally found a welcoming community: the Black colleges and universities of the Jim Crow South. While they were welcomed and valued within these institutions, the refugee scholars experienced anti-Semitism and ostracism in the white communities in the South where they lived.
This program will include:
Introduction by Jim Loewen, an historian and sociologist who taught at historically Black Tougaloo College, the University of Vermont and now Catholic University. He is the author of Lies My Teacher Told Me.
Presentation by Stephen Fischler of Pacific Street Films who will share clips from the fascinating documentaryFrom Swastika to Jim Crow, highlighting the saga of the Jewish scholars through revealing interviews with their Black students.
Staged Reading of a scene from The Hampton Years, Jacqueline Lawton’s powerful new play that explores the relationship between art professor Viktor Lowenfeld and two of his students. Ms. Lawton, whose play will be staged at Theatre J in June, will introduce the reading.
These presentations will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Steve Fischler, Jacqueline Lawton and Jim Loewen with Q&A from the audience.
Event Details:
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
6:30 PM Hors d’oeuvres (kosher)
7:30 PM Program
Maret School (3000 Cathedral Avenue, NW WDC)
Parking available
Tickets may be purchased online (after May 29) at www.oudc.org
or by calling 202-234-6832
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
In the 1930s, Jewish intellectuals fled Nazi Germany for refuge in the United States, where they hoped to resume their teaching careers. At the hallowed universities of the East, they were met with anti-Semitism and anti-German hostility. Without a home and unable to further their scholarship, they finally found a welcoming community: the Black colleges and universities of the Jim Crow South. While they were welcomed and valued within these institutions, the refugee scholars experienced anti-Semitism and ostracism in the white communities in the South where they lived.
This program will include:
Introduction by Jim Loewen, an historian and sociologist who taught at historically Black Tougaloo College, the University of Vermont and now Catholic University. He is the author of Lies My Teacher Told Me.
Presentation by Stephen Fischler of Pacific Street Films who will share clips from the fascinating documentaryFrom Swastika to Jim Crow, highlighting the saga of the Jewish scholars through revealing interviews with their Black students.
Staged Reading of a scene from The Hampton Years, Jacqueline Lawton’s powerful new play that explores the relationship between art professor Viktor Lowenfeld and two of his students. Ms. Lawton, whose play will be staged at Theatre J in June, will introduce the reading.
These presentations will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Steve Fischler, Jacqueline Lawton and Jim Loewen with Q&A from the audience.
Event Details:
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
6:30 PM Hors d’oeuvres (kosher)
7:30 PM Program
Maret School (3000 Cathedral Avenue, NW WDC)
Parking available
Tickets may be purchased online (after May 29) at www.oudc.org
or by calling 202-234-6832
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.
Operation Understanding DC's mission is to build a generation of African American and Jewish community leaders who promote respect, understanding and cooperation while working to eradicate racism, anti-Semitism and all forms of discrimination.Our students are dedicated to stamping out racism and anti-Semitism wherever they encounter it. They build bridges between the Black and Jewish communities. But, they do not stop there. They use their skills, vision and passion to bring together people of all different ethnicities, races, religions, socio-economic backgrounds and sexual orientations. Our young leaders are changing the world, one person at a time.