Art will truly imitate life this week when the world renowned Core Ensemble takes the stage of Auburn University’s Telfair Peet Theatre and performs “Ain’t I A Woman.”
The production is jointly sponsored by the AU Department of Africana Studies, Women’s Studies, Music, Theatre and AU Vice President for Outreach.
The performance, which is a melding of both theatrical drama and chamber music, celebrates the trials and triumphs of four powerful black women and their contributions to this nation’s history.
The women whose accomplishments are chronicled in the performance are fiery abolitionist and ex-slave Sojourner Truth, novelist Zora Neale Hurston, folks artist Clementine Hunter and civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer.
While the CORE Ensemble’s performances have taken them all over the world, this will mark the first time the group has visited Alabama according to Dan LaRocque, chair of AU Theatre Department.
“The performance is broken up into four scenes taking place at a dramatic intersection in each of the protagonist’s lives and features many of their own words,” LaRocque said.
In fact the title, comes from famous lines Sojourner Truth delivered at the Women’s Convention in 1851 at Akron, Ohio.
“Sojourner Truth was a woman of remarkable intelligence, despite her illiteracy, who became a national symbol, not only representing strong black women but indeed for all strong women,” LaRocque said.
While they all made their stands for justice at different points in history, the message and meaning in the lives of the four women chronicled in this chamber music theatre performance are still very relevant today in LaRocque’s opinion.
“The strength exhibited by each of these women seems grounded in an inner conviction that insists on the fundamental power of the human spirit to transcend adverse circumstances or limitations of any kind,” LaRocque said.
If You Go
What: Core Ensemble presents “Ain’t I A Woman!”
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 27
Where: 211 Telfair Peet Theatre, Auburn University
Admission is free.
For more information, contact 334-844-4154.
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