Please Pass on to your lists---Thank you! Melodye<div class="gmail_quote"><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br><div class="gmail_quote"><br><br><img title="Placeholder-Moment-keynote.jpg" alt="Placeholder-Moment-keynote.jpg" src="cid:ii_127aad4bf4d9f016" height="260" width="259"><font size="4"><b>Reading of HistoryMakers play to share archive narratives</b></font>
<span><div><span>Sun, 03/28/2010 - 9:00am</span> | <span><a href="http://www.news-gazette.com/author/melissa-merli" target="_blank">Melissa Merli</a></span></div>
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<span></span><p>
URBANA – Billing itself as the largest archival collection of its kind
in the world, The HistoryMakers collects stories from African-Americans,
both famous and unsung.</p>
<p>
The Chicago-based project also enjoys a three-year partnership with the
University of Illinois, providing it public lectures – last year's in
Urbana was with civil rights pioneer Julian Bond – and giving students
and scholars access to its digital archives.</p>
<p>
Now UI Professor Christopher Benson and Chicago playwright David Barr
III have put a twist on the public-lecture component of the partnership.</p>
<p>
The two men have combed The HistoryMakers archives to find stories that
represent the African-American experience, looking for commonalities
and connections that many people will recognize in their own lives.</p>
<p>
They then adapted those narratives into a dramatic play, "The Moment." A
staged reading, the first for the script, will be presented Wednesday
evening at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. Admission is free and Open to the Public.</p>
<p>
Benson, a professor of journalism and African-American studies, said
"The Moment" so far amounts to one act but eventually could become a
major play.</p>
<p>
At the reading by seven UI theater students, Benson and Barr will take
notes to help fine-tune the piece for eventual production.</p>
<p>
"This will be a unique opportunity for the audience to be part of the
process," Benson said.</p>
<p>
Immediately after the reading, Benson, Barr, director Lisa Gaye Dixon
and Julieanna Richardson, founder and executive director of The
HistoryMakers, will engage in a "talkback" with the audience.</p>
<p>
"The questions from the audience will help us see more clearly how this
piece will be perceived," Benson said.</p>
<p>
"The Moment" also pays tribute to the 10th anniversary of The
HistoryMakers, which aims to complete 5,000 interviews of
African-Americans. So far the project has collected 8,000 hours of
videotaped interviews from 2,000 people ranging in age from 29 to 105 in
more than 80 cities and towns in the United States, the Caribbean,
Mexico and Norway.</p>
<p>
In addition to recording individual stories, The HistoryMakers collects
the stories of organizations, events, movements and time periods of
significance.</p>
<p>
All interviews are digitally indexed so researchers can search them
using key phrases to pinpoint similar themes or search for different
people or aspects of their stories.</p>
<p>
"The point of the archives is to collect all of these historical
narratives in order to preserve the African-American experience in its
totality," Benson said. "It's very much part of the total American
experience; you see that as you go through the archives and listen to
the stories."</p>
<p>
As part of its partnership with the UI, The HistoryMakers provides
access to its archives via a bank of computers at the UI's Department of
African-American Studies.</p>
<p>
Some professors give students assignments designed to encourage them to
use the archives so they learn the value of oral history, learn history
and develop proficiency with online research, Benson said.</p>
<p>
The HistoryMakers also offers summer internships to UI graduate and
undergraduate students in its Chicago office.</p>
<p>
<b>If you go<br>
What:</b> <b><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Chicago-based The HistoryMakers and the University of
Illinois Department of African-American Studies present a staged reading
of "The Moment," a dramatic adaptation of narratives in The
HistoryMakers archives, written by UI Professor Christopher Benson and
playwright David Barr III</span></b><b><b><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">.</span></b><br>
</b></p><p><font size="4"><b>When:</b> <b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">7:30 p.m. Wednesday.</b><b><br>
Where:</b> <b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">Colwell Playhouse, Krannert Center for the Performing
Arts, 500 S. Goodwin Ave., U.</b><b><br>
Admission:</b> <b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">Free and Open to the Public.</span></b></font><b><br>
</b></p><p><b>Of note: </b><b style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">A "talkback" with the audience will follow the
reading, and a reception will take place in the Krannert lobby after the
performance.</b></p><br>
</div><br>
</div></div></div><br>
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