Contact: Kenneth Billings
STARKVILLE Miss.--Two free upcoming events at Mississippi State will feature music, theater and comedy as part of the university's Black History Month observance.
"Ain't I a Woman! Ain't I a Woman!" opens at 6 p.m. Feb. 15, followed at 7 p.m. on the 16th by the Post-Racial Comedy Tour, featuring best-selling author Christian Lander and Elon James White. Both programs take place in Lee Hall's Bettersworth Auditorium.
Sponsored by the Holmes Cultural Diversity Center, "Ain't I a Woman!" is performed by the Florida-based Core Ensemble Chamber Music Theater. It celebrates the lives of four historical African American women, Sojourner Truth, Zora Neale Hurston and Clementine Hunter, as well as Mississippi civil right leader Fannie Lou Hamer.
The production features a single actress playing multiple characters, while interacting with an on-stage musical trio. The musical score draws influences from Deep South spirituals, exuberances of the urban Jazz Age and contemporary African-American concert music.
On the 16th, comedians Lander and White take the stage to address head-on--with a dose of humor--sensitive issues of race. Sponsored by the Campus Activities Board, the program will have the pair speak individually, then combine for a finale that includes taking questions from the audience.
Lander is the author of the New York Times best-seller "Stuff White People Like: A Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions" (Random House, 2008). White is the award-winning creator of the web series This Week in Blackness.
For more information about "Ain't I a Woman! Ain't I a Woman!" contact Ra'Sheda Boddie at 662-325-2033; for the Post-racial Comedy Tour, telephone Jackie Mullen at 662-325-2930.
For more information about Mississippi State University, visit www.msstate.edu.