The Color Line Project

"A Must-See!  University of Akron Drama students in The Color Line Project transform stories of race and civil rights from Akron residents into a riveting and transformative experience for the audience.”

Date: Thursday February 10,
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: E.J. Thomas Performing Art Hall, the Stage Door (see on map)

Project Description

From the sweet sounds of jazz on Howard Street to the bitter smell of tear gas on Wooster Avenue. From Sojourner Truth to Barack Obama, University of Akron students, under the direction of theatre professor James Slowiak, perform stories from the Akron Color Line Project. These stories, collected at numerous story circles held in Akron over the last two years, provide a provocative and personal portrait of our community, its promise and its continuing struggle with racism.

The Color Line Project is a performance and community story-collecting project that revitalizes Civil Rights Movement history as a valued and illuminating context for current issues of race. Artist John O'Neal, in collaboration with the Amistad Research Center (Tulane University), worked with local arts presenters in the communities of Lake Worth, Florida (Palm Beach Community College) and Glassboro, New Jersey (Glassboro Center for the Arts), and is working with a consortium of cultural organizations in Cincinnati to present his Junebug Jabbo Jones plays based on the Movement. Using story circles methodology as a dialogue form, O'Neal, other Junebug artists, and the Amistad Research Center work over several months with local scholars, activists, and partner organizations to collect stories of local people about their involvement in and understanding of the Movement. Local artists then work with Junebug artists to move the community's stories to public presentation. Junebug's plays, presentations of local Movement stories, and scholar panels provide varied opportunities for facilitated public dialogues. The Project encourages and trains local scholars, activists, and artists to draw upon Civil Rights Movement stories and story circle methodology in their own work and to further public dialogue on contemporary issues of racism.

Classes Involved in the Color Line Project-Spring 2010

• Qualitative Research Methods Graduate Class Spring, Pat Hill, Communications, TH 5:20-7:20
• Human Diversity (3230:251), Carolyn Behrman, Anthropology
• Anthropology of Sex and Gender class (3230:416/516), Carolyn Behrman, Anthropology
• 3700:422/522 Understanding Racial and Gender Conflict, Bill Lyons/Political Science MWF 11-11:50
• 3700: 335 Law and Society (Race and Crime), Bill Lyons/Political Science MWF 9:55-10:45
• Advanced ceramics 7100:454-001, Donna Webb, Art MWF 9:55-11:45

Tickets information

EJ Ticket office is open M-F 11AM-5PM, Phone: 330-972-7570

UA Students can pickup tickets for free with UA student ID

Non-Students $10 per ticket

Non-students can order tickets by calling at 330-972-7570 at $15 per ticket and can pickup on the day of the event.

General Admission Seats