Th3 event: Civil Rights Connection

presentation with Sen. Nancy Lorraine Hoffmann

Sen. Hoffmann and select students will present at ArtRage in conjunction with Breach of Peace, an exhibit of portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders by Eric Etheridge.

AFTER THE FREEDOM RIDERS – a special opportunity to share the experiences of Senator Hoffmann’s Civil Rights Connection program.  Join Senator Nancy Larraine Hoffmann and a panel of Civil Rights Connection scholars with their mentors and parents discussing the lessons learned in their experiences meeting with both well-known and unsung known heroes of the non-violent civil rights movement in Mississippi.

The Civil Rights Connection was conceived in 1996 by former Civil Rights Worker Nancy Larraine Hoffmann at the urging of Charles Evers and BB King. The mission is to provide New York State high school students from diverse backgrounds an opportunity to meet people who were involved in the Civil Rights Movement and to learn how the non-violence concept guided their determination to achieve equality. Far more than Senator and other organizers ever anticipated, the CRC scholars over the years have brought home meaningful messages from what they called a life changing experience.

The CRC experience is a mobile seminar in which scholars participate in workshops featuring heroes of the Civil Rights Movement including James Meredith and Charles Evers, experience historic sites such as the Medgar Evers home and historic Black colleges, and maintain journals of their own personal reactions to what they see and hear.  Much as the early Civil Rights workers performed a wide variety of volunteer services to communities of the segregated south, our CRC Scholars perform service projects.  Early projects included such activities as helping to paint a community center or cooking a serving a meal at a local soup kitchen.  More recently the scholars have helped rebuild homes along the Gulf Coast as part of the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Program.   During each CRC trip, the New York State scholars are joined by young people from Mississippi for varying levels of time.

Poetry & Rebellion

performance poetry directed by Mark Wright

Cultural Eclectic to Perform 100 plus years of Poetry and writings of African Americans.

“Cultural Eclectic” is a performance troupe directed by Mark Wright and features Cheryl Wilkins Mitchell, Carol Charles, Vanessa Johnson, and Tony Brown. They will perform a sampling of selected poetry and verse representing commentary and expressions of the struggles of African Americans fighting for freedom and equality in America. The writings of Paul Laurence Dunbar,  Sonia Sanchez, Langston Hughes, Claude Mckay, James Weldon Johnson, Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks and some lesser known poets, will show the way they used words to fight for the right to be free and equal. Some were forrunners of the official Civil Rights Movement and some were products of the Movement. The performance will be followed by a discussion. We also invite local poets to come and share their poems and stories.

Free to the Public.

From the Back of the Bus, Walt Shepperd & the Media Unit

The Media Unit presents From the Back of the Bus, a national award winning original musical theater performance on racism and racial healing at ArtRage in observance of Black History Month and celebration of Breach of Peace, an exhibit of portraits of the 1961 Mississippi Freedom Riders by Eric Etheridge.

Debuted in 1996 at the BeVard Theater in the John H. Mulroy Civic Center, Media Unit teens have toured From the Back of the Bus from Jackson, Mississippi to Portland, Maine with four performances in New York City. Combining drama, dance, music and comedy, it was judged Best Performance @ the BeVard Festival and received the Award of Excellence at the Michael Harms Festival.

The production represented Syracuse at the All-American Cities competition in Louisville, Kentucky, and has been recognized with Community Service Awards from the NAACP, the city-county Human Rights Commission, the Southside Business Association and Urban CNY.

The cast for this performance includes Allen Graves, Ana-rachel Richardson, Anna Quackenbush and Sarah Orr. After the performance Media Unit Executive Producer Walt Shepperd will facilitate an audience discussion, sharing his experience with the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964.

Free to the Public.