Dr. Frank Dobson, Executive Director of The Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center at Vanderbilt University, has invited AAPEX back to Vanderbilt for Black History Month 2010.

The program I have put together is pretty much my thesis in African American history as seen through the eyes of playwrights. In particular it deals with the social repercussions of The Emancipation Proclamation as embodied by 6 amazing African American Women

This is the program:

RECONCILIATION WITH DEMOCRACY: A LITERARY CABARET

Opening monologues from HANNAH ELIAS by Nathan Ross Freeman and Johnie L. Gardner of Winston Salem.

THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION by Abraham Lincoln

ON BEING BROUGHT FROM AFRICA TO AMERICA by Phylis Wheattley, first African American, male or female, to publish a book.

THE PEN IS MIGHTIER by Gregory Carr of St. Louis - a quick look at the life of 19th Century journalist Ida B. Wells and her crusade against lynching.

BLACK SILK STOCINGS by Dr. Imelda Hunt of Toledo, Ohio, 4 monologues profiling Harriett Tubman, Lorraine Hansbury, Amelia Boynton Robinson and Rosa Parks.

We are delighted to have in our cast Karamu veteran Helen "Olaketi" Shute Pettaway, Hazel Joyner Smith, Executive Director of The International Black Film Festival of Nashville and local leading lady LaToya Gardner. And negotiating with a prominent music publisher from Music Row to portray Abraham Lincoln.

This will take place at 8 pm on the third Friday in February, 2010. Please plan to join us.

Jaz