Gonna Be Somebody: From The Mississippi Delta Community Events

Pegasus Theatre Chicago presents Gonna Be Somebody community and post-performance events in support of Lifeline Theatre and Pegasus’ co-production of From the Mississippi Delta. All events are complementary. Reservations are required!

Nikki Patin, Executive Producer and Curator

The current events include:

Saturday, April 8 at 4 p.m. 

From The Mississippi Delta Sneak Peek 
With Community Partner Guild Literary Complex
Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood Ave.

Part of Lifeline’s season programming, join the actors, director and a member of the production team discussing the process with an excerpt from the play From the Mississippi Delta. A Q+A will follow with guest co-facilitator: Andrea Change, executive director, Guild Literary Complex


Thursday, April 13, 6-8pm

Writing Workshop at the Honeycomb Network
Humboldt Park, 2659 W. Division Street 

Facilitator Mojdeh Stoakley will work with participants to  create pieces based on their life experience, using both poetry and prose. 


Monday, April 24, 7 p.m.

Black Women and the Power of Organizing 

Virtual Panel produced by Nikki Patin

Anne Ream (Voices & Faces Project), Anika Sterling Florez (Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation), Scheherazade Tillet (A Long Walk Home) and Brenda Myers-Powell (Dreamcatchers Foundation) will participate in the virtual panel discussion on Black women and the power of organizing in a reflection on the coalition that they created in 2021 called #ProtectBlackGirls. 


May 8th, 7:30 p.m.

Black Feminist Poetics: From the Dirt to the Delta 
Co-produced by Guild Literary Complex and Surviving the Mic
Pegasus at Chicago Dramatists, 765 N. Aberdeen (May and Aberdeen)  

This program explores the poetics inspired by From the Mississippi Delta. Saunte Harden-Tate, Nikki Patin, Mojdeh Stoakley and members of the Guild Complex will perform works written by Nina Simone, Beah Richards, Gwendolyn Brooks and other Black feminist poets and then perform their own pieces written as response, resulting in a poetic conversation about and for Black women. 


ABOUT FROM THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA

From the Mississippi Delta is based on Dr. Holland’s memoir of the same title as she recounts her 20-year journey from humble beginnings in Greenwood, Mississippi to achieving her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota.  Directed by Lifeline Artistic Director and Pegasus Executive Producing Director ILesa Duncan, invites audiences to experience a story of triumph in the face of extreme adversity that expertly weaves through the trials and tribulations of Dr. Holland’s life relayed through the bodies and voices of only three actors, all in tribute to one of America’s unsung “sheroes.”

ABOUT PEGASUS THEATRE CHICAGO

Pegasus Theatre Chicago has been a mainstay in the Chicago theater community for forty-three years. Its mission is to champion new, authentic voices and produce boldly imaginative theatre primarily by and about black or other people of color. The company promotes cultural equity while celebrating diversity, inclusion and first voice and is committed to initiating important conversations through the arts with strong community engagement and socially relevant programming, including the Young Playwrights Festival for high school-age scribes, which celebrates its 36th year this season. Pegasus Theatre Chicago has received 77 Joseph Jefferson Awards since its inception.

ABOUT LIFELINE THEATRE

Celebrating its 40th season, Lifeline Theatre continues to explore, interpret, and reimagine books and other literary works to create stories that move us beyond the margins of our own lives. Lifeline Theatre – Big Stories, Up Close.