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Spelman Spotlight February 25. 1980
Fulton County Commissioner A. Reginald Eaves presenting
Special Tribute Bronze Jubilee Award to Duke Pearson.
Bronze Jubilee Awards
By Kolonda Watts
On Saturday, February 2, the
Bronze J ubliee Awards were held
in front of a packed house in
Morehouse’s Martin Luther King
Chapel as a highlight of the
Bronze Jubilee Week. The awards
program honored persons who
had contributed significantly to
Black Culture in 1979. Persons
were not only honored for their
artistic ability, but for their ser
vice to the community as well.
“Atlanta has a wealth of artists
who are known internationally,
but not locally,” says Sheryl
Riley, Bronze Jubilee producer.
“We want the community to
become aware of its artists.”
Altovise Davis
Among the honorees was our
very own Mrs. Mozelle Spriggs,
honored for her contributions to
dance. Other honorees included
Dr. Florence Crim Robinson in
the area of Music; Lee May in
communicative Arts; Alice
Lovelace, Literature; K. Joy
Peters, Visual Arts; Edward
Billups, Drama; and Evelyn Mit
chell, Arts Education.
A special tribute was given to
Dr. Baldwin Burroughs, former
chairperson of Spelman College’s
Drama Department.
Victor Thomas, first attendent
of Spelman’s Blue and White
Court, sang “On a Clear Day.”
An exerpt from the
choreopoem, “For Colored Girls
Who Have Considered Suicide
When the Rainbow is Enuf” was
presented. Ms. LaTanya Richard
son, graduate of Spelman College
performed the monologue “No
Assistance.”
Iris Little-Roberts, Class of
1979 and former Miss Maroon
and White, was among those ser
ving as award presenters. Other
presenters included such
notables as Mayor Maynard
Jackson; Mr. Shirley Franklin,
director of the Bureau of Cultural
Affairs; Altovise Davis, wife of
Sammy Davis Jr.; Ms. Berlinda
Tolbert, “Jennie” on the
television hit “The Jeffersons”;
Monica Kaufman, television
news personality; State
Photos by The Informer
Black Photography
Exhibition at High
Museum
The Black Photographer, an
exhibition of 150 outstanding
photographs, opened in the North
Gallery of The High Museum of
Art, on Saturday, February 23,
and will be on view through April
2. There is no admission charge.
In conjunction with the
exhibition, Reginald McGhee, a
noted photographer and former
curator of the Studio Museum of
Harlem presented an illus
trated lecture on the history
of black photographers, on Sun
day, February 24, at 2 p.m. in the
Walter Hill Auditorium.
The Black Photographer was
organized by the editors of Black
Photographers Annual and was
largely drawn from the three
volumes of that publication. The
traveling exhibition, including
the work of more than 70
photographers and covering a
span of some 70 years, was first
installed at the Corcoran Gallery
in Washington in 1977.
The roughly contemporaneous
pioneer work of James Van Der-
Zee in Harlem, P.H. Polk in
Alabama, and the late Addison
N. Scurlock in Washington is well
represented by prints ranging
from 1908 through the early
1940s. Other major black
photographers whose work is on
view include Gordon Parks, Roy
Decarava, Tony Barboza, Louis
Draper, Herbert Randall,
Beuford Smith, and Pulitzer Prize
winners Ovie Carter, Matthew
Lewis, and Moneta Sleet, J r.
'Colored Girls' Production A Success
By Rolonda Watts
The Alliance Theatre
highlighted its production season
with Ntozake Shange’s
choreopoem “For Colored Girls
Who Have Considered
Suicide/When the Rainbow is
Enuf.” A production almost
above criticism, “Colored Girls”
brought its interracially packed
house to its feet. The spiritual
uplifting of the song “I Found
God in Myself’, at the close of
the show, brought tears to the
eyes of many after this beautifully
delivered series of emotional
confessions.
To be a woman, to be Black
and living in America
today—Ntozake Shange explores
the complexities in her
choreopoem to Black sisterhood,
FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO
HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE
/WHEN THE RAINBOW IS
ENUF.
Miss Shange’s tapestry of
prose-poems is a celebration of
passion, courage and the will to
survive.
When first produced by J oseph
Papp at the New York
Shakespeare Festival in 1976,
FOR COLORED GIRLS... was
heralded by Clive Barnes of the
New York Times as, “a totally ex
traordinary and wonderful
evening of theatre.” When it
opened on Broadway the
following year, Mel Gussow of
the Times concurred, describing,
“a play that should be seen,
savored and treasured.”
The Alliance production of
COLORED GIRLS... was co
directed by Alliance Artistic
Director Fred Chappell and
Walter Dallas, founder and Ar
tistic Director of the Proposition
Theatre Company. The setting
was designed by Ming Cho Lee,
who created the original and was
the principal designer for the
New York Shakespeare Festival
from 1962-1973.
Of the seven actresses in the
performance, four of them are
graduates of Spelman: Iris
Little-Roberts, the lady in
orange; LaTanya Richardson, the
lady in red; Denise Micklebury,
lady in yellow; and Barbara
Sullivan, the lady in green. The
other actresses included Shelia
Linnette, the lady in brown; Bar
bara Stokes, the lady in blue; and
Anne Mitchell, the lady in pur
ple.
Cast of‘Colored Girls.’
Lee Elder and Vonetta McGee
Representative David Scott;
Playwright Ray Mclver; Police
Commissioner Lee P. Brown; Ac
tress Vonetta McGee; Actress
Loretta Long from “Sesame
Street;” Theatrical Director
Walter Dallas and many more.
The Awards ceremony was
aired on WETV, Channel 30, as
part of a week long celebration of
Black culture. The Bronze
J ubilee program, including other
informative and entertaining
television programming, was
created in 1978 in honor of Black
History month.
Shirley Franklin and Mayor
Jackson.
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