Event

Onawumi Jean Moss performs "Seriously...What Did You Call Me?"

Master storyteller, author, academic, activist and extraordinary artist, Onawumi Jean Moss brings her one-woman show "Seriously What Did you Call Me?" to Nyack.

This powerful and timely autobiographical solo show focuses on Onawumi's resilient migration through the Jim Crow South and the Civil Rights Movement to reclaim her name and become an empowered African American woman. A Tennessee native, Onawumi portrays her struggle with unflinching honesty and humor, encouraging pride of heritage, appreciation of cultural differences and recognition of kinship. Onawumi's work inspires courageous conversation within and across social boundaries.

After the show, Ms. Moss and director Djola Branner will lead a talk-back discussion with audience members.

Ms. Moss holds numerous storytelling awards including the 2005 Zora Neale Hurston Award, the highest given by the National Association of Black Storytellers (NABS); the 2007 Brother Blue and Ruth Hill Award, from the League for the Advancement of New England Storytellers and has recently been nominated for the National Storytelling Networks Lifetime Achievement Award.

As a former Associate Dean at Amherst College in Massachusetts, Ms. Moss has played a key role in the Ko Festival held on the Amherst campus for the past 25 summers.

For more information on Ms. Moss visit her website at: www.onawumi.com

Hosted by the Louise Poresky Community Building Fund at Blue Rock School in partnership with the Nyack Center, VCS, Rockland County Pride Center, Nursery School of the Nyacks and the Holocaust Museum & Center for Tolerance and Education.