Writing To Michelle Obama | KPBS.org

Writing To Michelle Obama KPBS.org

We are in sunny San Diego today, getting ready for the performance of "Go, Tell Michelle" by Mo'Olelo Performing Arts Company and the Women's Museum of California this evening. This morning we had a great interview with Maureen Cavanaugh of KPBS Radio. Listen to our conversation, hot off the airwaves! Many thanks to Maureen, Angela and Seema. Here we are with Maureen, in studio.

More to come, see video on YouTube.

After San Diego, Baltimore!

The February 8th performance of "Go, Tell Michelle: African American Women Speak to the New First Lady" is the first performance of this play by professional actors. However, on March 18th, Peggy, Karima and I have an opportunity to reprise our roles in the play in a performance in Baltimore at Coppin State College. Our premiere of the play on January 19th and 20th 2010 was to a packed house of nearly 200 people. The audience was enthusiatic and complementary. A year later, the script has been slightly revised and the three of us are looking forward to this performance.

Details are provided on the accompanying flyer. so if you're in the Baltimore area, we'd love to see you for our performance.

Go, Tell Michelle: The Play_Next Performance, San Diego!

Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company recently announced that it is very excited to present the first professional reading of the play you adapted, Go, Tell Michelle: African-American Women Speak to the First Lady. Our reading will take place on Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 6:00 pm at the 10th Avenue Theatre in downtown San Diego. The Company continues by saying: “Our reading will be presented in partnership with the Women's History Museum and Education Center in San Diego, a small nonprofit organization. We are particularly excited because this reading will fall just two weeks before Mo`olelo's production of Stick Fly by Lydia R. Diamond, and we feel these two pieces will speak to each other in profound ways. Go, Tell Michelle marks a landmark moment in American history with the first African American President and First Lady in the White House; and Stick Fly provides a peek into the lesser-understood lives of African American elite.”

Co-authors, Barbara Seals Nevergold and Peggy Brooks-Bertram plan to attend this premier performance in February and will participate in a “talk-back” following the performance. Local GTM contributors are also invited to attend this performance.

Thoughts on Michelle : Gusto Magazine: The Buffalo News

The Buzz....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz has started regarding the play. We hope that the entire country will be talking about "Go, Tell Michelle: the Play" just liked they did about the book! See the latest from our hometown newspaper, The Buffalo News.



Thoughts on Michelle : Gusto : The Buffalo News

Go, Tell Michelle: You’ve Read the Book, Now See the Play

“Go, Tell Michelle: African American Women Write to the New First Lady” (SUNY Press, 2009) the award winning volume of 100 letters to Michelle Obama written shortly after the 2008 election of President Barack Obama has been adapted as a dramatic production. Drs. Barbara Seals Nevergold and Peggy Brooks-Bertram, co-authors and editors of the book, have been working with Dr. Robert Knopf, chair of UB’s Drama Department on this dramatization. The outcome of this collaboration is Dr. Knopf’s adaptation, a one hour play that features three readers.

Dr. Knopf describes “GO, TELL MICHELLE: the Play” as more than a dramatic reading: “It is a montage of lost voices, personal stories, and heartfelt emotions unleashed by the tide of history that has swept the nation.” The play will debut on January 19th at UB’s Allen Hall on the South Campus on the eve of the first anniversary of President Obama’s historic inauguration.

Under Dr. Knopf’s direction, storyteller Karima Amin, Brooks-Bertram and Seals Nevergold will give voice to the stories and poems in this dramatic adaptation. The play will debut on January 19th at UB’s Allen Hall on the South Campus. Performance time is 7:00pm and the production is free and open to the public. Jericka Duncan, reporter from WIVB-TV will act as Emcee.

A second performance will take place at the Frank E. Merriweather Jr. Library on January 20th. As with Tuesday’s program, this performance will be free and open to the public. The Uncrowned Queens Institute and the University at Buffalo’s Department of Theatre and Dance are co-sponsors of this production. The Buffalo Teacher’s Federation is also a key sponsor.

In December 2009, “Go, Tell Michelle” was named by book and movie critic Kam Williams as one of the 10 Best Black Books of 2009.

The program is free and open to the public. Information can be obtained by calling (716) 829-6047.