Black River Technical College (BRTC) held its annual Black History Month Event Tuesday headlining Memphis Writers/Performers Darius and Ann Wallace who amazed the crowd of approximately 200 attendees with stupendous performances of two, one-of-a-kind one man shows; Live Rich, Die Poor and The Starry Road to Freedom.
The event began with BRTC President Martin Eggensperger welcoming the crowd and introducing the two performers and then Ann began her performance of Live Rich, Die Poor.
She portrayed Zora Neale Hurston in a way never seen before. Hurston come back from the grave to tell her own story from the days of a child in a home where she was made to feel unwanted after the death of her mother, as well as being abandoned by her father. Hurston then married a doctor, but soon became bored with the monotonous days she lived as a wife. She left her husband and moved to Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance period, so she could write, which was her passion. She wrote the well-known book Their Eyes Were Watching God, as well as many other publications. She enjoyed a life free of cultural norms and the play ended with Hurston saying, “Please Live Rich, Die Poor,” meaning do what you love, follow your passions and you will live a rich life.
Next, Darius Wallace portrayed Frederick Douglass in his performance of The Starry Road to Freedom. Wallace began by portraying Douglass’ grandmother whom spoke about Douglass’ beginnings, his birth and childhood. Then he portrayed Douglass as Douglass told his own story beginning as a child who loved to play and run with the chickens and cause mischief. He reenacted a young Douglass being moved to a plantation of a woman he called Sophia who loved the “chocolate children” and she taught Douglass to read and treated him well. Then the story moved into the years of torture and struggle that Douglass faced on plantation after plantation and the sinister slave masters that tried to break his spirit.
“Once I was whipped for reading, another for writing,” Wallace’s character said. The performance ended with Douglass’ spirit still intact with a new hope, for he had realized that reading and writing were his path to freedom, and how he could make a mark on this world and forever change it.
The event ended with a question and answer session where the attendees interviewed the performers. Retired BRTC employee Jan Ziegler asked, “What would you say to the instructors in the audience today under the increasing pressure not to teach the hard lessons that we heard from you today, what would you say to those as to why it matters that they be taught?”
Darius Wallace answered, “I would say Rebel. It is that same kind of rebellion that the abolitionists used to fight against slavery.” Ann Wallace said, “it’s the danger of a single story. You can’t have the full story if it’s told only from one angle. We don’t have all the facts with only one person’s story. It often takes several stories put together to get the whole story. For example, you have an employee who is always late and everyone is upset because that person makes someone else pull more weight because they’re late. But say, then you find out that person’s wife had died recently, which changes your view of the story completely.”