Black Cultural Center presents musical tribute to African-American women

Core Ensemble
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The Core Ensemble will perform the new chamber music theater work. "Ain't I a Woman!" outlines the life, times and works of abolitionist Sojourner Truth, novelist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, folk artist Clementine Hunter and civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer.

From a script written by Kim Hines, actress Liz Mikel offers portrayals of each woman with the narrative wed to a musical score drawn from spirituals and blues of the Deep South as well as urban jazz of both the Harlem Renaissance and modern jazz eras. Musicians for the Core Ensemble are Tahirah Whittington on cello, Hugh Hinton on piano and Michael Parola on percussion.

"Ain't I a Woman!"
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Since its inception in 1993, the Core Ensemble has toured nationally to every region of the United States and internationally to England, Russia, the Ukraine, Australia and the British Virgin Islands. The ensemble received the 2000 Eugene McDermott Award for Excellence in the Arts awarded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has received support from the Florida Department of Cultural Affairs, New England Foundation for the Arts, Palm Beach County Cultural Council, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music and the Virgil Thomson Foundation.

Performing since early childhood, Mikel appears regularly at the Dallas Theater Center and has performed at Central Park Summerstage in New York City. She has toured France and Switzerland with the musical "Blind Lemon" and is a company member of both the Vivid Theatre Ensemble and Universal Connections story telling troupe.

Writer: Maggie Morris, (765) 494-2432, maggiemorris@purdue.edu

Source: Renee Thomas, BCC director, (765) 494-3091, rathomas@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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