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Bringing Phillis to Life: A program by the Massachusetts Historical Society
October 30, 2023 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Massachusetts Historical Society presents: Bringing Phillis To Life
with Ade Solanke, David Walkdstreicher, CUNY, and Tara Bynum, University of Iowa
This is a hybrid event. FREE for MHS Members. $10 per person fee (in person). No charge for virtual attendees or Card to Culture participants (EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare).
The in-person reception starts at 5:30 and the program will begin at 6:00.
Phillis in London, a new play written by Ade Solanke, dramatizes and reimagines Phillis Wheatley’s experience of being an enslaved African woman writer abroad in London in 1773. She was “celebrated” by the elite of the British empire, despite visiting at the height of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Phillis Wheatley, who published the first book by an African American woman, has recently been the subject of plays and artistic renderings. Solanke will read an excerpt from the new play and consider, in conversation with scholars David Waldstreicher and Tara Bynam, the legacy of Wheatley and how artists have chosen to portray the writer.
Hybrid Event
The in-person reception starts at 5:30 and the program will begin at 6:00.
Masks are optional for this event.
The virtual program begins at 6:00 PM and will be hosted on the video conference platform, Zoom. Registrants will receive a confirmation message with attendance information.