John O'Neal, named artist-in-residence by the Kirkland Project, will be on campus through Saturday, March 31. A leading advocate of the view that "politics" and "art" are complementary not opposing terms, his work as a writer, performer and director has taken him throughout North America and Europe.
O'Neal has been the recipient of many awards and fellowships, among them the Louisiana Artist's Fellowship in Theater and grants from the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations. He was awarded a NEA Playwriting Fellowship in 1990 for work on an epic drama about slave insurrectionist, Nat Turner.
O'Neal's essays and plays have been published in numerous books and journals such as The Black Scholar, Tulane Drama Review, Black World, American Dialog, Yale Theatre, and Plays from the Southern Theater. O'Neal's poetry has also been published in New Black Voices. He is a regularly featured columnist in Southern Exposure magazine, and contributed an essay on Junebug's Environmental Justice Project to a forthcoming book on environmental racism.
John O'Neal's most recent project, the ColorLine Project, is a story collecting and performance event about the civil rights movement. Communities across the U.S. will undertake a story collection process about the civil rights movement and then, aided by O'Neal, will discover ways to publicly present the stories to the public to stimulate further dialogue about the theme and the importance of personal story.
On Thursday, March 29, at 2:30 p.m., in Room 207, Benedict Hall, O'Neal will be the guest lecturer in the Introduction to Literary Study class. This class will be open to the campus community.
On Friday, March 30, at 11a.m., in the Kirkland Loft, O'Neal will be the guest artist in the Acting Workshop class, which is open to the campus community. At 2:30 p.m., in Wellin Hall, O'Neal will lead a Story Circle workshop. The Story Circle is a device for organizing by getting folks to talk to one another. O'Neal describes it as "the primary technique that we use for the collection of oral literature, researching, teaching and organizing. A simple process of sitting in a circle and sharing stories, the story circle is a powerful instrument that can be used effectively for groups of all ages and can help achieve teaching, organizing and research agendas."
Finally, O'Neal will perform "Til the Midnight Hour, Sayings from the Life and Writings of Junebug Jabba Jones," on Saturday, March 31, at 8 p.m. in Wellin Hall. Junebug Jabba Jones is a folk character who grew out of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Members of the Student
Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) created "Junebug" to stand as a symbol of the wisdom of the common people. Junebug is similar to the African Praise singers or Griots who serve as custodians of local and regional history. True to his mentors, past and present, Junebug weaves his observations into rich, revealing scenes, stories, rhymes and songs. This event is free and open to the public.
For more information on any of these events, please contact Robin Vanderwall at 315-859-4288.
