Gary Bailey, who joined the Friends of the South End Library’s board several years ago, will be moderating a ‘reprise’ post-play panel discussion that was part of the Front Porch Arts Collective production of Pass Over, a play by Antoinette Nwandu, at the SpeakEasy Stage Company in January. You are invited to join the continued conversation via this SpeakEasy Facebook page link. Below is a statement further describing the event:
“This past January, SpeakEasy Stage Company and the Front Porch Arts Collective produced Pass Over by Antoinette Nwandu, a powerful and timely play about police violence, systemic racism, and the difficulty in escaping the box in which society places you.
During the run of this show, we hosted a panel entitled "2020: Black & Male in America", at which community experts and academics discussed what it truly means to be a black man in our country today. It was one of our best-attended post-show discussions ever, and the conversations that arose during the panel stayed with many of us long after we left the theatre.
In the wake of the current Black Lives Matter protests and the desire for further conversation on this topic, Front Porch and SpeakEasy have decided to virtually reprise the panel.
Thus, we invite you to join us for a continuation of the conversation next Tuesday, June 16 at 5:00pm. The panel will be available to watch live on SpeakEasy's Facebook page.
The panel will include Kadahj Bennett (Winner of the Elliot Norton Award for Best Actor for his Performance as Moses in Pass Over); Thaddeus Miles (Director of Community Services, MassHousing); Maurice Emmanuel Parent (Executive Director, The Front Porch Arts Collective); and Dr. Emmett G. Price III (Professor of Worship, Church & Culture, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary).
If you missed our production of Pass Over and are interested in watching the play before the discussion, you can check out Spike Lee's filmed version of the play on Amazon Prime. For more information or if you have any questions, please email SpeakEasy Stage's Community Engagement Manager Alex Lonati at alexlonati@speakeasystage.com.
To learn more about The Front Porch Arts Collective and the work they do in Boston, visit their website.”
Bailey is Assistant Dean of Community Engagement and Social Justice at Simmons College and Professor of Practice. Among other projects, he directs their Urban Leadership and Clinical Social Work Certificate Program. He has had a longstanding interest in the issue of homelessness as it affects libraries and is collaborating with his Simmons College students and the BPL to create programming to serve them.