FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: September 29, 2004
Contact: Christa Skiles
Public Relations Director
513-345-2242, ext. 232
CINCINNATI PLAYHOUSE IN THE PARK PARTNERS WITH
INKTANK FOR ALTERACTIVE SPEAKS, A NEW SERIES FOCUSING ON LOCAL ISSUES
(CINCINNATI) – The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park is partnering
with InkTank — a volunteer-based, nonprofit organization that emphasizes
the grassroots promotion of writing among non-traditional voices — to
present a new series of panel discussions and performances focusing on
issues of interest to Cincinnati residents. The program, alteractive
speaks, kicks off on October 4 and continues through November
15 on seven selected Mondays with topics that impact the future of our
city, including the outlook for Over-the-Rhine, fear on urban streets,
the boycott and same-sex issues in Cincinnati.
According to Playhouse Producing Artistic Director Edward Stern, “Fundamentally,
the Playhouse is in the business of dialogue. Through alteractive speaks, we
hope to promote a civic dialogue, in an atmosphere in which people feel comfortable
discussing various points of view.”
Kathy Holwadel, founder of InkTank, says, “We have chosen each panel
with great care, conscious to include a wide range of political and personal
perspectives. The goal of the series is discussion and dialogue rather than
diatribe or hard and fast positions.”
The series begins and ends with solo performances, with panel discussions filling
the remaining weeks. Panel participants will be given approximately five minutes
to explain the week’s issue from his or her unique perspective before
the floor is opened to questions from the audience and from program moderator
Eric Kearney, president of Sesh Communications, which publishes The Cincinnati
Herald. Each program begins at 7 p.m. and ends at 8:30 p.m. Admission
is on a pay-what-you-can basis so that no one will be excluded for financial
reasons.
The complete schedule for the series includes:
Monday, October 4, 2004:
Kathy Y. Wilson, Your Negro Tour Guide: The Stage Version
CityBeat columnist Kathy Y. Wilson will present a stage version of
her book Your Negro Tour Guide, a collection of her columns for the
paper. Wilson has been contributing to CityBeat for the past eight
years. From 1994 to 1999, she was a columnist and beat reporter for The
Hamilton Journal-News. The evening also includes the presentation of a
documentary on race by Una Kariim Cross.
Monday, October 11, 2004:
Over-the-Rhine
The panel includes Terry Grundy, community liaison for the United Way, professor
of community planning at the University of Cincinnati and a founding member
of the Urbanists. He is joined by Des Bracey, Over-the-Rhine project manager
for Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. (3CDC.) The panel will open with
a slide presentation of Jimmy Heath’s photographs of Over-the-Rhine.
Heath is the editor of Streetvibes, founder of Literacy through Photography
and an advocate for the homeless.
Monday, October 18, 2004:
The Boycott
The panel includes Reverend Damon Lynch III, pastor at New Prospect Baptist
Church in Over-the-Rhine, civic activist and former president of the Black
United Front; Cincinnati City Councilman David Pepper, now in his second term
on council and chair of its Law and Public Safety Committee; and Victoria Straughn,
founder and chair of Concerned Citizens for Justice. The panel will open with
a presentation of Jim Borgman’s Cincinnati Enquirer cartoons
about race in Cincinnati.
Monday, October 25, 2004:
Community Values/Personal Freedom
The panel includes Cincinnati Enquirer columnist Peter Bronson; CityBeat editor
John Fox; Louis H. Sirkin, a local attorney who specializes in First Amendment
issues; and Robin Harrison of Hip-Notic Productions. The program will open
with a documentary on the creation of Skin Deep: Painted Nudes by
Robin Harrison.
Monday, November 1, 2004:
Same Sex and Cincinnati
The panel includes State Representative William J. Seitz III, a partner at
Taft, Stettinius and Hollister LLP; Reverend Stephen van Kuiken, a local minister
who lost his position for performing same-sex marriages; and Terry Payne, chair
of Stonewall Cincinnati, an organization that works on behalf of gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender people to end discrimination and violence.
Monday, November 8, 2004:
Fear on the Streets
The panel includes Richard Biehl, a retired senior officer with the Cincinnati
Police Department and the Community Police Partnering Center; Joe Wilmers,
a social service worker at Washington Park Elementary School; and Monica Williams,
an officer with Citizens for a Just Cincinnati. The program opens with April
Martin’s documentary on the history of civil unrest in Cincinnati.
Monday, November 15, 2004:
Jocardo Edward Ralston: No Sex in the City
An extra large gay man with a black father and a white mother, Jocardo Edward
Ralston will share his comic perspective on his own very personal, but ultimately
universal, quest for self-acceptance.
To purchase tickets for alteractive speaks,
call the Playhouse box office at 513/421-3888 or toll-free in Ohio, Kentucky
and Indiana at 800/582-3208. Call 513/345-2248 for TDD accessibility.
More information is available on the Playhouse web site at www.cincyplay.com.
Parking is free.
Artists fly to and from Cincinnati on Delta Connection Comair, the Playhouse’s
official airline.
The Playhouse is supported, in part, by the generosity of the tens of thousands
of individuals and businesses that give to the Fine Arts Fund.
The Ohio Arts Council helps fund the Playhouse with state tax dollars to encourage
economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.
The Playhouse also receives funding from the City of Cincinnati.
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