The University of Louisville commemorates Black history every day through the Charles H. Parrish Jr. Freedom Park, created in 2012 between Second and Third streets on the Belknap Campus. That location is intentional, as it used to be adjacent to a monument erected in 1895 to honor Confederate soldiers who died during the Civil War. That monument has since been removed from ±«´Ç´Úł˘â€™s campus.

The park also pays homage to nine civil rights champions with ties to the University of Louisville, who are featured on glass panels on the pergola. Some of these names may sound familiar, including:

• Anne M. Braden– A journalist and nationally known civil rights leader, Braden taught civil rights history for the decade before her death. The Anne Braden Institute at UofL carries forward her legacy.
• Rufus E. Clement– The first dean of Louisville Municipal College in 1931, Clement built a strong faculty before leaving to become president of Atlanta University in 1937.
• Lyman Tefft Johnson– Johnson was the plaintiff in the lawsuit that forced the desegregation at the University of Kentucky Graduate School in 1949. He then launched a campaign to desegregate UofL, which led the Kentucky General Assembly to end racial segregation in all Kentucky colleges and universities in 1950.
• Lucy Freibert– A faculty member from 1971 to 1993, Freibert taught ±«´Ç´Úł˘â€™s first women’s studies course in 1973 and helped establish the Women’s Center and the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies.
• Charles Henry Parrish, Jr.– ±«´Ç´Úł˘â€™s first African-American professor, he joined the university in 1951, the first African-American appointed to the faculty of a historically white university in the south.
• Eleanor Young Love– Dr. Love was the first African-American librarian at the University of Kentucky in 1955. A decade later, she became the first director of Project Upward Bound and an assistant dean at UofL.
• Joseph H. McMillan, Sr.– A 1950 UofL graduate, McMillan returned in 1976 as an assistant provost, professor of education, director of the Office of Minority Affairs and founder of the National Conference on the Black Family in America.
• Woodford R. Porter– A community and business leader, he was the first African-American chair of the UofL Board of Trustees. He served four terms as chair.
• Wilson W. Wyatt, Sr.– Former Louisville mayor and Kentucky lieutenant governor, Wyatt also was a UofL trustee and made the first motion to desegregate the university in 1949.

J. Blaine Hudson, who ideated Freedom Park, is also featured on a glass panel. Hudson was a student leader of ±«´Ç´Úł˘â€™s Black Student Union in the late 1960s and was once arrested for occupying an administration building as part of a call for creating a Black studies program. Years later, his advocacy came full circle as he joined UofL as an employee, working his way from staff to history instructor to tenured professor in the Pan African Studies Department – one of the first such departments in the country and the first in the south. Hudson eventually served as dean of the College of Arts & Sciences before his death in 2013.

His idea of Freedom Park came about to provide a complete historical account, balancing out that once proximate Confederate monument. In addition to those glass panels, the park also includes 10 black granite pillars detailing Louisville’s history in chronological order:

• , 1750
• , 1775-1865
• , 1830-1860
• , 1815-1865
• , 1863-1865
• , 1865-1877
• , 1865-1900
• , 1900-1940
• , 1940-1970
• , 1970-today

Notably, the park itself surrounds the Playhouse, which was constructed in 1874 as a chapel for the House of Refuge, a municipal institution for orphaned children. It was first used as a theater in 1925. In 1977, the Playhouse was dismantled and placed in storage to make way for Ekstrom Library. It reopened in 1980 at its current location. With 344 seats, the Playhouse is home to performances by ±«´Ç´Úł˘â€™s acclaimed African-American Theatre Program.Ěý

The season’s five mainstage shows, along with a production, were either written by black playwrights, feature black characters or address race as a central theme.

“Our season is a rare, unique opportunity for the community to grapple with broad, wide-ranging African American experiences,” said department chair Kevin Gawley. “With few exceptions, regional theaters usually present only one minority play a season. Our season brings the African American experience to the forefront, delving deeply into crucial questions surrounding race, past and present.”

Johnny Jones, director of the African American Theatre Program, said the idea for the season got rolling in the classroom.

His students read “” by Suzan-Lori Parks, a creative essay that asks the question: What constitutes a black play? They also discussed August Wilson’s seminal speech “,” which makes the case that “African American theatre is distinct, distinguished and fully deserving of the kind of funding and respect too often reserved for white culture and institutions.”

His students researched the mix of plays offered at regional theaters around the country and found that each typically does only one minority play in a season.  

As the season’s theme emerged, so too did questions Theatre Arts hopes audience members and the community can consider together.

“I really want people to think about how these plays speak to America as a whole, not just one group of people — that really is the goal,” Jones said.

The department will offer programming with each show, like talk backs and panel discussions, to facilitate those kinds of conversations.

The season presents a unique opportunity for graduate students in the African American Theatre Program, as well. Most of them are earning Theatre Arts’ , a program of study like no other. Of the 12 grad students, 10 are of African descent.

The department has done thematic seasons before, with a season of women playwrights two years ago and last years’ lessons of the past, stories of the future theme which examined historic stories in a current context. But the uniqueness of the season is already turning heads.Ěý

Jones said that when the department was at the National Black Theatre Festival this summer, someone compared ±«´Ç´Úł˘â€™s current Theatre Arts to Yale’s drama department in the 1990s, when it was a particularly strong leader in drama exploring race.

“As a third-year MFA student, I am proud to be a part of a legacy that promotes the work of black artists,” said Kala Ross. “I am honored to tell the stories of my people as they are stories for all people. In August Wilson’s speech ‘The Ground on Which I Stand,’ he says, ‘All of human life is universal, and it is theater that illuminates and confers upon the universal [or] the ability to speak for all men.’ A theatre department that embraces blackness speaks to the social awareness of the program. A ‘season of black plays’ is another season of excellence.” 

A Season of Black Plays

• Sept. 19-29: “King Hedley II” by August Wilson. Directed by Baron Kelly. The ninth play in August Wilson’s 10-play cycle, the play examines African American life in the 20^th Century. The play tells the story of an ex-con trying to rebuild his life in 1985.

• Oct. 19-20: “Zomo the Rabbit” by Psalmayene 24. Directed Sidney Monroe Williams. ±«´Ç´Úł˘â€™s , a troupe of graduate students who annually perform for dozens of schools, will present “Zomo the Rabbit,” a hip hop take on the classic African tale.

• Nov. 7-17: “Fires in the Mirror” by Anna Deavere Smith. Directed by Ariadne Calvano. The play explores Black and Hasidic Jewish people’s perspectives on 1991 riots in Brooklyn.Ěý        

• Jan. 23-Feb. 2: “Detroit ’67” by Dominique Morisseau. Directed by Johnny Jones. Set to a Motown soundtrack, the play unpacks the 1967 race riots that ravaged Detroit.Ěý

• Feb. 20-March 1: “Six Degrees of Separation” by John Guare. Directed by Geoffrey Nelson. Characters examine the premise that everyone is connected by a chain of six acquaintances.

• April 8-19: “Milk Like Sugar” by Kirsten Greenidge. Directed by Sidney Monroe Williams. Play follows a trio of teen girls who make a pact to get pregnant together.Ěý

All plays are at Thrust Theatre, 2314 South Floyd St., except for “King Hedley II” and “Six Degrees of Separation” which will run at The Playhouse, 1911 South Third St. Evening performances start at 7:30 p.m. Sunday matinees are at 3 p.m.

Purchase season tickets, which are $50, . Tickets for individual performances also are available or call 502-852-6814. Additional events occur throughout the year. For the most up-to-date scheduling go online.Ěý

Considered William Shakespeare’s first comedy, “The Taming of the Shrew” revolves around two sisters – one avoiding marriage (Katherine), and one longing for it (Bianca) – and the lengths to which suitors will go to win their “prize.” 

Theatre Arts has set the Elizabethan play in 1963 America, raising questions of gender roles, then and now. Seen through this lens, the audience may wonder if Katherine is more feminist than “shrewish.”   

J. Ariadne Calvano, assistant professor of Acting and Movement, is the director. She worked with dramaturg Janna Segal to edit the script and adapt a new induction. The two answered a few questions for UofL News about their collaborative effort.Ěý

UofL News: This isn’t your typical mounting of “The Taming of the Shrew.” How is it different? 

Typically, in productions I’ve seen, Kate is assumed to be a shrew. She is labeled as such in the title and therefore, is portrayed as such. We wanted to start with the text and consider what earns her the label of shrew and is it deserved? I’ve had many labels thrust upon me, some I wear proudly others make me angry, but they are all indeed labels and should be recognized as such.Ěý

UofL News: What gave you the idea of setting the play in 1963?

It all started with one phrase “Make Padua Great Again.” During the 2016 presidential campaign, a similar phrase became a major piece of then candidate Trump’s rhetoric. This begged the question, “When was the last time it was GREAT?” and, “What stopped it from being GREAT?” President Trump pointed to the 1940s and 50s as a time when America was great, citing “we were not pushed around, we were respected by everybody, we had just won a war, we were pretty much doing what we had to do” (CNN). My research turned to the events of the early 1960s, during still-burgeoning stages of the second-wave feminist and Civil Rights movements. In our production, the play-within-the-play is set in 1963, the year Betty Friedan’s “Feminine Mystique” was published, John F. Kennedy was assassinated, the year after the Black is Beautiful movement ignited at a Harlem fashion show and the cultural landscape was shifting. The play begins and ends in 2018 at a “Make Padua Great Again Rally” that serves to critically evaluate the progress America has experienced since the Civil Rights Movement.Ěý

UofL News: Can politics of the moment and movements such as #MeToo cause us to reconsider “The Taming of the Shrew?”

The politics of the moment and movements such as #MeToo and Believe all Women certainly cause us to reconsider “The Taming of the Shrew.” There’s a famous quote from playwright Bertolt Brecht, “Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.” I think art is a complex mix of both.Ěý

Who can we expect to see in this play? Any standouts roles we should look for? 

Third-year student Lauren Dobbs will be playing the part of Tronia as her MFA thesis role. Third-year student Terry Tocantins will be playing the part of Hortensio for his MFA thesis role.ĚýTwo undergraduate seniors are featured in the cast, Chasidy Moore will be playing Bianca and Bailey Story will be playing Lucentio.

We’ve got a range of students from Theatre Arts graduate and undergraduate majors, non-majors and two community members, J. Scott Tatum and Anthony David Ward will also be featured in the production as well as Baptista and the Merchant, respectively.  

“The Taming of the Shrew” runs Nov. 8-10 and 15-18 at The Playhouse Theatre, 1911 S. 3rd St. to purchase tickets.Ěý  

The fact that they all happen to be women ended up shaping the 2017-18 season.

“When we were selecting plays for the season, we noticed there were an abundance proposed that were written by women,” said Nefertiti Burton, department chair. “We thought, why not make it a theme and commit to it.”

So, the season became five plays, written by women.

“It’s a way for us to celebrate the new energy in our department,” Burton said.

The selections cover a wide range of experiences, perspectives and theatrical forms.Ěý

“We’re inviting people to come and see themselves on stage, as the many, diverse women filling these roles,” Burton said.

• The season kicks off with the ’s rendition of “Miss Ida B. Wells,” Sept. 22-Oct. 1. The two-woman play, written by Endesha Ida Mae Holland and directed by Burton, powerfully depicts the life of Wells, a civil rights activist and journalist who led the fight against lynching at the turn of the century.
• ±«´Ç´Úł˘â€™s , a troupe of graduate students who perform for dozens of elementary schools each year, will do a free public performance Sept. 24 of “Magic Tree,” a play written by Burton and directed by Melissa Shepherd.
• “Our Country’s Good,” Nov. 10-Nov. 19, written by Timberlake Wertenbaker and directed by Baron Kelly, is based on the true life story of a group of convicts who’ve been deported to the colony of Australia. They found themselves required to act in a production of George Farquhar’s comedy “The Recruiting Officer,” which was staged in the penal colony of New South Wales in 1789.
• In “Eurydice,” Jan. 26-Feb. 4, playwright Sarah Ruhl reimagines the classic myth of Orpheus through the eyes of its heroine. Jenn Ariadne Calvano directs.
• “Fabulation: or the Re-łÉČËÖ±˛Ą of Undine,” Feb. 23-March 4, from the African American Theatre Program, tells the story of a businesswoman whose life spirals out of control after her husband steals her money and leaves her. It was written by Lynn Nottage, the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice.
• The season wraps up with “The Long Christmas Ride Home,” April 13-April 22, in which the past, present and future collide on a snowy Christmas Eve for a troubled family of five. Geoff Nelson and Charles Nasby co-direct the play by Paula Vogel, who is also a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

All plays are at Thrust Theatre, 2314 South Floyd St., except for “Our Country’s Good” and “Fabulation: or the Re-łÉČËÖ±˛Ą of Undine,” which will run at The Playhouse, 1911 South Third St. All plays start at 8 p.m. with 3 p.m. Saturday or Sunday matinees.

To order tickets or for more information, call 502-852-6814 or click .