Gregory Manning, a member of the Kenyetta Dance Company, performs during last year's African-American Heritage Banquet in the Grand Ballroom of the Martin Luther King, Jr. University Union. (File photo/The Daily Eastern News)
Heritage banquet to feature one-man play
By: Heather Holm/Activities Editor
Posted: 2/6/09
In 1962, in the segregated Choctaw County, Alabama, 18-year-old Carl Ray responded to a white man's questions with just "yes" and "no" instead of "yes, sir" and "no, sir."
Ray was then severely beaten.
An hour later, the man went to Ray's home where Ray watched the man shoot his father.
Ray is the one-man act in "A Killing in Choctaw," which examines how this incident defined Ray's life, and how he eventually reached the point for forgiveness and healing.
The play, an autobiography of Ray's life, will be the featured entertainment for the 14th annual African-American Heritage Banquet.
The banquet will take place at 5 p.m. today in the Grand Ballroom of the Martin Luther King, Jr. University Union.
A question and answer session will follow the play.
"The play is of his real life," said Joycelynn Phillips, minority affairs director.
"He grew up in Alabama and in 1962, was stopped from going into a college from a white man and refused to call the white man 'sir.' There was a horrible incident after that. The story is about how he came to a place in life where he was healed."
Phillips hopes students will take away that people can forgive from the play.
"I hope they will learn that it is a process to get there, but forgiveness is possible," she said.
Tickets for the African-American Heritage banquet were on sale until noon Wednesday, Feb. 4.
She said ticket sales peak right around the week of the performance.
"We rally right before the campus," Phillips said. "We expose the entire campus to race issues."
Phillips said she is hoping to have at least 200 people attend the banquet.
In the past, various entertainers at the African-American Heritage Banquet have included tap dancers, storytellers, a magician and Kenyatta Dancers.
One year, Phillips said, Jeff Johnson, a motivational speaker who had appeared on Black Entertainment Television in the past, presented as "Cousin Jeff." His presentation included topics on hip-hop's alleged vulgarity, sexism and misogyny.
Phillips said this year's African-American Heritage Month focuses on the American aspect on being an African-American for this very reason-the election of Barrack Obama.
