TELL MY BONES -- A LIVE STREAMED EVENT!
Date and time
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Online event
TELL MY BONES is about folk artist, Helen LaFrance, and her path to success, despite the hardships she endured in Jim Crow-era Kentucky.
About this event
Enjoy an exciting 90-minute rendering of Marilyn Jaye Lewis's TELL MY BONES. Directed by Kevin Connell, the play is an uplifting drama set to the stirring music of specially arranged African-American Spirituals that celebrates the tenacity of the human spirit.
Descended from runaway slaves, Helen LaFrance was born in 1918, on a farm in Graves County, Kentucky, in a log cabin built by her father. When Helen was 3-years old, her mother taught her how to paint, using berries and laundry bluing as “paints” and twigs for paint brushes. Needed as helpers on the farm, Helen and her three sisters received only one year of formal schooling, with most of their education coming from their parents, who taught them to read and write from the only book they owned - the Bible.
Upon the death of her mother, Helen was sent off the farm to earn her living in the nearby town, first as a live-in maid, then as a factory worker. Fostering other people’s children along the way, her five marriages did not bear children of her own. Some of her foster children bring her great joy, while others bedevil her -– robbing her and burning her house to the ground. Throughout the trials of life, Helen pursues the chance to paint at every opportunity. She finally achieved success as an artist at the age of 89, but then suffered a paralyzing stroke. Helen turned 100-years young, on November 2, 2019.
This event is presented in partnership with the New Heritage Theatre Group and Blueprint Theater Project, both based in New York City.
Please help to support the development and producing of TELL MY BONES by making a donation with your registration. All donations will nurture the future success of this project and the talented artists bringing this important play to life.
This program will be hosted via YouTube. You will receive additional details upon registration.