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Arts Commission News

MAC Announces Partnership to Celebrate the Life and Work of Richard Wright

DATE:            January 30, 2008

CONTACT:     Susan Dobbs, Public Relations Director

                   601/359-6031 or sdobbs@arts.state.ms.us

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

JACKSON— The Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC) is proud to announce a partnership event celebrating the life and work of Richard Wright, an African-American writer (1908-1960).  This partnership honors literature in Mississippi and is part of MAC’s American Masterpieces Initiative.  This year, MAC will join Copiah-Lincoln Community College and the Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration to make this event a reality.

Copiah-Lincoln Community College is founder and co-sponsor of the 19th annual Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration.  The Celebration will take place February 20-24, 2008 and the theme this year will be “Richard Wright, the South, and the World: A Centennial Celebration.”

Born near Natchez, Richard Wright succeeded as a writer despite desperate poverty and having achieved only a ninth-grade education.  Wright is highly respected for overcoming great adversity to realize his dream of becoming a writer.

MAC will join the Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration and the Natchez Little Theatre to produce a play adapted from Richard Wright’s best-selling book, Native Son, which was first published in 1940.  The play, also called Native Son, was co-written by Richard Wright and Paul Green and was produced on Broadway in 1941.

The play will be performed at the Natchez Little Theatre, 319 Linton Avenue, four times during the Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration.  One performance is especially for students in Adams County Schools; one will be held at 8:00 p.m., Friday, February 22; another is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 23; and the final performance will be at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 24, 2008.

“After the tremendous success of the Commission’s first American Masterpieces project, a series of five concerts celebrating the works of American Master Composer, William Grant Still, we are honored to continue this celebration by featuring the work of Mississippi writer, Richard Wright,” said Malcolm White, MAC Executive Director.  “This initiative provides MAC with an avenue to make Mississippians more aware of their rich cultural heritage by featuring work of this state’s American Masters.”

The event is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) through the American Masterpieces Initiative.  This initiative was created by the NEA to acquaint Americans with the best of their cultural and artistic legacy.  The performances, exhibitions, tours and educational programs across many different art forms, held as a result of this initiative, are geared to reach large and small communities in all 50 states.  Established by Congress in 1965, the NEA is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts.

For more information on the celebration of Richard Wright, contact Carolyn Vance Smith of Copiah-Lincoln Community College, founder and co-chairman of the Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration, at 601/446-1208 or visit www.colin.edu/nlcc.

The Mississippi Arts Commission is a state agency, funded by the Mississippi legislature, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Wallace Foundation, The Phil Hardin Foundation, Donna and Jim Barksdale, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi Foundation and other private sources.  MAC is the official grants-making and service agency for the arts in Mississippi.  The agency serves as an active supporter and promoter of the arts in community life and in arts education.

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