BRIDGE and Shakespeare & Company to Present Reading of KNOCK ME A KISS

As part of a week-long series of events commemorating the local legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois and his family, Multicultural BRIDGE and Shakespeare & Company will present a staged reading of Knock Me a Kiss by playwright Charles Smith on Friday, February 18 at 7 p.m., at the Tina Packer Playhouse.

Directed by Regge Life and featuring Nehassaiu deGannes, Cloteal L. Horne, L. James, and Kevin Craig West, Knock Me a Kiss tells the story of the 1928 marriage of W.E.B. Du Bois' daughter Yolande to one of the great poets of the Harlem Renaissance, Countee Cullen. This union between the daughter of one of the country's most well-known black intellectuals and a poet and leader of the New Negro movement begins with great pomp and circumstance, but soon, love - and life - step in the way.

The production will be followed by a panel discussion and question-and-answer session moderated by Gwendolyn VanSant, CEO of Multicultural BRIDGE and Vice Chair of the Great Barrington Du Bois Legacy Committee, and featuring:

• Mary Ashong, Assistant Professor, Clark Atlanta University
• Whitney Battle Baptiste, Ph.D., Professor of Anthropology, UMASS Amherst, Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Center
• Delano Burrowes, Writer and Visual/Performance Artist, Creator of The Great Barrington Project: Unbleaching the Souls of Black Folk
• Regge Life, Director, Knock Me a Kiss
• Charles Smith, Playwright, Knock Me a Kiss

The performance precedes the memorial service and burial of Dr. Yolande Du Bois Williams Irvin, the granddaughter of W.E.B. Du Bois, at the family gravesite at the Mahaiwe Cemetery in Great Barrington.

Other Dr. Yolande Du Bois Williams Irving Memorial events will be hosted by BRIDGE as part of the Town of Great Barrington's fifth annual W.E.B. Du Bois Legacy Festival, marking a special reparations moment in racial justice organizing.

Tickets are free-of-charge and available at shakespeare.org, with donations also being accepted.