Pegasus Theatre Chicago Will Host 'Gonna Be Somebody' Community Outreach For Its Co-Production With Lifeline Theatre's FROM THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA

Pegasus Theatre Chicago has announced Gonna Be Somebody community outreach and post-performance events in support of Lifeline Theatre and Pegasus' co- production of From the Mississippi Delta, by Dr. Endesha Ida Mae Holland and directed by Ilesa Duncan. The play runs April 27 - June 18 at Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood Avenue. For tickets to From the Mississippi Delta, go to LifelineTheatre.com. Group sales may be obtained via boxoffice@pegasustheatrechicago.org. The events are complimentary, but reservations are required. To reserve tickets go to PegasusTheatreChicago.org or Gonna Be Somebody.

The current From the Mississippi Delta events include:

Saturday, April 8 at 4 p.m.

From The Mississippi Delta Sneak Peek

With Community Partner Guild Literary Complex

Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood Ave.

Part of Lifeline's season programming, join the actors, director and a member of the production team discussing the process with an excerpt from the play From the Mississippi Delta. A Q+A will follow with guest co-facilitator: Andrea Change, executive director, Guild Literary Complex

Thursday, April 13 at 6-8pm

Writing Workshop at the Honeycomb Network

Humboldt Park, 2659 W. Division Street

Facilitator Mojdeh Stoakley will work with participants to create pieces based on their life experience, using both poetry and prose.

Monday, April 24 at 7 p.m.

Virtual Panel - link TBA

Black Women and the Power of Organizing

Anne Ream (Voices & Faces Project), Anika Sterling Florez (Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation), Scheherazade Tillet (A Long Walk Home) and Brenda Myers-Powell (Dreamcatchers Foundation) will participate in the virtual panel discussion on Black women and the power of organizing in a reflection on the coalition that they created in 2021 called #ProtectBlackGirls.

Monday, May 8 at 7:30 p.m. (doors open at 7 p.m.)

Black Feminist Poetics: From the Dirt to the Delta

Co-produced by Guild Complex and Surviving the Mic

Pegasus at Chicago Dramatists, 765 N. Aberdeen (theater entrance)

This program explores the poetics inspired by From the Mississippi Delta. Saunte Harden-Tate, Nikki Patin, Mojdeh Stoakley and members of the Guild Complex will perform works written by Nina Simone, Beah Richards, Gwendolyn Brooks and other Black feminist poets and then perform their own pieces written as response, resulting in a poetic conversation about and for Black women.

ABOUT FROM THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA

From the Mississippi Delta is based on Dr. Holland's memoir of the same title as she recounts her 20-year journey from humble beginnings in Greenwood, Mississippi to achieving her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota. Directed by Lifeline Artistic Director and Pegasus Producing Artistic Director Ilesa Duncan, invites audiences to experience a story of triumph in the face of extreme adversity that expertly weaves through the trials and tribulations of Dr. Holland's life relayed through the bodies and voices of only three actors, all in tribute to one of America's unsung "sheroes."