Town Hall Theatre Announces A Special Community Event 'Lift Your Voice: An Evening with Angela Harrelson'

Join in for an evening with Angela Harrelson, the aunt of George Perry Floyd and the author of Lift Your Voice. As the daughter of sharecroppers and one of fourteen children, Harrelson gives us a glimpse of her nonlinear and trying life path that taught her the tenets of resiliency and perseverance. Angela also shares how her life changed for the better when George Floyd joined her in Minneapolis and how she'll spend the rest of her life fighting for justice to ensure that the name of her late nephew is never forgotten.

Dennis Markam, the Managing Director of the Town Hall Theatre says the Town Hall is the perfect venue for Harrelson's visit. "This building has been a community gathering place since it was first built, so it feels right (for this) event." Markam says. "It was shortly after George Floyd's murder that we at Town Hall suspended almost all of our programming so that we could fully rebuild in a way that is not only more equitable, but anti-racist." Markam says the event is important, not only to the Town Hall Theater, but also to the town of Lafayette. "(In largely) white communities, when we talk about racial injustice and systemic abuses of power and all of these big, multifaceted topics it becomes incredibly easy to turn folks like George Floyd or Breonna Taylor or Trayvon Martin or Miles Hall into ideas rather than people. Ms. Harrelson's work gives us a human context to the narrative of George Floyd's murder, a sense of who her nephew was as a person, and how the world can honor his memory by enacting systemic changes."

While Markam says Lafayette has made great strides in addressing diversity, equity and inclusion in the city, there are still opportunities to do more. "It would be wonderful if Ms. Harrelson's message reinvigorates our neighbors to seriously and honestly look at what they can do as individuals and a community to work to make Lafayette more accessible and equitable."

Ms. Harrelson will read from her book, Lift Your Voice: How My Nephew George Floyd's Murder Changed The World, then have a Q&A lead by Sharon Sobotta who is a journalist as well as the director of the Center for Women & Gender Equity at St. Mary's College.

Reasonable Books of Lafayette will be selling copies of Ms. Harrelson's book in the lobby which she will sign. Copies are limited so preordering is encouraged. Orders can be placed with Reasonable Books via email at books@reasonable.online, or by calling 925-385-3026.

This is a pay-what-you-can event and 100% of ticket revenue will go to the George Floyd Global Memorial.

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