The Prairie Landscape

"Crossing Boundaries: Stories and Music from Biracial America" Kicks off The Field Museumís African Heritage Festival February 1st

01/03/2002

"Crossing Boundaries" is produced by artistic circles and developed in partnership with the Illinois Humanities Council. The Sara Lee Foundation is the premiere sponsor for this event.

WHAT : "Crossing Boundaries"is adynamic andmulti-faceted program that mixes author readings with music and images to explore black/white/biracial experiences in America. Chicagoan Ronne Hartfield will read from her forthcoming biographical memoir about her biracial family and their lives in Woodville, Mississippi, New Orleans, and Chicago. Soprano Harolyn Blackwell and Baritone Patrick Blackwell will perform music from these regions and jazz pianist Willie Pickens will perform the music of Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, and Lester Young. Actress Cheryl Lynn Bruce will narrate the eveningís program.

WHEN: Friday, February 1st, 2002, 7:00 p.m.

WHERE:James R. Simpson Theater, The Field Museum
1400 South Lake Shore Drive

WHO: Dr. Ann Feldman, Artistic Director of artistic circles, designed and produced "Crossing Boundaries" and was awarded a Fellowship from the Ragdale Foundation to write the script for the program. Dr. Feldman is also the recipient of the prestigious Gracie Allen Award from the Foundation of American Women in Radio and Television for Unbreakable Spirits, a radio series about women and girls breaking down barriers through music in China. Ronne Hartfield is a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow and former Executive Director of Museum Education at the Art Institute of Chicago. Her forthcoming biographical memoir is entitled Another Way Home. Harolyn Blackwell has performed with major national and international opera companies and at festivals throughout the world, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Patrick Blackwell, of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, sang in the opera "Amistad." Willie Pickens, a local Chicago artist, has played and recorded with many jazz greats. Cheryl Lynn Bruce is a Goodman Theatre Artistic Associate and has appeared in numerous plays, television programs, and films.

TICKETS: Tickets are $20, $18 for students/educators, and $15 for Field Museum members. For tickets, please call The Field Museum at (312) 665-7400 or visit the box-office at The Field Museum.

BACKGROUND: "Crossing Boundaries" is the latest partnership between the Illinois Humanities Council and artistic circles. artistic circles was founded in 1989, and the IHC began funding their programming in 1990. In 2000, artistic circles produced "The Eternal Feminine," a concert of womenís music performed by world-renowned mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer. That program aired as a radio documentary on WFMT in the same year and was released as a CD by KOCH International. "Crossing Boundaries" will be aired as a radio documentary on WBEZís Eight Forty-Eight Morning Program and as a nationally syndicated radio series by PRI Public Radio International in February of 2003. In addition to the Sara Lee Foundation as the premiere sponsor for this event, other support for this program was provided by the Appleton Foundation, the Albert Pick, Jr. Foundation, and the Illinois Arts Council.

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