On Saturday, April 26, Kimberly Moffitt participated in a panel discussion at Baltimore’s Everyman Theatre as part of its World of the Play series. The event, called “Race and Representation: Our Greatest Accomplishment. Our Greatest Shame,” featured panelists who shared their commentaries on race, theatre and film, drawing from the current production at Everyman, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark by Lynn Nottage. The discussion was broadcast May 2 on The Marc Steiner Show. Moffitt, an assistant professor of American studies, discussed how the play applies to present day society.
“What I thought was most interesting about Lynn Nottage’s work is that it makes the evolution of black women in film a contemporary issue,” Moffitt said. “Even though it is set in the 1930s, for us to watch what Vera Stark’s experience was in the 30s trying to be a Hollywood star…we’re still dealing with so many of those issues in present day.”
Moffitt also co-authored an op-ed that appeared in The Baltimore Sun on May 2 entitled, “Building strong children.” The column focused on the importance of educational opportunity for young black men in Baltimore. Moffitt, who is a founder of Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys, a public charter school in Baltimore City, wrote the article with Betsey Swingle Hobelmann and Jack J. Pannell Jr. Pannell Jr. and Hobelmann are also founders.
You can listen to the full segment on The Marc Steiner Show here. You can read the full column in The Baltimore Sun here.
Tags: AmericanStudies, CAHSS
