In 1955, a 14-year-old black Chicago youth traveled to the Mississippi Delta with country kinfolk and southern cooking on his mind. He walked off the train and into a world he could never understand — a world of thick color lines, of hard-held class systems and unspeakable taboos. Young Emmett crossed that line and stepped into his gruesome fate by whistling at a white woman. Through conversations with a Look magazine journalist, Emmett’s mother and others caught up in the events that led to Till’s devastating fate. This riveting play chronicles the murder, trial and unbelievable confessions of the men accused of Till’s murder. This one-actor, multiple-character original drama is a 90-minute full-length performance.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING!
"Mike is a brilliant artist and educator... mending the broken world through the power of story, and making scholarship and art speak to the breach in our common life..." - Tim Tyson, author of the best-selling BLOOD DONE SIGN MY NAME
"Dar-He Is The Best of the Best... By our count, there were 426 theatrical productions in the Triangle in 2006; but only one of them - the stirring multimedia presentation of Dar He: The Story of Emmett Till - made all four Top 10 lists published by the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill news media. A one-man show written and performed by Mike Wiley and directed by Serena Ebhardt, Dar He was a devastating dramatization of one of the most infamous murders of the Civil Rights era... so packed with intense, tight characterizations and creatively-portrayed locales that we were rapt from the very first word. Those first words are spoken by Look reporter William Bradford Huey, as he begins to tell us what he learned from the men responsible for the death of 14-year-old Emmett "Bo" Till. Wiley is a marvel to watch as the characters he portrays appear and disappear before us. Wiley recreates Till, Huey, and all of the other characters with a depth and clarity that make each one readily identifiable, and as distinct as an entire cast of players could make them." - Robert McDowell, Triangle Theatre Reviews
EVENT SPONSORS
“Dar He: The Lynching of Emmett Till,” will be presented Friday, March 31, 2017 at 7:00 pm at the Sampson County Exposition Center located at 414 Warsaw Road, Clinton, NC. The performance is presented and co-sponsored by the Sampson Arts Council and the Clinton Alumnae Chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, and is made possible by a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council; an agency of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, which believes that “a great state deserves great art”. For more information about the NC Arts Council visit: www.ncarts.org.
The Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. was founded in 1913 on the campus of Howard University to promote academic excellence; to provide scholarships; to provide support to the underserved; to educate and stimulate participation in the establishment of positive public policy; and to highlight issues and provide solutions for problems in communities. Today, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority has more than 1000 chapters worldwide and has initiated over 200,000 members. The Sorority uses its Five-Point Programmatic Thrust of economic development, educational development, international awareness and involvement, physical and mental health, and political awareness and involvement to create its national programs. The Clinton Alumnae Chapter was chartered with 30 members on January 22, 1995 at Andrews Chapel Church in Clinton, North Carolina. Since the establishment, the chapter has been committed to the ideals and five-point programmatic thrust upon which the Sorority was founded. Chapter members have provided and continue to offer many programs that benefit the citizens of Sampson County, especially the youth. Services provide to the community include: annual scholarships to area high school students, GEMS & EMBODI youth initiatives, monthly visits to local nursing homes, breast and cervical cancer awareness sessions, community health fairs, Black College Tours, annual voter registration drives, World AIDS DAY activities, community service recognition programs, annual adult Christmas dances, annual golf tournament, Jabberwock Pageants and Arts & Letters programs that showcase local talent and more.
The Sampson Arts Council is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to enrich the cultural lives of the citizens of Sampson County by nurturing and supporting excellence in the arts; promoting, presenting and encouraging educational arts activities; increasing the local economic impact of the arts; and otherwise enhancing the growth and appreciation of the visual, literary and performing arts. Membership is open to any individual, organization, corporation or agency. The Sampson Arts Council is funded through memberships, donations, contributions and receives grant and financial support from the North Carolina Arts Council and is a member of North Carolina Presenters Consortium, Inc.
Tickets for the performance are $15 and $10 per person and may be purchased at Sampson CenterStage Box Office located in the Sampson County Exposition Center, 414 Warsaw Road, Clinton, NC; or by telephone at 910.592.7200. Tickets may also be purchased at the door on the night of the performance.