Organic Nation

Live from Cincinnati, 7AM Pacific time, 10AM Eastern time. David Ornette Cherry will try to catch up and interview the cast from "THE HILLSBORO STORY" as they finish up their season tour 2010/2011 Director/writer/actor -Susan Banyas Actor - LaVerne Green Actor - Jennifer Lanier Actor - K.B. Mercer The Hillsboro Story is a unique performance piece integrating movement, monologues, and visual images, backed by an evocative original music score by jazz composer, David Ornette Cherry. It tells the story of the first test case for Brown v. Board of Education (May 1954) in the North, in the playwright’s hometown of Hillsboro, near the Mason-Dixon Line. A third-grade witness the local “colored school” in flames and the five African-American mothers who took legal action, Banyas returned home in 2003 as a cultural detective interviewing more than 50 community members and Civil Rights leaders to create this engaging theatrical piece. This work is more than a simple play. It is the confluence of many artists and community reflecting on memory, historical facts and storytelling to invite audiences as creative activists and collaborators in upholding civil rights and shaping the future. “This is not just a theater piece but a constant dialogue, and engaging and meeting of minds and personal stories,” says playwright and director Susan Banyas. In Ohio, Banyas talked with lawyers, mothers, children, teacher and women who were cleaning the houses of the white women. “There was this whole beehive of activity that happened completely under the radar of white people, these memories are active not passive - we dignify our lives through our reclamation of history,” said Banyas. As part of its ongoing commitment to education and outreach, Artists Rep has been touring this production of The Hillsboro Story to schools and community centers throughout Oregon and Ohio.