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Front Porch Reflections: Play Shares Wisdom from a Simpler Time Charlotte, NC — The Afro-American Cultural Center (AACC) will present Front Porch Reflections, a collection of humorous vignettes created by playwright T’Afo Feimster, on Friday, February 23, 2007 at 7:30 pm and again during a matinee performance the following Friday, March 2, 2007 at 3:00 pm. Admission on February 23rd is $10 for AACC members and $15 for the general public. On March 2nd, admission is $8 for members and $10 for others. It was a simpler time and the front porch was the center of home life. Uncle Ike — an eighty-two-year-old self-proclaimed wise man played by Feimster — advises family, neighbors, and the world from his favorite place on the front porch – an old wooden rocker. Karen Steele, who appears as Aunt Eula, and others join Uncle Ike to share poignant stories or to just ‘sit a spell’. Lest the audience believe that Front Porch Reflections is all about wisdom, there’s also fact-finding, truth-seeking and, thankfully, gossip mixed in with soul-stirring musical numbers. “Attending the play is an ideal way for the community to celebrate Black History Month,” says Michele Parchment, the new AACC Director of Operations and Public Programs. “It depicts the day-to-day life of many African Americans living in the South fifty years ago. For some, the play may be educational; others will reminisce.” Feimster grew up in rural North Carolina in the 1950s and 60s. Childhood memories demanded that he give them a voice and a stage. In this case, the front porch is the stage, literally and figuratively. As a visual artist who uses wood as his primary medium, Feimster created a life-sized arts installation — a front porch — and then began to shape his life experiences into reflections.
Feimster says that combining his woodcrafting skills and memories of a
simpler time provided “… an ideal situation [for me] to be able to express
myself artistically, while giving back and receiving from the community.”
Using a front porch as the setting was an obvious choice for the playwright
since this is where much of family life happened in rural America. Front Porch Reflections premiered at the Afro-American Cultural Center in 2002. The current production builds on the original but the changes make it well worth seeing again. The matinee performance on March 2nd is scheduled to allow CIAA visitors to see the production and still attend other Friday evening events. ### |
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