02/11/10

Story by Peggy Graham

Flyin' West spotlights Nicodemus, Kan.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - Flyin' West, a play about Nicodemus, Kan., an all-black town settled by former slaves in 1877, will be performed by JERIC Productions at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 11, in Polsky Theatre of the Carlsen Center at Johnson County Community College.

In this frontier drama, playwright Pearl Cleage tells the tale of three strong black women struggling to keep their land and preserve their way of life, fighting the greed of both white speculators and some of their own black townspeople only 20 years after the end of the Civil War.

Flyin' West was performed September 2009 at the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center, Kansas City, Mo., home to JERIC Productions, a black theater company. This encore production features Evelyn Trigg, Laura Partridge, Sherri Mosley, George Forbes, Donette Colman and Ro Flowers Jr.

Flyin' West will be followed by a brief presentation by Angela Bates, executive director, Nicodemus Historical Society, and an informal discussion with Bates, cast members, the audience and JCCC faculty James Leiker, director, Kansas Studies Institute and associate professor, history, and Carmaletta Williams, executive director, Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and English professor.

In advance of the play, Bates will give a lecture, Blacks and Black Towns in the West - The Nicodemus Story, from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Thursday, March 11, in the Craig Community Auditorium, JCCC.

Co-sponsored by the KSI, ODEI and Performing Arts Series at JCCC, the lecture and play are free and open to the public.

Nicodemus, in the northwest corner of Kansas, was founded after the Reconstruction Period had ended following the Civil War. This living community is the only remaining all-black town west of the Mississippi River that was settled on the western plains by former slaves. Now part of the National Park Service, five historic buildings represent this community.

Both the play and Bates' daytime presentation are free and open to the public.  For more information, call Leiker at 913-469-8500, ext. 3673.

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