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An Evening with Mary Ann Cord performed by Miss Carolyn Evans
February 19, 2021 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
To register send an email to info@southporthistoricalsociety.org
The Ninth Annual Brunswick County Black History Symposium will host an evening with Carolyn Evans, a New York actress, dancer, educator and Storyteller. Evans will be portraying cook, Mary Ann Cord, “Aunt Rachel”, from the Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) essay, “A True Story, Repeated Word For Word As I Heard It”.
It is a story during the antebellum period when Mary was enslaved in Virginia and New Bern. It is a story that takes you from the summit of a Richmond auction scaffold to the bucolic Chemung Valley where Mary, enshrouded in loneliness, remembers, losing her entire family on that block. It is said that the experience of hearing Marys’ story was pivotal in helping to change the mindset of Samuel Clemens. He would later famously quote, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow mindedness”, and, “Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” Tune into this reading and Mary Ann Cord will “leave it to you”.
In previous years, Ms. Evans has portrayed Harriet Tubman and Stagecoach Mary as part of the Brunswick County Black History Symposium. Her nuanced performances of strong, historical women has made her a popular performer.
Evans began performing as a child at church pageants, and family gatherings but started stuttering by the age of 5. It took years of work to conquer her speech impediment. Evans says, “God bless those Speech Teachers!” She became progressively interested in theatre in Middle and High School but the racial dynamics of that time prohibited her from participating in an integrative fashion on stage. However, hello Syracuse University School of Drama!!! The floodgates had opened up! Though she still stuttered off stage, on stage her words were fluid and she, “talked straight.”
Evans has performed at the world renowned, Apollo Theatre, LA MAMA Theatre, City and State Universities nationally, Conferences, Museums, Historic sites internationally, PENN Center, Inc, Gettysburg, SCETV, PBS, CNN, WBAI, WTBQ and WYRN radio. She has shared the stage with Glenn Close, Ira Cohen, Melba Moore, Dick Gregory, Christopher Reeve, Christopher Sullivan, and other royalty, people like you….
Due to COVID-19, the Ninth Annual Brunswick County Black History Symposium will be via Zoom for the first time. This will allow each audience member to have a “front row seat” to Miss Evans’ performance. The performance will start at 6 pm Friday, Feb. 19th. Attendance is free and open to all.
Register at info@southporthistoricalsociety.org. Miss Evans’ performance is sponsored by the Southport Historical Society and by a grant from the Brunswick Arts Council.