The Island: Post-Show with Lisa Brock

The Island: Post-Show with Lisa Brock
Lisa Brock RBT/file
The Island: Post-Show with Lisa Brock
Lisa Brock RBT/file

The Island: Post-Show with Lisa Brock

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Lisa Brock, Ph.D. is an activist and Chairperson of the Department of Liberal Education at Columbia College Chicago. She graduated Magna cum Laude from Howard University in Washington D.C. in 1979 where she received her BA. She received both her MA (1983) and Ph.D. (1989) in southern African history from Northwestern University. Her activism dates back to her primary and secondary school years (1960s-70s) where she fought against segregation and for black studies and girls’ rights in the public schools of Cincinnati Ohio; and her undergraduate years (1970s) where she became very well known as an anti-racist activist while at Howard University. She served in the leadership of the Chicago Anti-Apartheid Movement and could be seen often on the Chicago PBS’s nightly TV political roundtable called “Chicago Tonight”. She also served as co-chair of the final local anti-apartheid effort, which facilitated Chicago observer participation in the 1994 South African elections. She, herself, had been an observer in the Angolan elections of 1992. She was the founder of the Chicago Anti-Apartheid Movement Collection held at the Columbia College Chicago archives.

This post-show discussion immediately followed the performance of The Island, Remy Bumppo Theatre Company’s current mainstage show. Athol Fugard’s daring drama is set in an unnamed prison based on the one where Nelson Mandela was held. John and Winston are cellmates who spend their days doing back-breaking labor, and their nights rehearsing Sophocles’ Antigone to present to their fellow inmates. When John learns his sentence is being reduced, the men’s friendship is tested. Fugard plays the parallels between Antigone’s fight against political and patriarchal boundaries off of the imprisoned men’s fight for their dignity. The Island is a testament to the resiliency of the human heart.

Recorded Friday, February 26, 2010 at The Greenhouse Theater.