Bringing a Legend to Life for Black History Month, Wilmington University hosts "Harriet Tubman: The Chosen One" on February 1, 2017.
Harriet Tubman escaped slavery and rescued hundreds of other slaves in the decades before the American Civil War. She became a leader in that era's abolitionist movement and worked tirelessly to achieve the emancipation put forward by President Abraham Lincoln.
Actress Gwendolyn Briley-Strand brings Tubman to life on the Doberstein Admissions Center (DAC) auditorium stage at Wilmington University performing her one-woman show, Harriet Tubman: The Chosen One," which Briley-Strand wrote and presents around the country.
The performance immerses viewers in Tubman's life and times through Briley-Strand's dynamic portrayals of Tubman as the "Underground Railroad" conductor as well as some of the slaves she transported to freedom - and those who sought to stop her.
Briley-Strand, who performed as Tubman at the White House's Independence Day celebrations in 1991 and 1992, has been performing "The Chosen One" to audiences across the country since 1993, including at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., and the New York State Museum in Albany. In 2008, she premiered a second one-woman show, "Rosa Parks: Such a Time," which she brought to Wilmington University last February. Her acting credits also include roles in "House of Cards," "Homicide: Life on the Streets," "Species II," and voice-over work for numerous national advertising campaigns.
This performance of "Harriet Tubman: The Chosen One" is sponsored by the Wilmington University College of Arts & Sciences, the Department of Student Life and the Robert C. & Dorothy M. Peoples Library.