Metropolitan College of New York and GodLee Entertainment, Inc.
present in honor of Black History Month
“Greenwood: American Dream Destroyed”
February 4, 5, and 6, 2020
“The Metropolitan College of New York (MCNY) community is proud to be hosting Greenwood: An American Dream Destroyed at our Manhattan campus. MCNY’s mission is unique in its explicit commitment to social justice: our curricular model, Purpose-Centered Education, empowers our students to make positive change in their communities. The lessons of Greenwood are as urgent today as they were 100 years ago.”
—MCNY President Joanne Passaro
“It is not often that one gets the opportunity to direct a project of such ancestral pride and horrific results that teaches and entertains at the same time.”
—Lynnie Godfrey, Founder and Producing Artistic Director of ESSENCE OF ACTING and Director of the Equity Staged Reading of Greenwood: American Dream Destroyed
“For our busy adult college students, art provides an open window for fresh ideas, new perspectives, and a moment to focus on an aspect of life revealed in its truest form. The play Greenwood: American Dream Destroyed informs, inspires and affirms.”
—Joy Colelli, MCNY Interim Vice President of Enrollment Services
About this Event:
Who: Metropolitan College of New York and Godlee Productions present Greenwood: American Dream Destroyed directed by Lynnie Godfrey and written by Celeste Bedford Walker
What: This Actors Equity staged-reading of Greenwood: American Dream Destroyed by playwright Celeste Bedford Walker, tells the powerful story of the tragedy that took place on May 31, 1921, in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma from the perspective of three generations of the Boley family, a representative composite of an African-American family that may have lived during that tragic and tumultuous time.
Where: Metropolitan College of New York Manhattan Campus, 60 West Street, New York, NY 10006
When: February 4, 5, and 6, 2020 @ 6:30pm
Free and open to the public – please RSVP
Press – for additional information on this event, please visit our website mcny.edu or contact:
Tina Georgiou, tgeorgiou@mcny.edu, 646-648-0694
Short History on Greenwood Community: In highly segregated Tulsa, Oklahoma, an African American community known as the “Negro Wall Street” grew and thrived. The Greenwood District boasted one of the most affluent African American communities in the country. Black citizens created entrepreneurial opportunities for themselves with a vibrant business district including banks, hotels, cafes, movie theaters, modern homes, and an excellent education system. Then disaster and devastation struck.
Hustle and Bustle on the Streets of Greenwood Prior to May 1921
Tulsa police arrested a young black man on an unsubstantiated charge. An inflammatory report in the Tulsa Tribune the next day spurred a racial confrontation and the Greenwood District found itself looted and burned for over 24 hours by white mobs. Thirty-five city blocks lay in charred ruins, over 300 black residents were killed, 600 African American businesses burned to the ground, and thousands were left homeless.
Before and After
About: Metropolitan College of New York
Audrey Cohen, an educational visionary and activist, founded the Women’s Talent Corps in 1964. Through development and training for new professional positions, the Talent Corps created employment for thousands of people. It became The College for Human Services, later Audrey Cohen College, and today Metropolitan College of New York (MCNY). For over 50 years, MCNY has continued the tradition of offering highly motivated learners an education that combines applied skills with professional knowledge to effect personal transformation and positive change in the workplace and community. MCNY is a non-profit, accredited, private college. Year-round offerings accelerate degree completion and a unique approach to learning permits close integration of workplace activities and study. MCNY locations are in the Financial District at 60 West Street, New York, NY 10006 and in the Bronx at 463 East 149th Street, Bronx, NY 10455. For more information on MCNY, visit mcny.edu or call 800.33.THINK.
