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Around the East Bay
WRIGHT CENTENNIAL
Oakland Public Theater is launching an ongoing reading project for Richard Wright’s centennial at 7 p.m. Wednesday (the anniversary of Wright’s death in Paris in 1960) at the Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland. The event will feature a reading of “Go Tell It On The Mountain,” focussing on the influence of the church on Wright and his fellow black expatriate writers and others he worked with or affected, such as James Baldwin, Chester Himes and Ralph Ellison. Readings will be drawn from Wright’s and others’ works, as well as biographical materials. Conceived by Richmond playwright and actor Richard Talavera, the series is directed by Oakland’s Norman Gee, and will explore various themes in the life of the author of Native Son, that black sequel to Dreiser’s An American Tragedy, and Black Boy, at different venues every month. Free admission. 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. 534-9529 or richardwrightproject@gmail.com
