CONWAY, Ark. (October 3, 2016) – Writing of Kevin Willmott’s work on the screenplay for Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq, The New Yorker’s Richard Brody remarks, “[t]he text is written in pugnacious, witty, and whimsical rhyming verse... with a lyrical vigor that doesn’t jingle or trot but flows with the mighty
current of heightened, emblematic speech.”
Playwright, screenwriter, and activist Kevin Willmott will discuss “Screenwriting, Race, and Being Creatively Maladjusted” on Thursday, Oct. 6, at 7:30 p.m., in Reves Recital Hall.
This event is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception in Trieschmann Gallery.
Willmott’s research interests include screenwriting, producing, African-American film history, directing, and filmmaking. He has written numerous critically acclaimed films, including Jayhawkers,Destination Planet Negro!, and C.S.A:
Confederate States Of America, about what America would be like if the South had won the Civil War. Most recently, Willmott co-wrote the screenplay for director Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq, an adaptation of the ancient Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, set against the backdrop of gang
violence in Chicago.
Willmott also recently adapted and directed a stage version of The Watsons Go To Birminghamin New York and at Kansas City's Coterie Theater. His play T-Money And Wolf, co-written with Ric Averill, dealing with the Holocaust and contemporary gang violence, was selected as part of the New Vision/New
Voices series produced by the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
A native of Junction City, Kansas, Willmott received his B.A. in drama from Marymount College. After graduation, he returned home, working as a peace and civil rights activist, fighting for the rights of the poor, creating two Catholic Worker shelters for
the homeless and forcing the integration of several long-standing segregated institutions. He attended graduate studies at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, receiving several writing awards and his M.F.A. in dramatic writing. Currently, he is a professor in the Media and Film Studies Department of Kansas
University.
This event is sponsored by the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation Programs in Literature and Language, which are designed to enhance and enrich the study and teaching of literature and language at Hendrix College. For more information about this and future events, please contact Henryetta Vanaman,
501-450-4597 or vanaman@hendrix.edu.
About Hendrix College
Hendrix College is a private liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas. Founded in 1876 and affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884, Hendrix is featured in Colleges That
Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think about Colleges and is nationally recognized in numerous college guides, lists, and rankings for academic quality, community, innovation, and value. For more information, visit
www.hendrix.edu.