A man walks into a room with his life in his hands. He is the internationally acclaimed artist and playwright Inua Ellams (Barber Shop Chronicles, The Half God of Rainfall) and he has filled thousands of pages in an ongoing attempt to be heard, to give his genius wings that can travel. Every word he's ever written is captured, all the poems and the theater and the essays, the drafts of projects abandoned and works as yet unknown, indexed, rendered as binary, and waiting patiently within the confines of the electronic tablet he's holding even now. Prompted by audience suggestion and open conversation, Ellams searches through his archive, unearths refined or raw gold, and presents his treasure in a spontaneous performance. It's an act of call and response that hearkens back to the birth of storytelling. At this uniquely futuristic and puckishly chaotic interactive event, the artist couldn't be more present. He's inviting you to join the work. What will you say?

During his week-long residency at Dartmouth, Ellams will visit classes, hold workshops, and lead discussions on and off campus.Programmed as part of Dartmouth's Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, with the theme of "Moral Courage in the Face of Uncertainty"

Funded in part by the Wetzel Family Fund for the Arts, the Nathan W. Pearson and Sons 1932 Fund, the Roesch Family Fund in Support of The Hopkins Center's Visiting Performing Artists Program, the Patricia S. and Robert A. Levinson 1946 Fund in Support of the Hopkins Center's Visiting Performing Artist Program, the Kenneth and Ellen Roman 1952 Fund in Support of the Hopkins Center's Visiting Performing Artists Program, the Donna Bascom 1973 & Paul Biddelman Fund, David J. O'Connor and the Blye Fund for Artists' Residencies at the Hopkins Center for the Arts.

Time: 2:00pm and 7:30pm

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