A Song for Coretta

South Fulton Arts Center
4645 Butner Road College Park, GA 30349

Pearl Cleage's play, A Song For Coretta, is a loving, evocative tribute to a remarkable woman whose life inspired and uplifted the lives of so many others. It's February 7, 2006, rain pours down, and strangers gather outside the Ebenezer Baptist Church, waiting their turn to pay homage to Mrs. King's remains inside. Five women, different ages, different circumstances, different reasons to attend, converge outside the church entrance and learn about tolerance, acceptance and the strength to go on, in spite of adversity. A respectable society widow, over 40, who met Mrs. King as a child, a pushy college wannabe journalist, a middle-aged portrait artist and Katrina survivor, a street-smart, wise-mouthed teen-aged mother-to-be, and a traumatized Iraq war veteran contemplating desertion: all have faced harsh realities, and all seek inspiration from the woman they have come to honor. Lives that at first seem so alien and inspire hostility, begin to resonate with commonality. This production is directed by New African Grove Artistic Director, Keith Franklin.