Erin Laughlin
In Motion Staff Writer
The Southeast Museum of Photography at Daytona State College presented “The Witness,” a riveting play staged within the context of real events central to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Written and performed by St. Augustine-based Lee Weaver, the April 8 event was a special presentation by the SMP.
Weaver, who has performed throughout the U.S. for more than 30 years, took the audience through the story of Beauregard “Bo” Stewart Lee, a confessed former racist.
SMP Director Juliana Romnes says friends and family years ago introduced her to Weaver’s one-man shows.
“When I heard the story of ‘The Witness’ and that it was set against the events of the Civil Rights Movement, I couldn’t turn down this opportunity to collaborate.”
In the play, the protagonist, Bo, directs his accounts of the Civil Rights Movement to writer and documentary filmmaker M.J. Townes, played off-stage by Weaver’s wife Nanette. Weaver employs a fictional love story as his channel to relate the agonizing and ruthless events that gripped America during the Civil Rights Movement. Historical events covered in the play include the beating of former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young, the incarceration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the beating of Dr. Robert Hayling and the Monson Motor Lodge incident.
Weaver believes, “There is never enough said about the Civil Rights Movement, it must be told over and over again, society must learn from history.”
“The Witness” was an elegant way to bring the SMP’s spring 2016 exhibition “The Civil Rights Movement Revisited” to a close. That exhibition is a collection of images by seven photographers taken from three diverse portfolios that captured pivotal moments of the movement. The photos also were added to the permanent collection.
“Part of the museum’s mission is the collection of photography, these portfolios were graciously donated to the museum in the 1990s and make up a part of a growing collection that now contains over 5,000 photographs,” said Romnes, who believes Daytona State students and the community can truly benefit from viewing the collection.
“This exhibition also can help put many racially charged events that are happening today – mass incarceration, police shootings and brutality, and the importance of the black lives matter movement — into a larger perspective.”
The Southeast Museum of Photography will be reopening its second floor galleries on May 5 with a reception from 5-7 p.m., with two exhibitions featuring work by recent graduates of the Southeast Center for Photographic Studies: a University of Central Florida Thesis Exhibition showcasing soon-to-be graduates of UCF; and “Departures,” a juried exhibition of work by upcoming Daytona State Photography Program graduates.
For information on Lee Weaver’s work call 904-687-8779 or email LeeFWeaver@gmail.com.
The Southeast Museum of Photography is closed Sundays and Mondays, with operating hours varying during the week. You can also contact the museum by phone 386-506-4475 or email museum1@daytonastate.edu.