Normal Theatre to host Black History and Women’s History Month Series’

Image courtesy of the Normal Theater Instagram page

NORMAL, Ill. – The Normal Theatre is partnering with Illinois State University campus organizations to celebrate Black History Month and Women’s History Month throughout February and March. 

African American Studies and the Queer Coalition each approached the Theatre with individual ideas for series’, resulting in the Black History Month series and the “In Her Image” series which will focus a lot on the history and work of queer women. Some films or readings that are scheduled to be shown include “One Million Experiments” and “For Colored Girls…” for the Black History Month series, as well as “The Watermelon Women” and “Lyle” for the ‘In Her Image’ series. 

“These are films that do present some challenging ideas,” Town of Normal Civic Arts Manager Adam Fox said. “Sometimes they are things asking us to question the status quo, and when we can all sit together and think about that, think through that together, look at the world through a different lens, I think that’s a really important thing that we can do. So that’s the significance: it provides a little more context for our world and helps us see things through maybe a different set of eyes.”

Themes presented include those of history as well as struggle that the audience can have the opportunity to discuss. Through the theatre’s partnership with the sociology, anthropology and psychology departments, as well as the Queer Coalition and African American Studies – the shows were carefully selected for the audience to resonate with.

“I don’t think right now it’s too much of a stretch to say it’s important to be having conversations that are amplifying marginalized voices,” Fox said. “I think that with the current tenor that we have surrounding a lot of policy and a lot of everything in this country right now, it’s important to make sure we are still centering those voices and providing a platform where we can see those experiences, immerse ourselves in those stories and make sure that we are maybe experiencing just a little bit of empathy and having a little bit of education surrounding these films.”

The plans for both series predated Fall semester and was not a response to anything nationally. However, the theatre is no stranger to partnering with some of the University’s organizations to take educational practice out of the classroom.

“The big thing is we just want people to come and feel like they have a space where they can have these conversations and they can see these kinds of stories and see themselves reflected on screen and feel like that is a place that they are welcome, that everyone is welcome and we want to be able to share in the conversation,” Fox said.

Full dates and times for each series can be found at the Normal Theatre’s website.