Mike Wiley’s Blood Done Sign My Name
In honor of Black History, UNC-Chapel Hill Digital and Lifelong Learning presents:
Mike Wiley Productions – Blood Done Sign My Name
Sunday, February 27, 2022, 3-5 p.m. at the Friday Conference Center
EVENT REGISTRATION IS NOW FULL.
If you would like to be added to the listserv to be notified of future offerings, please email fridaycenterprograms@unc.edu.
Admission is free, open to the public and recommended for school grades 7 and up.
Performance: 3-4:30 p.m.
Q&A: 4:30-5 p.m.
In honor of Black History, DLL proudly presents a theatrical performance by acclaimed actor and playwright Mike Wiley.
In Blood Done Sign My Name, Mike Wiley brings to life the recollections of author Tim Tyson surrounding the 1970 murder of Henry “Dickie” Marrow in Oxford, NC and the events that followed. Marrow, who was black, was chased from a local store by three white men after he reportedly made a crude remark to one of the men’s wives. They brutally beat Marrow then killed him with a bullet to the head in view of multiple witnesses. Despite the eyewitness reports, an all-white jury acquitted the men. The town’s black community responded with an uprising that destroyed downtown businesses and several tobacco warehouses holding millions of dollars in harvested crops. Tyson, who was a ten-year-old child in Oxford at the time, recounts how the conflagration of events shaped his life and offers all of us an opportunity to examine our own roles in the complex and often confusing racial fabric of America.
Acclaimed gospel scholar and singer, Mrs. Mary D. Williams reinforces the action on stage with powerful and moving renditions of spirituals such as Oh, Freedom, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot and Soon I Will Be Done.
Portraying an entire cast of black, white, male, and female characters, Mike Wiley’s solo-performance reminds us that we are all one humanity. The performance gives voice to a largely unknown piece of North Carolina History and offers a powerful lesson of truth.
Blood Done Sign My Name presents live at the Friday Conference Center in Chapel Hill, N.C. Following the performance, participants will have opportunity for a live interactive Q&A session with Mike Wiley.
EVENT REGISTRATION IS NOW FULL.
If you would like to be added to the listserv to be notified of future offerings, please email fridaycenterprograms@unc.edu.
COVID Protocols
This event will follow and enforce all COVID safety protocols in effect for UNC-Chapel Hill and the Chapel Hill/Orange County communities. Learn more about UNC-Chapel Hill’s Community Standards.
Language and content
Mike Wiley’s documentary theatre productions are dramatically rendered stories based on historical fact. The performances intend to shine light and open dialogue by sharing stories of individuals and events of human and civil rights struggle, strength, hope, failure and accomplishment. These stories are part of the American historical narrative. Occasional use of language or terminology accurate to an event’s period or setting may be viewed by some as offensive or inappropriate– but by avoiding such language, the historical truth of the portrayal becomes less authentic. Thank you for your understanding.
About Mike Wiley
Mike Wiley is a North Carolina-based actor & playwright whose compelling works of documentary theatre yield rich and powerful journeys to milestones and turning points of the African American experience. Each work in the company’s productions is designed to inspire audiences to examine America’s racial history, teach the lessons of the past and encourage the application of these truths to the present. With a remarkable ability to inspire dialog, Wiley’s overriding goal is expanding cultural awareness for audiences of all ages through dynamic portrayals based on pivotal moments in African-American history. Wiley has introduced countless students and communities to the legacies of Henry “Box” Brown, Jackie Robinson and more. His recent works include The Fire of Freedom – the story of Abraham Galloway, adapted for the stage by Howard Craft and based on the book by Dr. David Cecelski; and Downrange: Voices on the Homefront (chronicling the challenges of military families, post 9/11). In 2018, Wiley completed Leaving Eden, a Playmakers Reparatory Company commissioned work that explores the cycles of history, human behavior, race and economic disparity through inhabitants of a small North Carolina town.
Wiley has a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a 2017 recipient of UNC’s Distinguished Alumnus Award, which recognizes alumni who have made outstanding contributions to humanity. In 2010 and 2014, Wiley served as the Lehman Brady Visiting Joint Chair Professor in Documentary Studies and American Studies at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition to his numerous school and community performances, he has appeared on The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, National Geographic Channel and been featured in Our State magazine, PBS’ North Carolina Now and WUNC’s The State of Things.
Campus Co-Sponsors
A heartfelt thank you to our co-sponsors:
The Sonya Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History
University Office for Diversity and Inclusion
Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies
Center for the Study of the American South