Stars to shine for Lowery's 88th birthday celebration

By Ernie Suggs

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Rev. Joseph E. Lowery’s 88th year is turning out to be a pretty good one.

In January, 44 years after he confronted Alabama Governor George Wallace on segregation, he delivered the benediction at the inauguration of the country’s first black president.

In August, President Barack Obama, awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor.

Now, on Sunday, a host of celebrities — from Aretha Franklin to Samuel L. Jackson — will fly to Atlanta to wish him a happy birthday. The civil rights legend will be feted in a star-studded celebration at the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College, through a stage production entitled, “A Mile in His Shoes.”

Proceeds from the event will go toward the Joseph E. Lowery Institute for Justice and Human Rights at Clark Atlanta University. All this week, there have been workshops and symposiums addressing key issues.

“I am very excited and grateful for the support that the institute is getting on this celebration,” said Lowery whose birthday was Tuesday. “But I am even more excited about the workshops we are having on criminal justice, education and the ongoing health care debate, which is right at the heart of what the institute is all about.”

The show’s producer, Kenneth Green, a Spelman College faculty member in the drama and dance department, has put together a show that will feature modern dance and ballet, music, video and narrative to highlight key events in Lowery’s life.

“This tribute will be like no other event that has ever taken place in our city,” said event co-chair, Harriette Watkins. “Given the mix of incredible talent that has donated their time to honor this great leader, guests will leave transformed by the spirit.”

And how is this for a lineup?

Along with Jackson, Emmy and Golden Globe winner Alfre Woodard will host the event.

Tony Award winner Savion Glover will open the show with a dance tribute. Throughout the show, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Nicole Ari Parker, Steve Harris, Boris Kodjoe, Victoria Rowell and Keith David will present.

Closing out the show will be the Queen of Soul, who will also sing with the Spelman and Morehouse glee clubs.

“This has been a wonderful experience for me and everyone involved,” Green said. “I have an immense amount of respect for his journey.”

Rehearsals mostly featured students from Spelman, Morehouse and CAU who are in the show.

“The key to it is to rehearse in segments, so you know where your beginnings and endings are,” Green said.

Helping him get it together is Jasmine Guy, who recently directed a sold-out run of the choreopoem “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf,” for the True Colors Theatre Company. She is directing the trilogy portion of the performance.

“Having grown up here, around the corner from Lowery Boulevard — when it was Ashby Street — and now being able to create with these young people is a blessing,” Guy said. “It is a blessing that Dr. Lowery is still with us to share this.”

Guy’s section will look at three key moments in Lowery’s life: The New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, when Lowery was sued for defamation by Montgomery Commissioner L. B. Sullivan over an ad that ran in the newspaper; a civil rights march where the windows of Lowery’s wife’s car were shot out by members of the Ku Klux Klan; and Lowery’s confrontation with Wallace at the conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery March.

“I love the fact that we are helping to celebrate someone who has made a great impact on all of our lives,” said Kenesha Reed, a 19-year-old Spelman student who plays a protester in the Sullivan case part of the show.

The beat of marching state troopers echo through King Chapel. Guy directs Hassan El-Amin, a professional actor who is portraying Lowery, and four students, who are playing the roles as the troopers, who tried to block his way into the Alabama state capitol to see Wallace. Lowery would later describe the moment when the troopers let him in as “the parting of a blue sea.”

The troopers part on Guy’s direction. El-Amin walks through them and recites the speech that Lowery gave Wallace that day.

“I am not trying to mimic him,” said El-Amin, who has never met Lowery, but has talked to him about his life on the phone. “I am trying to recreate what happened. I want to make sure it is true and I am getting it directly from the man himself.”

Tribute to Lowery

Event will be held at 6:30 p.m., Sunday in King Chapel at Morehouse College, and will conclude a week’s worth of programming by the Lowery Institute. To purchase tickets for the Sunday event or to find out more information go to www.loweryinstitute.org. Tickets will also be available at the door.