Greensboro Library Sponsors Play About Native American Issues

The Greensboro Public Library is celebrating Native American author Tommy Orange during the One City, One Book community read this year. As part of the One City, One Book programming the Library is presenting a play by local playwright Patsy Hawkins. The Dragonflies’ Daughters is free and open to the public at 2:30 pm, Sunday, December 5 at the Greensboro History Museum, 130 Summit Ave. Registration is required by emailing Ronald Headen or calling 336-412-6199.

The play takes place in 2007 at a family’s beach house in Cape San Blas, Florida. Aderine and Sethalene have traveled there to settle the affairs of their late mother. The sisters discover that the house has been left to someone neither of them know, Naomi Locklear, a Lumbee Indian from Pembroke, NC. Ultimately, the sisters are faced with reassessing their past relationships with the woman they knew as Mother.

With a large concentration of Lumbee Indians, Robeson County encompasses a region and a people that many southerners know little about. This play provides a window into the racial issues that the Lumbee have faced both in the past and present. The Dragonflies’ Daughters is a story that encompasses the universal need for forgiveness and acceptance and the magnificent ability of the human spirit to rise to that challenge.

The playwright, Patsy Hawkins, graduated from East Carolina College (University) in 1966 with a degree in English. She has taught high school English, GED classes, and theatre classes. Patsy is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Indians of Robeson County, NC.

Celebrating Greensboro’s rich literary heritage, the Greensboro Public Library, along with the Greensboro Public Library Foundation and a host of community partners, sponsors the One City, One Book community read every other year. The Dragonflies’ Daughters is free and open to the public. For more information about Library events and resources visit: www.greensborolibrary.org. 

Photo: Brenda Tarlton: Native American Model Chasity Lowery, (Lumbee Tribe of NC)