This month for WCLK's The Local Take(Saturdays 8am), I've reached out to outstanding women for Women's History Month. If you want to tell us about an outstanding woman in your life, please go to The Local Take With Kiplyn Primus Facebook page and share or call our community engagement line at 404-880-6211. We'll be talking with and about women all month, and it would be great to include your favorite woman!
Dr. Janice Liddell is a former educator. I ask her to tell us a bit about that part of her life. She speaks about descending from a family of educators. The decision to be a teacher was almost a given. She realized teaching grade school was not for her and started her career as a college professor at what was then Clark College I ask her about former standout students, and she mentions Fulton County Sherriff Patrick Labatt and Dr. Daniel Black.
Liddell is also an author, and she speaks about being a life-long reader. A friend challenged her to write a play for a Horizon Theatre contest. Her first play was well-received. She won the contest. She continued as a playwright, and her award-winning play Who Will Sing for Lena became a sensation. I ask Liddell how she learned about Lena Baker and why this story resonated. She speaks about Lena Baker being a woman in rural Georgia who didn't have a voice. Lena Baker is the only woman in Georgia history to be executed. Her crime was self-defense. She killed the man who raped her.
Dr. Liddell has been invited to represent the United States at the Mondial du Theatre 2021 International Theatre Festival in Monaco. Liddell explains that she was surprised to learn her play is the only production from the United States included in the Festival. The Lexington Players Theatre Company (TLP) is raising funds to make the trip. They are producing a virtual performance in conjunction with the Atlanta Black Theatre Festival.
Liddell shares that women in a certain age bracket still have so much to offer.
For more information about Who Will Sing for Lena Baker
For more information on Dr. Janice Liddell
