Contact:
Elizabeth Blevins, Director, Office of Communications
Office: (740) 351-3810; FAX: (740) 351-3179; Cell: (740) 464-4854
940 Second Street – Portsmouth, Ohio 45662
E-mail: eblevins@shawnee.edu 
Web site: www.shawnee.edu

            To celebrate Black History Month, Dianne Oyama Dixon will perform “Claim the Dream,” a one-woman drama at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 10 at the Main Theater of Shawnee State University’s Vern Riffe Center for the Arts.
            “Claim the Dream” is a chronology of noted female black leaders including depictions of slaves, Harriet Tubman’s underground railroad, Mary McLeod Bethune’s last will and testimony, Rosa Park’s bus ride, Sojourner Truth’s Ain’t I a Woman?” and Mary Church Terrell’s right-to-vote speech.
            Dixon is an accomplished actress and graduate of the Stephens College of Theater/Dance. She is a native of Nashville, Tenn. And she has performed in numerous film and TV shows including “The Cradle Will Fall,” “As the World Turns,” “A Piece of the Action” and “Good times,” among others.
            Her stage experience on both the east and west coasts include the New York Shakespeare Festival, Lincoln Center, Los Angeles Actor’s Theater and the Ebony Theater. Dixon also toured performing the one-woman show “Sister Can I Speak for You.”
            She is also author of “Ladies, Your Place Please” which appeared at Nashville’s Circle Theater. She has produced, directed, written and performed in hundreds of television and radio commercials that have aired in all markets and internationally.
            The event is sponsored by the SSU Student Programming Board and Multicultural Student Affairs.
            Another event to celebrate Black History Month is a Gospel Fest presented from 6 to 9 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 21 in Clark Memorial Library’s Flohr Lecture Hall. The fest is sponsored by AHANA (African American, Hispanic, Asian and Native American) club at SSU.
            Both events are free and open to the public.