There will be a Phi Theta Kappa Blood Drive on the Bay Minette Campus on February 8, 2012 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.  The Drive will be held in the Fort Cruse Log Cabin.  For information, call 251-580-2106.

This year’s Black History Month Program features award-winning Dr. Billie Jean Young as Fannie Lou Hamer…

Dr. Billie Jean Young will bring Fannie Lou Hamer alive once again during Faulkner State’s Annual Black History Month Program, scheduled for February 23, 2012 at 7:00 P.M. at the L. D. Owen Performing Arts Center on the Bay Minette Campus.  Billie Jean Young has been keeping the history of the Civil Rights Movement current for more than a quarter century with her powerful one-woman show, Fannie Lou Hamer:  This Little Light… Young has traveled the world for nearly twenty-nine years telling the story of the fearless Mississippi freedom fighter. Dr. Young’s performance is a introduction to the powerful Mississippi sharecropper named Fannie Lou Hamer. This Little Light evokes memories of the Sixties for those who lived it and introduces the era to youth of all ages.  Admission is free for this dramatic and musical event, and the public is invited to attend.

The multi-talented Billie Jean Young is Associate Professor of Fine and Performing Arts and theatre artist-in residence at Judson College, from which she was graduated in 1974.  A published author of three books, Fear Not the Fall, New South Books; Now How You Do? A Memoir; and Family Secrets, both published by Westry Wingate Press. Young is a poet, playwright and chronicler of both Blackbelt history and Black History. She earned a Juris Doctorate from Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law, and she is a playwright and director of theatre as well. Young is a history-maker in her own right – having been featured in the 20ll AT&T sponsored Alabama African American history calendar (http://www.alafricanamerican.com/) which is produced in partnership with the Alabama State Department of Education. Her book, Fear Not the Fall is a supplement to the Social Studies curriculum for grades 4-12 in Alabama public schools. The Girl Scouts of West Central Alabama in Tuscaloosa named Dr. Young a Woman of Distinction in 2011.

The New York Amsterdam News characterized Billie Jean Young’s performance in This Little Light at New York’s National Black Theater as “nothing short of phenomenal” and Debbie Bouton’s writing in Ruralamerica described the one-woman show as “dramatic and awesomely powerful.”  Fannie Lou Hamer’s best friend, the late Annelle Ponder, said upon witnessing Young’s first performance in Mississippi in 1983: “Watching Billie Jean, I thought there for a while Fannie Lou had come back to us.” Young has received numerous awards for her portrayal of the former sharecropping woman, notable among them the Mississippi Governor’s Award for Artistic Achievement, the MacArthur Fellows ‘genius’ award, and the Congressional Black Caucus’ On the Road to Freedom Award.

For more information on this event, contact Faulkner State Community College at 251-580-2106.

Information above provided by Dr. Billie Jean Young.