The North Central Louisiana Arts Council will present Crowns, a production by Shreveport-based Mahogany Ensemble Theatre in a musical tribute to the faith and fashion of African-American women and their church hats.
The play is set for 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Dixie Center for the Arts in Ruston.
Tickets are available at the Dixie Theater, 212 N. Vienna St., or Martha’s, 212 N. Trenton St., or call 255-1450.
Adult tickets are $7 in advance and $10 at the door. Tickets for seniors over the age of 62, students and children are $5.
Performed by Shreveport’s emerging African-American theater group, this musical focuses on lives of women as it celebrates family, faith, loss, and finding one’s true identity.
For more information, see www.dixiecenter.org/NCLAC.html#Crowns.
In conjunction with Crowns, NCLAC and the Lincoln Parish Library is presenting Our Hats: Our Crowns, an exhibition of women’s historic and contemporary church hats on display until Nov. 21 at the Library on Trenton Street.
The exhibition, curated by Dr. Susan Roach, folklorist for the Regional Folklife Program at Louisiana Tech, presents 57 hats from the community (also online at www.latech.edu/tech/rural/folklife/index).
"Wearing hats for church on Sunday morning is an important tradition that reaches back into the 1800s,” Roach said. “Most of us in the South grew up in churches where hats were worn, although the tradition is less strong today."
The library is also hosting two free two-hour hat-making workshops. A workshop for children is scheduled for 4 p.m. today, and one for teens will be held at 4 p.m. Friday.
No registration is required for the workshops, and materials and refreshments will be provided.
The projects are supported by grants from the Louisiana State Arts Council through the Louisiana Division of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts and the Shreveport Regional Arts Council.
NCLAC is a regional umbrella arts agency serving Lincoln, Jackson, Claiborne, Union and Bienville parishes.
Our Hats: Our Crowns is open to the public during normal library hours: Monday – Thursday, 9 a.m.- 8 p.m.; Friday – Saturday, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.; and Sunday evening: 1 – 5 p.m. There is no charge for viewing the exhibit.