Aloha Performing Arts Company

APAC will offer a free Readers Theatre event, open to the public, Saturday, November 3, at 2:30 p.m. at the Aloha Theatre in Kainaliu. "Having Our Say, the Delany Sisters' First 100 Years" is a drama by Emily Mann, based on the nonfiction novel of the same name by Sarah L. and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth, based on the lives of Sadie and Bessie Delany.

The daughters of a minister born in slavery and a brilliant woman of mixed ancestry, the story of the Delany sisters begins in Reconstruction and progresses through the rise of Jim Crow, two world wars, the triumphs of black culture during the Harlem Rennaissance, the civil and women's rights movements, up to the present. The show opens as 103-year-old Sadie and 101-year-old Bessie welcome us into their Mount Vernon, New York home. They take us on a remarkable journey through the last hundred years of our nation's history, recounting a fascinating series of events and anecdotes drawn from their rich family history and careers as pioneering African-American professionals. Their story is not simply African-American history or women's history. It is our history, told through the eyes of two unforgettable women as they look not only into the past, but also ahead into the twenty-first century.

APAC's presentation, offered as a staged reading, with scripts in hand, features Mary Messer and Virginia Halliday. It is directed by Jerry Tracy, assisted by Lee Vinson and Robin O'Hara. Admission is free, and donations will be gratefully accepted to help offset production costs. For more information, call the APAC office at 322-9924.