VALDOSTA — Valdosta State University Women’s and Gender Studies Program presents a 60-minute, monologue production of “Your Negro Tour Guide” Monday night.

Featuring actor Tori Wiggins and writer Kathy Y. Wilson, this production is based on Wilson’s long-running “Your Negro Tour Guide” column in the Cincinnati CityBeat. Wilson has also published a book of the same name collecting these columns.

“The show deconstructs and lampoons gender, race, class, and sexuality in America,” notes Dr. Tracy Woodward Meyers, a VSU sociology professor and director of Women’s and Gender Studies Program. The show is part of the program’s third annual lecture series.

Through slides, music and lighting, the production demonstrates what The Cincinnati Inquirer described as Wilson’s opinion, attitude, and her willingness to share both. In the show, Wiggins channels Wilson’s written persona on stage in a one-woman show.

A City Beat review of the show, whose writer had been a colleague of Wilson’s, notes of her, “She’s loud and sassy when you’re within earshot, and she’s thought-provoking, even incendiary, on the page. Her rants in CityBeat between 2000 and 2006 attracted and irritated readers.”

Of the show, CityBeat’s Rick Pender wrote, “Wiggins not only captures the joy and sorrow of Wilson’s words, she re-creates some of the personas that Wilson used, like a fast-talking woman demanding a hair-weave-and-nails makeover in 30 minutes or another who explains the mindset behind ‘talking black to the screen’ at movie theaters.”

A chance to discuss the show with both the actor and writer are scheduled as well as a book signing, following the performance.



• SHOWTIME

VSU Women’s and Gender Studies presents Kathy

Y. Wilson’s ‘Your Negro Tour Guide.’

When: 7:30 p.m. Monday.

Where: Room 1011, Bailey Science Center auditorium.

Admission: Free.

More information: Call 293-6307.