My apologies in advance for anyone offended by this submitted rant to the editor. I hope this will promote inquisitive dialogue and old fashioned research, not increase bitter partisan social-politics. I hope this recent kerfuffle will give us pause on why we must come together, now more than ever, to deliberate over the facts of this case without vinegary emotions and wound-opening animosities.
As the curator of the Leo Frank Flickr Gallery and resident of Atlanta, I present this public communication to illustrate the increasingly contentious nature over this hotly contested true crime cold case which refuses to get dusty, between Leo Frank’s apostolic advocates, versus his modern-day POC and #metoo opponents–in the high hopes of inspiring students and scholars, alike, to calm and productive dialogue– not angry tirades or accusations of ethnoreligious bigotry (Antisemitism or Antigentilism).
Black Lives Matter and Students of Colour recently launched an organized protest against Point Park University and its chancellor Paul Hennigan, regarding what the protestors believe is a "racist, white-privilege, anti-POC and Jewish supremacist theatrical play", titled, "Parade the Leo Frank Musical". The genealogy of the stage drama, originated on Broadway in central Manhattan, New York City, circa 1998 (December of that year?). And it continues to raise eyebrows and ruffle feathers a generation later.
The question I get asked most often is this: What is "Parade" the Leo Frank Broadway Musical?
The script’s theme harkens back to an early twentieth century, Greek tragedy love story, of an out-of-place mundane business accountant in the dramatis persona of a Brooklynite Yankee Jew transplant, who moves to Atlanta, Georgia, so he can operationally manage his uncle Moe’s pencil manufacturing facility (a typical assemblage business back then, but what we might call a sweatshop today). As an aside, this industrial concern called ‘The National Pencil Company’ was actually founded in April of 1908, in real life to give it tactile context, before being sold to a stationery manufacturing company in 1916, as a rebranding effort, due to the deleterious stigma of the child rape-murder scandal having occurred there thrice years antecedent.
The protagonist Mr. Frank in an arranged marriage gets married to a Southern Jewish Belle of Patrician stock, Lucille Selig, (in real life they married at their in-law’s home in November 1910) but their relationship is cool and at times estranged. Leo M. Frank as a superintendent of the said industrial factory is caught in a maelstrom of contestation because one of his child laborers is slain in his factory and he is railroaded for the crime in a tumultuous kangaroo court. After the defendant is convicted, sentenced by the presiding judge to capital punishment by the then-common method of hanging. A plot twist materializes at the 11th-hour, surprisingly Frank is given a measure of clemency to escape the gallows by the outgoing governor (John Slaton), but he must spend life in prison in exchange for his lethality. So the protagonist is incarcerated, and eventually, he is kidnapped and lynched by a mob of flag-waving yahoos, but before being abducted and assassinated, he slowly falls in love again with his wife, who stoically supported him through his tribulations, trial, and imprisonment. Music and song throughout weave it all together in a stellar performance. This, in a nutshell, are the theatrics of this tear-jerker dramaturgy.
Black Lives Matter Activists at PPU
The organized PPU student-protestors see this compelling tale (which was primarily written and produced by two Jewish activists, Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry, using ethnocentric creative-license) as odiously rehabilitating a bona fide White racist degenerate and killer-pedophile, who tried to frame innocent American Blacks (Newt Lee and James Conley) for his own sexual assault and sadistic homicide of a little girl, one who was barely a teenager. She was in real life, by all local accounts, a sweet, good-natured, 13-year-old child named Mary Anne Phagan from an impoverished family.
PPU student protest alliance forms
The PPU student-protestors believe, like many others familiar with the notorious scandal, that SHE is the real victim of this particular affair, not HE, who was duly convicted and lawfully sentenced to hang for the sex murder in 1913. Frank’s 1915 commutation and 1986 pardon is seen as an exemplification of White privilege by Black Lives Matter and students of colour, because the convicted strangler-pedophile was given a measure of clemency by a governor who formed a lucrative law partnership with Leo Frank’s criminal defense attorneys in May of 1913.
There are many people, now more than ever before, who feel very passionately about this hot-button subject concerning Leo Frank’s innocence or guilt. Many Jews familiar with the historical narrative believe the real perpetrator was actually Jim Conley, a black roustabout who worked at the factory for 2 years. In contradicting affidavits, Conley said he helped his boss move the body after the sex-murder from the scene of the crime from the office and manufacturing level, down to two levels to the basement, in an effort to help throw off the police dogs. Jewish scholars, journalists, researchers, law professors and historians in consensus presuppose Conley helped the Atlanta police and then-district attorney Hugh Dorsey to anti-semitically frame Leo Frank.
Sexual abuse against both the female and male gender has forever been culturally secretive in hushed tones, until the late 20th and 21st century, when the dispelling of this taboo, caused survivors of forced intimate molestation, to bring this endemic problem fully out into the open in a prolific manner called the #MeToo movement.
What we need is more discourse between fair-minded arbiters, who can control their personal feelings and look at the case’s legal files without pre-determined positions, moreover, without tribal agendas and without goals of convincing people into presupposed belief systems about Leo Frank’s guilt or innocence. Conclusions should come last, not first. People should try to review the Phagan murder investigation, with new eyes, and without pre-conceived beliefs. Let a fresh review of the evidence decide now that all the legal records of the case have been published on the Internet in 2019/2020.
Viewer discretion is advised. The BLM (Black Lives Matter) and BDS movement are very controversial in America, so much so that the U.S. Congress and numerous state congresses have passed legal bills against the anti-Israel humanist cause of boycotts, divestment, and sanctions. In some conjunctions, pundits and politicians are suggesting without always using direct language that Black Lives Matter is an anti-Semitic terrorist group. BLM and BDS have seemed to have formed an unholy alliance, albeit a loose one.
Moreover, those "chilling" anti-BDS laws once ratified have been challenged in various courts, and most if not all of those pro-censorship laws have been struck down when challenged with litigation, resulting in judges ruling such laws to be clearly unconstitutional. ~End of Leo Frank museum and gallery curator commentary.]
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An Open Letter to Paul Hennigan President of Point Park University,
This open letter is in response to your guest column in the Pittsburg Jewish Chronicle newspaper, April 8th, 2020, concerning the article titled, "Anti-Semitism in all forms, including BDS, has no place at Point Park". The link to this original article is provided in the footer-section.
Dear Paul Hennigan,
As the president of Point Park University, you have an obligation to rise above the identarianism and politically correct fads of the day for grander and more universal truths that the real purpose of college is not to be a segregated safe-space, where students are mollycoddled, but a place where all of our preconceived notions, biases, and basic assumptions are to forever be challenged–that is, if we are to evolve upward and self-actualize as individual students among our species of the human family.
Your petty partisan politics and taking sides with the ethnic-religious group of Jews over non-Jews, men over women, and people of European descent over POC, whether they be White, Black, or every shade in between, is lowbrow and unbecoming of a University president. Have you no self-reflection? Have you no introspection? Have you no understanding that as a president of an institution of higher learning, you are to promote coming together for dialogue, not censorship, and thus rising above such intersectional divisions? White men of the Jewish faith should not be regarded as a protected overclass, with everyone else, women, girls, POC, and others treated as beneath them. Shame on you, Paul Hennigan! It’s time that you step down as president of Point Park University, you are clearly unfit for the position. Do the right thing and step down!
Leo Frank, Innocent or Guilty?
Who are you to say Leo Frank was wrongfully accused when you didn’t even read the official trial and appeals records? Just because a fictional drama written by White men who are of Jewish descent, decide to make their co-gender and co-religionist Leo Frank innocent, doesn’t mean he was in real life. Soap-operas on stage, based on creative-license, seldom align with reality when they pertain to complex legal cases. Stage dramas seldom dictate reality.
In courts of law, facts and testimony are supposed to come before conclusions, but in your reactionary one-sided world view, apparently, conclusions come first and forget about sifting the evidence. As president of a university, it is your duty to promote that students seek facts over fashions of the day, not the prejudice and passion of our White and Jewish overlords. You did just that when you stated in your article to the Jewish Chronicle that Leo Frank was essentially framed. In saying that you are perpetuating systemic racism and doing it by hiding behind Judaism as your sword and shield.
You sided with an effete libertine who wailed his fists into the face of a 4’11" tall kid who refused to submit her virtue this grown man, not to mention he was married. Mary Phagan might be a cheap plot device to you in the production of "Parade the Leo Frank Broadway Musical", but in real life, she was a real-life person who toiled her youth away in a dingy sweatshop and died violently after being sodomized by a habitual pervert and fiend name Leo Max Frank, Leo M. Frank or just Leo Frank if you prefer brevity. Why is no one allowed to think Leo Frank is guilty without being falsely accused of being anti-Semitic? This atrocious behavior by White privilege supremacists of Jewish faith equating anti-Semitism with criticism of Jews and Israel must be smashed. The so-called White liberal allies are also part of this problem too for enabling this quackery.
The Child #MeToo
She never got to experience a full life, she was lost in the early spring of her potential life span. Paul, that cheap plot device and throw away detail of the play could have been your Mother, your wife, your daughter, your sister, your friend, or any other close relation to you, but in your dismissive mind, she is never once mentioned in your article, as if her existence was never actually physical. Well guess what? She’s not a throw-away detail or cheap plot device any more, we are taking up the Leo Frank case as a major issue of Black Lives Matter. And where ever this White Jewish supremacist play shows up, we will be handing out the NOI book, "Secret Relationship Between Jews and Blacks, Vol. 3, The Leo Frank Trial, The Lynching of a Guilty Pedophile-Rapist".
Your problem is one we see in the comment sections on YouTube and online newspapers, people make judgments without knowing the background history of the case. People seldom do their own independent research, they be relying on pseudo-scholar academics who repeat their fellow academic activists, for the controlled "orthodox" White or Jewish narrative. People often believe the controlled narrative, because who has time to read the many hundreds of pages that the legal documents number, but in this case, the perceived narrative in academia about the Leo Frank case is wrong, when in fact the appeals courts got it right.
We need university presidents who will rise above their own religious (Jewish), gender (Male), and racial (White) biases in search of leaders who embody impartiality when it comes to reviewing evidence, testimony, exhibits, paradigms, and structures. Paul Hennigan, Step Down. It’s time for you to find a new career instead of prostrating yourself to the systemically racist system of White Gentile supremacy and White Jewish supremacy.
Anti-Semitism the Nu Bully Race-Card
You failed miserably to be impartial when you played the race card invoking anti-Semitism (Racistly Weaponizing it) when it is totally uncalled for. You put Whiteness, Maleness, and Jewishness first, and threw POC., Women, and Gentiles (like Black and Tan folks) under the bus. You chose the side which had enormous financial resources and they still could not subvert the jury system in 1913 and appeals courts up until 1915. In fact even in 1986, when Leo Frank was posthumously pardoned, he was NOT officially exonerated of his conviction for the Mary Phagan sodomy/slaying. You chose the rich and privileged over the poor and struggling. Shame on YOU! You are a wicked man, Paul Hennigan!
The lynching of thirty-one-year-old Leo Frank on August 17, 1915, was a heinous vigilante crime and extrajudicial assassination, but it does not make him innocent of the aggravated assault, sodomy, and strangulation-slaying of that thirteen-year-old little girl. The one Frank tried to put the crime on two different Black men who had no part in that rape-killing.
It’s sad that something like that needs to even be said to an adult such as yourself. When inmates are killed while under incarceration it does not backdate the concocted nullity of their jury verdicts. You would think this understanding would be basic logic and common sense for a man in your position.
Leo Frank being kidnapped from the Milledgeville penitentiary and lynched near the border-zone of Marietta & Atlanta, does not overturn his jury verdict. No inmate killed in prison, or ex-con killed after they serve their time, gets their conviction overturned without compelling evidence to their innocense. As of today, no evidence has come forward to exonerate Leo Franks. And it doesn’t matter how many Leo Frank’s pseudo-historian activists write books, about his innocence through the academic tools of phonying-up history, using fake news in the press and mainstream media, "scholarly" cherry-picking or forging parts of the trial transcripts. He still is a guilty man. The Georgia supreme court in 1914, when the full events were fresh in their minds, ruled the evidence, testimony and exhibits presented during his days in court sustained his guilt–that’s not something you Frankies want to be made known to the public, but it is an incontrovertible fact. Stop SUPPRESSING IT!
Maybe it’s time you stop groveling and pitting one group of people against others (weaponizing anti-Semitism), to take the time for actually reading the Leo Frank Georgia Supreme Court records. Ya, Think?
When serial pedophiles-rapists are murdered as they are often when serving life in prison, it does not retroactively reverse their convictions. It doesn’t make their own murder justice either. Murder is murder, even if some people think it might be poetic justice. Many people think Leo Frank’s lynching was poetic justice because he died being strangled to death, in a similar way that he strangled Mary Phagan to death, but murder is never justice. Murder is murder.
When homicidal pedophiles are murdered in cold blood during the serving of their life sentences it does not posthumously acquit the convict, were you aware of that? Tell your handlers Paul Hennigan. Let them know.
We ask you this question because there are many people who seem to believe otherwise. Leo Frank’s defenders sometimes give the impression they believe Leo Frank was innocent because he was hanged by a vigilante mob. That’s not how innocense works.
Frank Almost Framed & Got Lynched Two Innocent Negroes (Conley who helped the po-po to cinch the case)
Moreover, Leo Frank is one of the worst kinds of deadly child molesters, because he tried to frame, not one, but two African American employees of his for the ghoulish rape and asphyxiation he had done. And we know for sure, Newt Lee the African American nightwatchman was incontrovertibly innocent (neither of Leo Frank’s enthusiasts or detractors believes in Newt Lee is guilty, today, or do they?).
James "Jimbo" Conley
Jim Conley, on the other hand, confessed to being an accessory-after-the-fact, who helped remove the dead body of Mary Phagan from the machine-department’s toilets, the ones located at the rear section in the second floor of National Pencil Company’s building, down to a catacomb-like basement, two floors below. He described those events in detail to the jury on August 4, 5, and 6 of 1913. The way he described thing had a ring of truth, especially in light of Leo Frank’s trial statement to the jury on August 18, 1913, about his "UNCONSCIOUS" visit to the male toilets in the rear of the second floor to account for why Monteen Stover found his business office vacant.
COME ON, Think about that for a minute, Jim Conley said he found Mary Phagan dead near the toilets in the metal room, on August 4, 5, and 6th of 1913, and Leo Frank sustained that by saying he had gone to those toilets at the time he told police he was alone with Mary Phagan in his office. I gave you a distilled overview of that circumstantial evidence, but its up to you now to learn why it was significant at the Mary Phagan trial where Leo Frank was the defendant.
On BDS, Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions
Only in tyrannical authoritarian countries do people get chastised with threats or punished harshly for criticizing their governments and its leadership, or the government’s allies (in this sense it’s Israel). By trying to equate criticism and economic boycott of Israel for its longstanding civil rights violations, with accusations of anti-Jewish racism or bigotry (anti-Semitism) is disgusting. BDS is not anti-Semitic, in the same way, fighting against Apartheid is not anti-White. And that counts no matter how much BDS is misrepresented by supporters of Israel. Palestinians are Semites too, not just the Israeli’s.
Is fighting for human and civil rights anti-Semitic for Palestinians when Palestinians themselves are Semitic? You use the term anti-Semitic as a misnomer and as a word to bully people who seek out a peaceful two-state solution with respect to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Shame on you Paul Hennigan for taking the side of the White Supremacist colonial regime in Israel, at least you could try to be balanced and give the other side a voice too.
Absolutely NO government or political body on this planet that we call home, live on and share with each other–in the past, present or future–is above criticism and protest for its injustices. Freedom to protest, speak out and boycott is the very hallmark of the first amendment, which all Americans have a right to that freedom of speech and peacefully protesting with their mouths and wallets. People have a first amendment right to promote boycotting Israel because of its war crimes, segregational practices, and Jim crow racist laws.
Anti-BDS laws are being struck down in courts all over America as being unconstitutional. I think your letter should right now inspire us to double down and press even harder to have every single example of anti-BDS laws struck down in the USA. Paul, You can take that to the bank and cash it.
Paul, Perhaps you need a friendly reminder. Here is how Ivy League Cornell Law School describes the First Amendment:
"The First Amendment guarantees freedoms concerning religion, expression, assembly, and the right to petition. It forbids Congress from both promoting one religion over others and also restricting an individual’s religious practices. It guarantees freedom of expression by prohibiting Congress from restricting the press or the rights of individuals to speak freely. It also guarantees the right of citizens to assemble peaceably and to petition their government."
Source: www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment
FOR you to use the scare-word, vis-a-vis anti-Semitism as a pejorative, to cover up for the Israeli government’s racism, xenophobia, extremist ethnonationalism, racial discrimination, Jim crow housing laws, ethnic segregation, religious bigotry, anti-Arab prejudice, anti-Palestinian identitarianism, sectarianism, and crimes against humanity directed at Palestinians is grotesque. You obviously have zero self-reflection or introspection skills if you think promoting the boycott of Israel over these human and civil rights abuses is anti-Semitism. What you call anti-Semitism we call #WhitePrivilege.
The controversial topics listed above about the Israel-Palestine conflict are not so controversial, since they are very well documented and there are hundreds of scholarly academic books on these subjects, 10s of thousands of images and videos to back up these statements of Israel’s inhumane abuses over the last 72 years. Shame on you Paul, for defending the racist side of that conflict.
It doesn’t get much publicity, but the UN has passed many dozens of international resolutions against Israel for the above list of its actions cited broadly. Wikipedia is an excellent entry point, but not the last word on the matter. If you would like to begin with an introductory lesson about these socio-political topics in detail, which are in the hundreds of pages of reading material, to start, go to Wikipedia. The whole world uses it as a starting point to learn about the Israel-Palestine conflict. As an administrator on Wikipedia, I can tell you these articles have millions of page views combined since their inception.
As the president of Point Park University, your job is to promote open dialogue about the Palestinian-Israel conflict, not try to scare one side into being silent with your odious insinuations, defamatory rhetoric, and false accusations of anti-Semitism conflated with those who wish to speak out against Israel and sanction it economically for its inexcusable violations of the Geneva convention.
You clearly do not have the temperament to be a president of a university if you are siding with a pariah which thumbs its nose at international law, and the global community of 193 nation-states, regarding ethnic cleansing and racial persecution, through collective punishment against Palestinians. #BlackLivesMatter from Gaza to the West Bank to New York to LA.
As the president of Point Park University, you should be promoting freedom of speech, and the right of people to challenge basic assumptions or preconceived notions, not siding with the war criminals in Israel’s government and military. The boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement have every right to criticize and promote economic preference toward or against the government of Israel for its 72 years pattern of committing mass murder, collective punishment and human rights violations in the extreme against the Palestinian people.
We are also stating this does not give Palestinian terrorism a free pass either. Terrorists should be dealt with harshly, but when Palestinian terrorists killed 6 Israeli’s they responded by murdering 3000 Palestinian civilians, the majority of whom were civilian women and children. That’s an example of collective punishment and it is a violation of the Geneva convention. People have a right to protest against such military abuses, and the make the decision to boycott Israel over it. You don’t control our wallets and the African-American economy is $1 trillion dollars.
Misrepresenting the BDS movement and it’s goals of promoting a two-state solution, is something very commonly orchestrated by those who are apologists and enablers for Israel’s crimes against humanity. Falsely conflating the BDS movement with anti-Semitism does not make the BDS movement anti-Semitic. No matter how numerous false statements and fake news are made about BDS.
In fact, there is a very sizeable portion of American Jews who are members of BDS, and the whole point of BDS is not to end Israel, but to mend Israel, and to achieve a viable two-state solution with the Greenline as the border, not the one-state solution the present right-wing identarian government of Israel is slowly creating. News flash, the United Nations recognizes the borders of Israel as within its own 1967 Greenline and the State of Palestine as within its own 1967 Greenline. That’s not controversial, it’s based on international law, and the United States and Israel ratified themselves as members of the United Nations and to respect International Law.
The Leo Frank Case
Paul Hennigan, You stated inside your article, "wrongly accused Jewish man, Leo Frank, in Georgia in 1915".
Leo Frank was not wrongly accused in 1913. You are not a jury or judge, especially since you didn’t even bother to read the trial transcript published in the newspapers or the brief of evidence published in the Georgia supreme court files.
You are most certainly not the Supreme Court of Georgia, which stated emphatically the evidence at the Mary Phagan murder trial sustained Leo Frank’s guilt and that he had a fair trial. You are not the US Supreme Court which in both majority and unanimous decisions which decided against Leo Frank’s frivolous appeals.
Can’t we have more than one side, to this case? You are just one man, who is taking sides with Jewish activist talking points, without actually reading the Leo Frank trial brief of evidence. We need an open forum to study the true crime nature of the case in the daily papers, and dry leaves of the musty trial transcript from the Georgia public records office.
Shame on you for your religious partisan bigotry and ethnic biases, without even reading the primary sources of the trial. You are allowed to have an opinion, but shouldn’t you at least have a basic understanding of the courtroom proceedings that took place between July 28th and August 26th, 1913 ?
As the president of Point Park University, you should actually read the 1913 Leo Frank trial brief of evidence and appeals records (1913, 1914, 1915) before making such uninformed statements. It’s un-academic, and un-scholarly, to make such statements when you, in fact, never read the legal transcripts which were transcribed and published in the newspaper accounts from Atlanta Georgia in late July through late August in 1913. The questions and answers of the trial are in the Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta Georgia and Atlanta Journal in their following daily newspaper columns in those papers.
Making such statements that Leo Frank was wrongly accused, is a great injustice and unbecoming a president at an institution of higher learning when you add scary censorship to that and a climate of fear about people being labeled. So before you make potentially false statements about the Leo Frank case, you might want to actually do the summer reading assignment first (reading the trial papers and appeals papers), because it’s obvious you haven’t and you’re embarrassing yourself when double-down on it.
We would like a public debate on the case, please to who ever in the administration will hear the students.
Sincerely, Students of the Leo Frank Case in Partnership with the Students of Point Park University.
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Environmental portrait options for PR and Point magazine.
GUEST COLUMNIST OPINION
Anti-Semitism in all forms, including BDS, has no place at Point Park
PPU President argues university’s point of view
By PAUL HENNIGAN
April 8, 2020,
As we all have been focused on the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has upended our lives, I wish everyone in our community good health and safety. Also, I want to ask for your attention on another very important matter, which is anti-Semitism and groups such as the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.
I have listened to several conversations over the last few weeks that have highlighted concerns from the Jewish community in Pittsburgh regarding Point Park University, anti-Semitism and the BDS movement.
As the president of Point Park University, I want to assure the Jewish community that at every level of the university and across the university campus it is understood that any form of discrimination or hatred is not tolerated. All forms of anti-Semitism, which includes support for the BDS movement, generally defined as Palestinian-led campaign promoting various forms of boycott against Israel, has no place at Point Park University.
Recently, I was able to have meaningful discussions and an exchange of ideas with Jeff Finkelstein and Josh Sayles from the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, Jim Busis, CEO and publisher of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, as well as other prominent members of the Jewish community. Point Park is continuing these outreach efforts with representatives of the local and national Jewish community, as well as with Chabad and Hillel Jewish University Center in Pittsburgh.
In discussions with Jeff and Josh, I understand that my decision to postpone Point Park’s production of the important work “Parade” needs to be more publicly addressed. As many of your readers know, “Parade” is the award-winning musical about the trials and lynching of a wrongly accused Jewish man, Leo Frank, in Georgia in 1915. It was to be directed by Tony- and Emmy-winning director choreographer Rob Ashford.
I made the difficult decision to postpone “Parade” because, in my judgment, proper educational and university community resources were not in place to support this important piece of work. In no way did I intend to signal to the community that the production was canceled or that the Jewish story could not be told at Point Park. Point Park is fully committed to presenting “Parade” and fully supports its importance to social awareness and societal change. This experience has provided us a broader opportunity to take a holistic approach at how each conservatory program can be a teachable moment and opportunity for engagement and understanding around social and civic issues expressed through art.
In a similar vein, it has come to our attention that some members of the Jewish community are aware that Dr. Channa Newman — a professor of French and cultural studies and chair of the department of humanities and social sciences — recently filed a lawsuit against Point Park in which it is claimed, among other allegations, that she has been discriminated against and harassed as a result of her age, national origin, race, religion, and sex. Dr. Newman also claims that she has been retaliated against. Because the matter is now in litigation and out of respect for Dr. Newman’s continuing relationship with the university, Point Park must limit any public comment.
This being stated, the University disagrees with the allegations of unlawful conduct raised by Dr. Newman and her attorneys — including their description of how the university and some of its faculty treated Dr. Newman and responded to her concerns. In the administration of its educational programs, activities and employment practices, Point Park is firmly committed to the concept and practice of equal employment opportunity and the pursuit of diversity. As part of this commitment, the university embraces, supports and actively pursues a policy of inclusiveness that recognizes, values and reflects the diversity of the community it serves and the world in which we live.
Going forward, Point Park intends to defend itself against Dr. Newman’s claims. At the same time, she remains, as mentioned, a member of the Point Park community who will be afforded the respect and dignity afforded to all students, faculty, and staff.
In times of crisis, particularly in the aftermath of the Oct. 27, 2018, massacre at the Tree of Life synagogues, Point Park University joined with the Jewish community, WQED and others to foster a dialogue of sensitivity and understanding. It is Point Park University’s continued mission to shine light on challenges, bring understanding to the table and open doors for all. PJC
Paul Hennigan is president of Point Park University.
jewishchronicle.timesofisrael.com/anti-semitism-in-all-fo…
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News Article at Pittsburgh Post Gazette : Student protests lead Point Park to postpone ‘Parade’ musical.
Photo of Sharon Eberson
Sharon Eberson
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
seberson@post-gazette.com
Point Park University announced Wednesday that the student production of “Parade” that was planned for April has been “postponed indefinitely.”
The award-winning musical is about the trials and lynching of a wrongly accused Jewish man, Leo Frank, in Georgia in 1918. It was to be directed by Tony- and Emmy-winning director-choreographer Rob Ashford, a Point Park alumnus (Class of ’83) who was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters in 2010.
Mr. Ashford has been involved in discussions regarding the show throughout the process of making this decision, said Chris Ann Hayes, a Point Park spokeswoman, who added that Ashford is traveling in Asia and unavailable for comment.
“Point Park looks forward to welcoming Rob to campus to engage with the students sometime in the spring,” she said.
Students in Point Park’s Conservatory of Performing Arts theater program have threatened a walkout unless their demands to address racial and gender insensitivity are addressed. Their concerns have already forced the cancellation [of the musical].
Point Park theater students press for greater sensitivity to gender and race
www.post-gazette.com/ae/theater-dance/2019/12/01/Point-Pa…
Conservatory Theatre students, who previously forced the cancellation of the provocative musical “Adding Machine,” took issue with “Parade” because it concludes that the guilty party in the rape and murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan was James Conley, a black janitor and Frank’s main accuser. That conclusion is based on historical research but has never been proven.
There are few minority roles in the musical, which is another point made by the students. The Tony award-winning book for “Parade” was written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Alfred Uhry (“Driving Miss Daisy”), whose great uncle owned the factory where Frank and Phagan worked.
The Point Park students will instead present “Pippin,” which was a 1973 best musical nominee and the 2013 Tony winner as best musical revival.
Paul Hennigan, president of Point Park, said in a statement: “Over the past three weeks, leaders of the Pittsburgh Playhouse at Point Park University and the Conservatory of Performing Arts have held wide-ranging, honest discussions with students, faculty, and staff regarding issues of diversity, inclusion, and equity.
“As we continue our dialogue and work together to enhance the culture at Point Park in a way that will lead to a more inclusive community, we have made the decision to postpone indefinitely our production of the show ‘Parade,’ which was scheduled for April.”
Mr. Hennigan began meeting with students after they made a list of demands following a troubled audition and rehearsal process for “Adding Machine.”
“It is clear to me that our priority as a university must be our students, and we cannot allow a production to move forward that could overshadow our educational and developmental mission,” the statement said. “We also would not be serving the best interests of our loyal patrons or the show ‘Parade,’ a widely acclaimed and important musical that generates robust conversation about social awareness and societal change.”
Point Park’s buzz-worthy new season snags Tony winner Rob Ashford.
www.post-gazette.com/ae/theater-dance/2019/04/30/Rob-Ashf…
Point Park University alumnus Rob Ashford is pictured Tuesday, April 30, 2019, at the Pittsburgh Playhouse in Point Park University. The Tony-winning choreographer announced he will direct Sharon Eberson Point Park’s buzz-worthy new season snags Tony winner, Rob Ashford
After “Adding Machine” was canceled, Conservatory students instead performed a “Reclaiming” cabaret. That show concluded Saturday at the Pittsburgh Playhouse’s Highmark Theatre.
The program was a single page listed the actors’ names with the statement: “We present to you the cast of ‘Adding Machine, the Musical,’ the recently canceled Point Park production. The intention of this cabaret is for the students and all those affected to reclaim the process, narrative, and space. Each student has chosen a piece that uniquely fits their meaning of reclaim.”
The final number was from “Pippin,” assuring that there was still “magic to do.”
Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Twitter: @SEberson_pg. Sign up for the PG performing arts newsletter Behind the Curtain at Newsletter Preferences.
Source: www.post-gazette.com/ae/theater-dance/2019/12/18/Student-…
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Point Park theater students press for greater sensitivity to gender and race
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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Dec 2, 2019, 9:08 AM
Point Park University appears to have averted a walkout by Conservatory of Performing Arts Theatre students, who have made demands of school administrators to combat what they see as institutional racial and gender insensitivity.
A list of demands was sent on Nov. 22 and the walkout had been planned for Monday, if certain short-term demands were not met. University president Paul Hennigan and COPA dean Steven Breese will meet with the students Tuesday night, which was one of the conditions to avoid a walkout.
“Our students have the full support of President Hennigan, and he is looking forward to meeting with them and discussing next steps,” Point Park spokesman Lou Corsaro said. “Both he and Dean Breese are committed to devoting the time and space necessary for this very important conversation.”
Student actors aired their grievances Nov. 21 at a town hall meeting — attended by 200 classmates, staff and faculty — at Point Park’s Pittsburgh Playhouse, Downtown. As a result, a production of “Adding Machine: The Musical,” a show based on a 1923 play and including a raw view of societal racism, was canceled.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Point Park promises to address student concerns over diversity, inclusivity, and equity
Students said they felt unsafe and unheard when they expressed concerns about casting and rehearsal practices, as well as the content. Their subsequent list of demands includes “a time and place set for a Conservatory of the Performing Arts Theatre Department meeting on the discussion surrounding ‘Parade.’ ”
The history-based, Tony Award-winning “Parade” is about the lynching of a Jewish man, Leo Frank, wrongly accused of rape and murder, and presents what is considered to be a likely theory of who committed the crime. It also has very few roles specifically for people of color. “Parade,” scheduled for March, would bring back Point Park alumnus Rob Ashford, a Tony- and Emmy-winning director-choreographer who was in the ensemble of the original Broadway production.
The theater season so far has included a production of “Good Grief,” written by Point Park alum Ngozi Anyanwu, and Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” directed by alumnus Steven Wilson. “Good Grief,” which was first produced off-Broadway, was directed at the university by Reginald L. Douglas of City Theatre,
“Adding Machine: The Musical” was to be directed by Pittsburgh-based Tlaloc Rivas. Tome Cousin, who was to choreograph, has been contacted about helping to put together a cabaret for students who missed out on performing in the production.
Mr. Cousin, a Point Park Distinguished Alumnus who works on productions at both Point Park and Carnegie Mellon University, spoke up at the town hall meeting to give his unique perspective on the school’s history. He is a founder of the Black Student Union, when Point Park was a college and when there were three minority theater students. The school became a university and there was an enrollment and diversity explosion, Mr. Cousin says, “but the system didn’t catch up with that, so there are still limited roles to play involving students of color.”
In the case of “Adding Machine,” despite a racially diverse creative team, Mr. Cousin agreed with students that “there was a great insensitivity from the director to the cast in how things were handled, how the language was handled, and so I think it was blown out of proportion from day one about the race issue — the play is really not about that. … It became very messy, like a bomb inside of a bomb inside of a bomb.”
And it exploded into the list of demands, with the threatened student walkout. The Theatre faculty has been made aware of the students’ demands, as well as a conciliatory response from Mr. Hennigan.
Sharon Eberson
Student protests lead Point Park to postpone ‘Parade’ musical
After their success with shutting down the production of “Adding Machine,” students were inspired by protests over racism at other universities, such as Salisbury in Maryland and Syracuse in New York, to continue their protest.
“Currently, all over the country, the student bodies of different universities are speaking up in healthy ways to begin the conversation of change,” said the Point Park letter that was “endorsed by the Governing Body of COPA Theatre Club and its constituents, as well as Point Park University’s Black Student Union.”
Among the short-term demands already met are the cancellation of “Adding Machine” and the meeting with Mr. Hennigan.
The students also were seeking explanations of how and why productions are chosen. The current season was picked by Rob Allan-Lindblom, a former dean and Playhouse artistic director, who remains on faculty after stepping down from his administrative posts last year. Mr. Breese took over the positions in July.
The students point out that there are no people of color on the theater faculty, although the school invites frequent guest professionals of color.
Students have asked for, and Mr. Breese has already committed to, student participation in future programming choices. They also are looking for some guarantees of sensitivity and inclusivity training for faculty members, as well as an effort “to further diversify our COPA Theatre faculty.” Another demand states: “In every audition room and creative team of a show we produce, there needs to be at least one person of color and one woman.”
Mr. Cousin, the choreographer, has traveled the world to combat tokenism in theater and has written the book “The Franklin Project” — Franklin for the lone Peanuts cartoon character of color. It is subtitled, “Interviews, Essays and Articles on Diversity and Non-Traditional Casting for Theatre Performance.”
“There is not one thing these students are asking for that I would not agree with,” he said.
Point Park theater students press for greater sensitivity to gender and race
www.post-gazette.com/ae/theater-dance/2019/12/01/Point-Pa…
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Point Park’s buzz-worthy new season snags Tony winner Rob Ashford.
April 30th, 2019
Sharon Eberson
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
seberson@post-gazette.com
What with directing Glenn Close in a new movie musical, celebrating the success of “Frozen” on Broadway and having his portrait added to Sardi’s Wall of Fame, you wouldn’t think Rob Ashford could find time for a job in Pittsburgh.
You’d be wrong.
The Tony- and Emmy-winning director/choreographer was at the Playhouse Tuesday to announce that he will lead Point Park University Conservatory students in a production of the musical “Parade,” in a just-announced season packed with buzzy projects.
Point Park’s muscle-flexing 2019-20 theater season is built on the strength of its Downtown digs and award-winning alumni such as Ashford (Class of ’83), who will direct Close in the movie musical of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Boulevard.”
Other highlights include the premiere of the musical “Pump Up the Volume,” based on the 1990 Christian Slater movie, and “Good Grief,” the off-Broadway hit by alumnus Ngozi Anyanwu and directed by City Theatre’s Reginald L. Douglas.
“Pump Up the Volume” is the second premiere production in collaboration with New York-based RWS Entertainment Group, following “The Old Man and the Sea” in January.
RWS head Ryan Stana is a Point Park grad, as is Rachel Stevens, who returns to direct “The Wolves.”
Florida native Ashford was in Pittsburgh for the opening of the Playhouse and has long been in talks with artistic director Ron Lindblom about returning to the place that gave him his start as a performer.
He proposed “Parade” as the project and said he is grateful that Point Park President Paul Hennigan was onboard quickly.
Point Park University’s 2019-20 Conservatory Theatre
Company Season
Oct. 18-27: "Good Grief" by Ngozi Anyanwu, directed by Reginald L. Douglas (Rauh Theatre).
Nov. 8-17: "Much Ado About Nothing" by William Shakespeare, directed by Steven Wilson (PNC Theatre).
Dec. 6 – 15: "Adding Machine: A Musical" by Joshua Schmid and Jason Loewith, directed by Tlaloc Rivas (Highmark Theatre). Based on Elmer Rice’s 1923 play.
March 13-22, 2020: "Parade" by Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown, directed by Rob Ashford (PNC Theatre).
April 3-12, 2020: "Pump Up the Volume" by Jeremy Desmon and Jeff Thomson, directed by Dave Solomon (Highmark Theatre)..
Details: www.pittsburghplayhouse.com or 412-392-8000.
Ashford has a long history in the development of the award-winning show, about the real-life 1913 lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish man who was wrongly accused of murder in the South.
“The idea of blind prejudice against someone you’ve never met or don’t know at all, just by the way they look or how they worship … It seems like now is a very appropriate time to do ‘Parade,’ certainly in Pittsburgh, but also in Charlottesville. Too many places.”
The Broadway show, directed by Hal Prince, won Tonys for book writer Alfred Uhry and composer Jason Robert Brown, but closed after just 85 performances in 1999.
It was Ashford’s finale as a performer, and it stayed with him as he became an award-winning choreographer.
“I’ve always felt like ‘Parade’ deserved another life and another look. It’s always been with me,” said Ashford, in a phone conversation from his home in Morocco, days before he traveled to Pittsburgh for the season announcement.
There were more unassuming name drops as he described how he helped reshape the musical that he will direct here. It started with choreographing “Guys and Dolls,” starring Ewan McGregor and Jane Krakowski, for director Michael Grandage in London’s West End.
It was Grandage who told him, “‘You do realize you are a director who is working as a choreographer,’” and Grandage, the artistic director of London’s Donmar Theatre, who gave Ashford his directorial debut: “Parade.” Ashford reimagined the show with a cast of 15 (down from the original 40) by having actors play multiple roles. Uhry and Brown joined him in London, and there were new songs added and cuts made.
“We created a different version of the show, and that is the version they license now,” and the version he will direct in Pittsburgh in March 2020.
“We had high hopes” for a new Playhouse, Hennigan said, when talks began to build it Downtown 15 years ago but nothing quite like the announcement made Tuesday.
Then, nearly four years ago, talks turned from construction to what the Playhouse could be as part of the university’s urban campus.
“We came up with the concept that it would be not just a performing arts center, but a full-service entertainment center, where we would be constantly creating and bringing in nationally recognized artists into an interdisciplinary facility.”
Ashford returns to Point Park on the heels of Tony winner Anthony Cervillo, who came to Point Park during the current season to star in the world premiere of “The Old Man and the Sea.”
“The first time Rob Ashford saw the new building, the first thing out of his mouth was, ‘I want to do something here,’” Hennigan recalled. “And Anthony Cervillo said, ‘I want to come back.’ There’s something about the building, the vibe, the ethos; it’s really really attractive to a lot of people. It has completely surpassed all expectations.”
Ashford will be in the building on Forbes Avenue presumably after he has finished his movie directorial debut. He has worked as an assistant to Kenneth Branagh on theater and film projects, but he’s flying solo for “Sunset Boulevard,” working again with Webber after he choreographed the 2012 Broadway revival of “Evita.”
The rest of the cast has not yet been announced, but when asked who his dream casting for Joe — the William Holden role in the movie, opposite Gloria Swanson — he said, “I can’t tell you that! They’d kill me.”
Although the script and full cast aren’t ready yet, he and his star have been busy preparing.
“We are right in it,” he said. “She is super smart and intuitive, as you would imagine, and she is a movie star, but she’s not when you are sitting there working — she’s a working actor. She wants it to be as best it can be. It’s about the story, the story, the story.”
From Glenn Close to Point Park students, Ashford said he is just excited to be coming back.
“I had such a wonderful time in college and working with CLO and Don Brockett and all the other wonderful things I got to do in Pittsburgh. … I’m always thankful for that and always looking for a way to give back.”
When he was in Pittsburgh for the opening of the Playhouse in October, he walked around the Pittsburgh Cultural District and discovered for himself that, “This is a theater town!”
When he was a student, theater and dance majors by the dozens would have to go back and forth by bus to the old Playhouse in Oakland. Now, with the facility steps away, the Playhouse is busy with students who do all the work, from marketing to getting sponsorships.
“And there can be hundreds of students working here up until midnight,” Point Park’s Hennigan said. “I think it will be one day be going 24/7.”
Another thing that wasn’t Downtown when Ashford was here in the 1980s, was a certain bakery that has made its way there from Shadyside. It has the one thing that the director-choreographer is most looking forward to from his college days:
“A burnt almond torte from Prantl’s,” he said.
Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Twitter: @SEberson_pg. Sign up for the PG performing arts newsletter Behind the Curtain at Newsletter Preferences.
Article Source:
www.post-gazette.com/ae/theater-dance/2019/04/30/Rob-Ashf…
Further Reading:
Point Park University
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Park_University
Mary Phagan Case Website by Phagan-Kean Family
www.littlemaryphagan.com
The Leo Frank Case Scholarly Research Library
www.leofrank.info
The Leo Frank Archive
www.LeoFrank.org
The American Mercury
www.theamericanmercury.org
Posted by Leo Max Frank on 2020-04-13 07:51:33
Tagged: , PNC Theater, Paul Hennigan, Point Magazine, President Hennigan, President Paul Hennigan, portait
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