Blood Done Sign My Name featuring Mike Wiley will recount the best-selling book of the same name at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 22, 2024, in John and Alice Butler Hall, Heritage Center, University of Dubuque. The performance is part of the 11th annual Live at Heritage Center Performing Arts Series.
In Blood Done Sign My Name, Mike Wiley brings to life the recollections of author and historian Tim Tyson’s award-winning memoir surrounding the 1970 murder of Henry “Dickie” Marrow in Oxford, North Carolina, and the events that followed. Marrow, who was black, was chased from a local store by three white men and killed after he reportedly made a crude remark to one of the men’s wives. Despite eyewitness reports, an all-white jury acquitted the men. The town’s black community responded to the events with an uprising that destroyed several tobacco warehouses holding millions of dollars in harvested crops. Tyson, who was 10 at the time, recounts how the conflagration of events shaped his life and offers an opportunity to examine our own roles in the complex and often confusing racial fabric of America.
An acclaimed actor and playwright, Wiley spent the first decade of his professional career fulfilling his mission to bring educational theater to young audiences. His acclaimed work has expanded to performing arts centers and universities nationwide and to film screens and festivals around the world. Wiley has introduced countless students to stories and legacies of Emmett Till, the Tuskegee Airmen, Henry “Box” Brown, and more. He has appeared on the Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, and the National Geographic Channel, was profiled in Our State and American Theatre magazines, and was named an Indy Artist of the Year in 2012. Wiley tours a total of seven original theatrical productions including Blood Done Sign My Name, which has twice been performed by invitation from the city to standing-room-only audiences in Oxford, North Carolina.
Wiley’s one-man show Blood Done Sign My Name is a compelling dramatization of the true-life account of this 1970 racial murder that feels frighteningly familiar, and all too current.
A free pre-show reception for “Dale Easley in the Wild West: Sabbatical Photography” will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Monday, Jan. 22, 2024. The exhibit will be open Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, through Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024.
Tickets for Blood Done Sign My Name featuring Mike Wiley may be purchased by visiting the Farber Box Office, Heritage Center, University of Dubuque, 2255 Bennett Street; by calling 563.585.7469; or by visiting Dbq.edu/heritagecenter. Patrons are encouraged to purchase tickets online for reduced ticket handling fees.
The Farber Box Office is open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday and 90 minutes prior to events. The Farber Box Office is closed Thursday, Dec. 21, 2023, through Monday, Jan. 1, 2024, for the holidays.
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