#HERstory: The August Wilson Center for African American Culture, Downtown was the place to be #SEEN on Saturday night for dinner and discussion with playwright Marilynn Barner Anselmi and guest speaker Paris Hatcher, who co-founded and was the executive director of SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW, one of the leading reproductive health and justice organizations in the Southeast, among her many accomplishments. New Voices Pittsburgh and demaskus Theater Collective joined forces to showcase Ms. Anselmi’s work: “You Wouldn’t Expect,” a play about the sterilization of 8,000 black women in North Carolina between 1933 and 1973. “This play sheds light on a disenfranchised group of primarily black women. This story is one that traditionally is not told, but as a playwright I felt this had to be more than statistics, we had to share these personal stories,” said Ms. Anselmi. Added Ms. Hatcher: “As a reproductive justice activist, we have to lift up stories from the past and be mindful of the present day questions concerning who is fit to live in this country, who is fit to have children, who is fit to thrive.” After dinner, guests moved into the theater for a showing of “You Wouldn’t Expect.”

#SEEN: La’Tasha D. Mayes, Shaunda Miles, Suzanne Edwards, Jewel Thomas, Norman and Tracy Edmunds, Janis Burley Wilson, Pamela Collier, James Humphries, Aja Thompson, Linda Hoye, Alice Greene and Dinah Denmark.

First Published: March 28, 2016, 4:00 a.m.