Black History Month: Charles Holt Performs

Charles Holt’s latest one-man show, “Martin & Music,” features words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and music of the Civil Rights Movement. Other solo shows Charles’ has staged are: an adaptation of Richard Wright's “Black Boy” (with a sold-out performance at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.) and a show portraying author and activist W.E.B Du Bois.  Music and storytelling have always been a part of Charles Holt’s life. His Grandma was a self-taught pianist who fixed hymns into his mind as a boy; and her friends were the subjects of his earliest attempts at impersonations. He was born and raised in the south, in the close-knit community of Lake Providence, Tennessee, a place with gospel roots built-up by Reverend Larry A. Thompson in 1868. In this episode Charles Holt chats with Sam Payne about the Civil Rights Movement and about the direction his own life has taken—which includes everything from sports aspirations, to corporate America and Broadway.  Charles Holt was invited to come to Utah and perform “Martin & Music” by the Orem Public Library as part of their series “Created Equal: America's Civil Rights Struggle.” We want to thank the Library directors again for letting us borrow him for a couple hours—thank you! Follow Highway 89 on twitter @byuH89