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More Than Skin Deep:
"You could have been my mistress and I your slave."
What's New At The Color Line
Watch the More Than Skin Deep performance trailer, exploring race, identity, and connection through poetry and dialogue.
Listen to our live conversation on Talk of Iowa, Iowa Public Radio, where we discuss mentorship and navigating differences.
Read latest review of More Than Skin Deep May 2025
Read our story featured in The Atlantic article, “The Value of Friendships That Don't Come Easy”.
Our Journey
How did two women from different worlds decide to confront issues of race ? How did an assigned mentoring relationship evolve into an unlikely friendship and a creative collaboration based on trust and truth?
One was young, inexperienced, Black, and wary of the other who was twenty years her senior, well established in her career, and White. And they didn't hit it off... at first.
Jan Gross and Heather Lobban-Viravong
Reluctant and uneasy at first, we agreed to meet... talk, walk, listen to each other.
We confronted our fears and unspoken biases. We built trust and began to speak our truths.
We wrote collaboratively, exchanged poems, and faced the realities of being Black and not Black.
We knew our approach was needed in a polarized world.
We wanted others to "see" and "be seen" in a meaningful way.
We asked a theater professional, Lesley Delmenico, to adapt our manuscript into a 30-minute Performance followed by guided small-group discussion.
Supported with a Mellon Grant for "Connecting People through Humanities," we performed More than Skin Deep: Conversations at the Color line. The audience said our story needed to be heard. And that more people needed to join in conversations that they could never have anywhere else.
Now available for public programming:
Read abour our Performances
Contact us for further inquiries:
atthecolorline@gmail.com
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