Maurice J. Norman presents: Don’t Lose Heart

Don’t Lose Heart is a spellbinding live, onstage, storytelling production that features the author’s cross-continental story interwoven with the lives and legacies of the residents of Smithville, one of the largest, in-tact, historic Black communities in Mecklenburg County.

Maurice J. Norman, accompanied by a live quintet from the Charlotte Strings Collective, invites you to experience and immortalize local history, as recounted by those who built its foundations.

Don’t Lose Heart is poetry in motion, centered on the individuals who are ever-present but often overlooked until they’re gone. The people we’ve deemed the furniture of our small towns, perched in their rocking chairs or  tending to their tulips. The walking time machines and living memory keepers, who have helped weave the social fabrics of our local communities.

Buy your Don’t Lose Heart tickets now and look forward to an unforgettable experience that will have you entranced and inspired.

ABOUT MAURICE
Don’t Lose Heart’s author and orator, Maurice J. Norman, is an emerging poet and Davidson College alum with local and international acclaim — from having won a national poetry championship in Sydney, Australia to receiving an Emerging Creators Fellowship in Charlotte, North Carolina.

DURATION
Don’t Lose Heart will run for 75 minutes (1 hour and 15 minutes), including an intermission.

Don’t Lose Heart has been brought from page to stage thanks to the generous financial support of the Arts and Science Council Cultural Visions Grant in addition to the Arts Infusion Fund.