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Seattle Opera.

Town Hall

A Conversation with Tamara Payne

Wednesday, February 7, 2024 at 7:30 PM

Town Hall Seattle | 1119 8th Ave, Seattle WA 98101; also livestreamed

Tickets: $5 - $25 (sliding scale), available through Town Hall

In 1990, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Les Payne embarked on a nearly thirty-year-long quest to interview anyone he could find who had actually known Malcolm X. His goal was ambitious: to transform what would become over a hundred hours of interviews into an unprecedented portrait of Malcolm X, one that would separate fact from fiction. Following Payne’s unexpected death in 2018, his daughter Tamara Payne heroically completed the biography.

Presented by the Seattle Opera and Town Hall Seattle, she joins us in person to share from the final biography, The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews—with all living siblings of the Malcolm Little family, classmates, street friends, cellmates, Nation of Islam figures, FBI moles and cops, and political leaders around the world—she traces his life from his Nebraska birth in 1925 to his Harlem assassination in 1965. Payne explores how her father corrects the historical record and delivers extraordinary revelations with a biographer’s unwavering determination. She discusses the intensive research process, and introduces a penetrating and riveting biography that affirms the centrality of Malcolm X to the African American freedom struggle. In a moment of renewed vigor for the struggle in Black freedom, this presentation is essential viewing.

Tamara Payne is Les Payne’s daughter and served as his principal researcher.

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Wednesday, February 7, 2024 7:30 PM
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Add to Calendar 2/7/2024 7:30:00 PM 2/7/2024 7:30:00 PM America/Vancouver A Conversation with Tamara Payne Town Hall February 7, 2024 at 7:30 PM Town Hall Seattle | 1119 8th Ave, Seattle WA 98101 Presented by the Seattle Opera and Town Hall Seattle, Tamara Payne joins us in person to share from the final biography, The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X. Town Hall Seattle
Buy Tickets
Add to Calendar 1/1/0001 12:00:00 AM 1/1/0001 12:00:00 AM America/Vancouver A Conversation with Tamara Payne Town Hall February 7, 2024 at 7:30 PM Town Hall Seattle | 1119 8th Ave, Seattle WA 98101 Presented by the Seattle Opera and Town Hall Seattle, Tamara Payne joins us in person to share from the final biography, The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X. Town Hall Seattle | 1119 8th Ave, Seattle WA 98101; also livestreamed

This conversation will be moderated by a Seattle Opera artist or staff member and is also available as a virtual livestream. 

Speakers

Tamara Payne
Tamara Payne is a Pulitzer Prize-winning co-author of The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X written with her father, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Les Payne. Prior to working on the book, Tamara worked in the media industry and real estate and graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York.

After earning her bachelor’s degree, Tamara worked at The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour on PBS. She then moved to China where she taught English for two years in Shandong Province.

Upon her return from China, Les Payne invited her to work on the book. Tamara was the principal researcher while working in commercial real estate. After her father’s sudden passing in 2018, she made it her purpose to finish his life’s work.

The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X has won several awards including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, NAACP Image Award, and The Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center Vanguard Award.

 
Glenn Hare
Glenn Hare is Associate Director of Communications at Seattle Opera. He has worked in arts communications and marketing his entire career, having served in government agencies, public broadcasting, and universities. Most recently he was Director of Marketing & Communications at the Brooks Center for the Performing Arts at Clemson University.