Barbara Lewis, Dissent

About a year ago, at Odyssey's Dissent show, Barbara Lewis introduced the concept of "unintentional dissent." It's what happens when you succeed despite living in a system designed to help you fail -- also known as being Black in America. From Barbara's Odyssey bio: Barbara Lewis– not the singer- arrived in Tucson at the age of 18 months and grew up in a loving but strict Roman Catholic household which meant she had to "improvise" to enjoy some adventures. She attended segregated Dunbar School, Tucson High and University of Arizona. She moved to Los Angeles in 1962, married twice, raised three daughters and went through several life changes including membership in a "Guerrilla" theater group in the late 1960s/70s. She returned to Tucson "kicking and screaming" in 1998 and is presently helping to preserve that segregated junior high school she attended so many years ago. This story was performed and recorded in front of a live audience at Sea of Glass Center for the Arts in Tucson, AZ, on June 6th, 2019, and was curated by Tony Paniagua. It was originally released on June 28th, 2097, as part of the episode June 2019: Dissent. For more information about Odyssey Storytelling, please visit www.odysseystorytelling.com.