Community Projects

Natalie Meisner, an award winning playwright and author in the Department of English, has recently written a play now on tour chronicling the inspirational, but largely forgotten, story of sprinter Marjorie Turner Bailey, who, for a few shining moments, was the fastest woman on earth. A descendant of the Black Loyalists of Nova Scotia. Marjorie lives, right now, in her own two story cape cod with a burgeoning vegetable garden at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean in her home town in Nova Scotia. Perhaps the names Florence Griffith Joyner, Marion Jones and Carmelita Jeter are more familiar, yet Marjorie's best time in the 100 metres marks her as one of the fastest women to ever cover the distance in a race. Her times were often faster than those Nike/Adidas sponsored flamboyant runners all of whom were convicted of or dogged by suspicion of steroid use. Doping was all around her. "The rewards were many, the pressure to perform, the temptation to trust in the teams of doctors and trainers who entered your life were there as well," Marjorie remembers. Marjorie never touched any of it. Not once. Is this why you haven't heard of her? Because there was no scandal? These are questions that Meisner's play, A Child Like Me, explores in the form of a one person show illuminated with music.

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