The Legacy of Stanley Ann

The IRC in Charlottesville was a featured partner with the Hamner Theater and Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative in “Stanley Ann,” a new one-woman show dramatizing the life of Stanley Ann Dunham, the mother of President Barack Obama. The play, by former Charlottesville-resident Mike Kindle, tells the story of an idealistic college student who travels to Indonesia, raises two children, and becomes a respected anthropologist and one of the developers of microfinance lending to low-income women entrepreneurs. IRC Executive Director Harriet Kuhr participated in discussion sessions after each of the three nightly performances of the 70-minute show. She credited innovators like Stanley Ann Dunham with critical microenterprise strategies that have helped build widespread support for efforts such as A Common Thread, the refugee women’s craft cooperative in Charlottesville.