"Rage is not a 1-Day Thing" is a one-woman stage play written by and starring Awele Makeba, who uses documentary theatre to examine the untaught history of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, that has become a cornerstone of American mythology. The Jane Hibbard Idema Women's Studies Center at Aquinas College is sponsoring Awele's performance on Thursday, January 23 from 12:15-1:45 p.m. in the Kretschmer Recital Hall of the Art and Music Center. The play is free and open to the public.

Awele, an internationally known actor, playwright, storyteller, award-winning recording artist and educator, is a "truth-teller" and an artist for social change. The story is told primarily through the voice of 15-year-old Claudette Colvin, who would not give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus nine months before Rosa Parks' arrest for the same act. Colvin, the star witness in the federal court case that went all the way to the Supreme Court, shares the stage with ten other characters including 18-year-old history maker Mary Louise Smith; JoAnn Robinson, president of the Women's Political Council and Rosa Parks, NAACP Youth Director and Secretary. "Rage" examines the impact of exclusion, hatred and violence under segregation and helps audiences to understand racism's legacy and continuing influence. The play is based on oral histories, interviews, court transcripts memoir and biographies.

Makeba has captivated audiences from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. to the Hsinchu Teachers College in Taiwan. She has appeared in Russia, Australia, Taiwan, France and Canada. A featured storyteller in the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, she is also featured on the benefit recording "This Land is Your Land" for the Southern Poverty Law Center along with Danny Glover, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Taj Mahal, Raffi, Willie Nelson, the Neville Brothers and others.

An affiliate of the California Arts Council, American Alliance for Theatre and Education, Western Arts Alliance, Music for Little People and Nebraska Story Arts, Awele has California Arts Council Funding for the next two years. She earned a master of arts degree in education from San Francisco State University in 2002.