A panel of experts will discuss “Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and the Invasion of Privacy Case” in a 45-minute forum, 6:30-7:15 p.m. Friday, June 19, 2015, in the Fine Arts Hall at the Northwest Campus of Santa Fe College, 3000 NW 83 Street, Gainesville. Admission is free and the forum is open to the public.
The forum precedes that evening’s performance of the play, “Invasion of Privacy,” about the famous Zelma Cason-Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings lawsuit and trial that took place in Alachua County in the 1940s. Tickets for the performance are $15 for adult orchestra and mezzanine seats; $12 for adult balcony seats; $9 for seniors, children, and University of Florida students and faculty; and $9 for faculty, staff and students of Santa Fe College. For ticket information, call the Box Office at 352-395-4181. Tickets may be purchased on line at http://www.sfcollege.edu/finearts.
The forum’s panelists are Patrice Boyes, an attorney who has served on the City of Gainesville Historic Preservation Board and as president of Historic Gainesville, Inc.; Steven Noll, master lecturer in the University of Florida Department of History; and Florence Turcotte, literary manuscripts archivist and curator of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Collection at the University of Florida’s George A. Smathers Libraries. David Tegeder, chairman of the SF College Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, will moderate the panel.
The Rawlings-Cason invasion of privacy case was the first such case brought against an author. Cason’s lawsuit against Rawlings pitted a citizen’s right of privacy against an author’s constitutional guarantee of free speech. Kate Walton, the first female attorney in Florida, represented Cason. Rawlings was represented by Gainesville attorney Sigsbee Scruggs.
Noll will place Rawlings and her work in a larger historical context. Turcotte will address the Rawlings legacy in terms of the lawsuit, with references to the Rawlings collection of documents at the University of Florida. Boyes will talk about how the case has affected today’s privacy laws. A question-and-answer session will follow the presentations.
For more information, call Santa Fe College Cultural Programs Coordinator Kathryn Lehman at 352-395-5355.
