Janaka Lewis and Dina Massachi on the culture of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ on Charlotte Talks

Janaka Lewis, Ph.D., associate dean and professor of English, and Dina Schiff Massachi, CharlOz project director, were panelists discussing the “The Wizard of Oz” and the CharlOz festival on Charlotte Talks with Mike Collins on Sept. 19.

The panel featured two other special guests: Gregory Maguire, author of “Wicked,” and Gita Dorothy Morena, the great-grandaughter of author L. Frank Baum and the author of her own book.

Lewis said the different versions of the Oz lore all come together for cultural relevance. “Each focus leads us to a character of value or even something like the idea of eternal girlhood, as we think about with various characters of Dorothy, which is how Diana Ross gets to play a 24 year old teacher. We are not as focused on one story, but how each of us come into this idea of what it means to live in society and relate to each other. For as many versions as there are, there could be many more, each focusing on something different,” said Lewis.

Schiff Massachi and Lewis highlighted the upcoming festival, which includes a talk by Maguire held at the Knight Theater on Sept. 26.

Listen to WFAE’s episode of Charlotte Talks with Mike Collins.

Watch the Facebook livestream of this episode of Charlotte Talks.