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Janet Langhart Cohen play Anne & Emmett cancelled after shooting

by Amy Judd | June 10, 2009 at 11:33 am

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The world premiere of the play 'Anne and Emmett' by playwright Janet Langhart Cohen was meant to take place tonight at the Holocaust Museum, but it has now been cancelled due to the shooting at the museum by white supremacist James Wenneker Von Brunn.

Janet Cohen was with her husband, at the museum when Von Brunn entered and fired upon Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, who later died from his injuries. The Cohens were not harmed in the shooting, but they did appear on CNN to talk about what had happened.

'Anne and Emmett' is a one-act play, and is an imaginary conversation between Anne Frank and Emmett Till, who was lynched during the Jim Crow era.

It is not known if the shooting had anything to do with the event meant to take place tonight

There were many people scheduled to attend the play premiere.

Attorney General Eric Holder and members of Congress were due to attend an event at the museum Wednesday night, but there was no indication that the attack was linked to that event.

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harringtola

at 20:37 on June 10th, 2009

Thanks Amy for reporting on this fact.

The fact that the show was canceled is a very sad commentary and likely something the perpetrator would appreciate as an unexpected result of his acts.

I do want to correct something though. I saw Janet Cohen speak about the incident on CNN and she was on her way to the Museum when the episode took place. Her husband was in the museum at the time. When she arrived she was told it was a crime scene and not allowed inside.

Susan Anderson (not verified)

at 07:32 on June 11th, 2009

I have gotton on the internet today to fund out more about Anne and Emmett--the play sounds like a very interesting idea--I was hoping to find some pieces of it. Hate crimes, as I call them, are still committed as we leaned just yesterday at the Holocost Museum of all places. People cannot stop hating others for being different. We, as a culture need to get away from looking at people as a reflection of ourselves--why is this taking so long? Susan Anderson