History will come alive tonight in a one-woman show starring actress Adilah Barnes.

Barnes, an award-winning stage actress, is performing “I Am That I Am: Woman, Black,” at the Maintenance Shop located in the Memorial Union as part of the celebration for Black History Month.

Barnes said the show is “a journey through black history,” through the lives of seven African-American women.

“I chose these particular women because I wanted a diverse tapestry of African-American women,” Barnes said. The women are Sojourner Truth, Mary McCleod Bethune, Harriet Tubman, Zora Neale Hurston, Lorraine Hansberry, Angela Davis and Maya Angelou.

Pamela Thomas, director of the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center, said Barnes will offer her audience a unique opportunity.

“She lifts off the pages the life and times of these women, instead of reading it in literature,” Thomas said.

The performance Barnes has created is drawn directly from the women she is portraying.

“I use the language of the words of the women themselves. It comes from direct quotes,” Barnes said. All the history is gathered from autobiographies, biographies and articles, she said.

Barnes’ acting history includes stage and numerous sitcoms, including a five-year stint as the character Anne Marie on ABC’s “Roseanne.”

Barnes said stage work is significantly different from television. “It requires the ability to be able to work flawlessly because, unlike on camera, there is no second take. One must be able to keep going no matter what.”

This performance will mark her second time at Iowa State. Barnes said she was in Ames in the mid-’80s with the African-American Drama Company of San Francisco, in a performance of “Sister, Can I Speak for You?”

“I Am That I Am: Woman, Black” begins at 8 p.m.; it is free and open to the public.