Celebrating James Baldwin
HartBeat is celebrating Baldwin's centennial with a series of collaborations, readings, and company productions that you won't want to miss. Join us for these events and many more as the 2024-25 Baldwin season emerges.
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Stay tuned for more!
HartBeat Presents
Coming! February 2025
Citizen James
A 24-year-old James is an unknown aspiring “Negro” writer whose first novel has yet to be published. He awaits his flight at LaGuardia, having just left his family with the news of his decision to flee America for refuge in Paris. He speaks no French. He has a one-way ticket and $40 in his pocket. Witness James Baldwin as he decides he must do something to save himself from the violent reality of racist America in 1948, a decision that sets him on the path to becoming a brilliant, powerful, and prophetic voice of the Civil Rights era and beyond. In celebration of Baldwin’s 100th birthday,
Citizen James is a bridge that connects the past to the present.
Citizen James is more than a solo performance. While our actor, James Alton, does embody James Baldwin, he grounds the audience in their breaths and in their souls through the empathy and care of Kyle Bass' writing and Joann Yarrow's staging. Our plan is to tour Citizen James throughout New England and beyond as part of HartBeat Ensemble's ongoing James Baldwin Centennial Season.
March 2024
Black Presencing: Free, Community, Play Reading Series
The Amen Corner, by James Baldwin will be held at Cross Street AME Zion Church, 440 West Street, Middletown. Join us for the second play reading in a collaboration between ARTFARM, HartBeat Ensemble and Oddfellows Playhouse. The reading of this powerful play by James Baldwin will be directed by HartBeat Ensemble Director Godfrey Simmons. Admission is free, but donations will be accepted to help replace the roof at Cross Street Church.
October 2024
Jimmy & Lorraine
Developed by playwright Talvin Wilks through research and in collaboration with HartBeat Ensemble members, this play is a meditation on the American political climate of the late ’50s and early ’60s through the lens of two significant artists and social activists of the time. James Baldwin and Lorraine Hansberry were firebrands who helped to forge an image of a true America, an inclusive America, one that debunked all notions of a second-class citizenship.
Baldwin around CT
