Shallow Brown: Thessalonia and the Free Sailor
A Staged Reading
October 26, 2018
6 – 8 pm
Langston Hughes House
20 E. 127th Street
Harlem, NY
Take 2/3 to 125th St./Malcolm X Blvd. or 4,5,6 to 125th St./Lexington
Sailors
SHALLOW BROWN: Thessalonia and the Free Sailor. New play!
In SHALLOW BROWN, Thessalonia falls hard for a free sailor, one of the many who smuggles pages of the radical Black self-defense manifesto, “David Walker’s Appeal”, from Boston up and down the eastern seaboard in 1829. She helps her serious father circulate the prohibited document. Two short years later, her suspicions about her dad are confirmed. He turns out to be a respected organizer in the Nat Turner rebellion of 1831.
HISTORY
Prior to the Civil War, when the primary channel of transport was via the water, one in five boatmen and sailors in the US were Black. Largely independent, both enslaved and free, and often with crews of their own, these Black men moved goods through Northern and Southern US ports and along international waterways.
Their skill and particular knowledge afforded them respect and stature otherwise unknown on land. An under-appreciated axis of resistance, they brought back stories to their communities of how other colored people lived, they smuggled freedom documents and they helped runaways escape.
As was common in that era, they created sea chanteys songs to help them in their daily chores, to lighten their hearts and to document their experiences.
We’re very excited to be part of the upcoming Langston Hughes Playwright Showcase. May 3, 2019 7pm
20 East 127th St (between 5th and Madison) Stay tuned for more details.
Past Shows:
Friday, May 25, 2018: 9 pm
Lower East Side Festival of the Arts
Theater for the New City, NYC
155 First Avenue (bet. 9th & 10th Sts)
New York, NY 10003
http://theaterforthenewcity.net
Sat., June 9, 2018: 11 – 11:45 am
(entire day begins at 8:30 am)
Excerpt AND Research Findings
Symposium, 39th Annual Sea Music Festival
Mystic Seaport, CT
https://mysticseaport.org/event/sea-music-festival/
Get Vienna’s full-sized flyer.
More performances to come!
U.S. Colored Troops: Black Sailors and Soldiers
Sun. January 29: 1pm & 3 pm (two 30-minute shows)
Sunday Stories: A Civil War Series (Play 6 of 7)
“U.S. Colored Troops: Black Sailors and Soldiers“
Hudson River Museum
511 Warburton Avenue
Yonkers, NY directions/map
Weds. hours: Noon – 5pm; 914-963-4550, hrm.org.
Adults $6; Seniors (62+): $4; Members Free
With Storyteller and Singer Vienna Carroll
This presentation, told through story and song, is part of a series about “The Westchester Hills Community & The Civil War” inspired by the Red Grooms Civil War exhibit at the Hudson River Museum. Learn more about the grand history of the African American experience in the Civil War through the human story of the resilient and heroic African American community–The Hills Community–in Westchester County, NY. Perfect for all children and adults living in Westchester County and the greater New York City area.
This Sunday afternoon come explore:
· the larger-than-life, walk-through scenes created by Red Grooms;
· experience the Multimedia Play; and,
· Docent Tours of exhibit Red Grooms: The Blue and The Gray
Thank you to Dr Edythe Ann Quinn for bringing The Hills community ancestors out of the shadows through her book Freedom Journey: Black Civil War Soldiers and The Hills Community, Westchester County, New York by historian/author Dr. Edythe Ann Quinn. Read first chapter.
Download flyer of all seven shows in this series The Union & the Confederacy in Westchester: African Americans and the Civil War
