1984 Conversation Between Audre Lorde and James Baldwin at Hampshire to be Reenacted in New York City
This one-night-only event will take place at Performance Space New York in Lower Manhattan on February 6.
The event will feature a live reading of a never-published-in-full conversation between Audre Lorde and James Baldwin, edited for the occasion by Claudia Rankine, acclaimed writer and MacArthur Fellow.
In 1984, preeminent African-American writer, activist, and social critic James Baldwin, who taught at Hampshire College in the early 1980s, met with American writer, radical feminist, professor, and civil rights activist Audre Lorde on the Hampshire College campus for a live talk before an audience. Their conversation encompassed many topics from race and gender to sexuality and “The American Dream.”
The upcoming performance is being co-produced by Sarah Schulman, a novelist and playwright, along with scholar Tavia Nyong'o. “I see this as an opportunity to [revisit] hidden conversations in the Black community,” says Nyong’o, calling Baldwin and Lorde “both passionate critics of their country’s treatment of African Americans...” Free and open to the public, this event features celebrated actors Russell G. Jones and Rosalyn Coleman and is directed by Dominique Rider.
The transcript of the conversation was originally published in Essence Magazine. The video recording of the event has not been located at this time.
Read more about the iconic conversation and the upcoming performance in The Body. Learn more about ticket registration.
Photograph of James Baldwin by Ted Thai/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty. Photograph of Audrey Lorde by Robert Alexander/Getty.