Public lecture on April 2 at 4 pm in the Jozef Plateauzaal -- all are welcome.

In early nineteenth century New York, the short-lived all-African American theatre troupe, the African Grove Theater, challenged slavery, racism, and restrictions on free African Americans’ voting and civil rights. To do so, the proprietor, William Brown, bravely set up shop next door to the established white fixture, the Park Theatre, and then proceeded to daringly set his company’s calendar as provocation: whatever play the Park produced, Brown’s African Grove ensemble immediately staged their own counter-productions.  This talk will focus on two of the African Grove’s adaptations and political interpolations against this racially charged backdrop: William Moncrief’s Life in London; or Tom and Jerry and John Fawcett’s Obi, or Three Finger’d Jack. The talk will conclude with a brief glimpse into how this thespian tradition of protest continues today in the New African Grove Theater in New York https://www.newafricangrove.com/ and its namesakes’ elsewhere, such as CSU Dominguez Hills https://www.csudh.edu/theatre-arts/education/new-african/