Virtual Parlor Chat: NORTHUP by Black Gotham Experience

At this Virtual Parlor Chat, Creative Director/Writer/Visual Artist Kamau Ware of Black Gotham Experience will share his process creating NORTHUP, an audio experience which will premiere at the Morris-Jumel Mansion later this month.

NORTHUP is about a Black woman whose life was intertwined with the history of Morris-Jumel Mansion but has been obscured by a system from which white supremacism is nurtured. This woman’s story and presence within the historic record is also overshadowed by the miraculous story of her husband who was born free in 1807 in the State of New York but spirited away to Washington, D.C., kidnapped, and sent to be enslaved in Georgia then Louisiana in the year 1841. As a consequence, his wife with whom he had three children, had to navigate a world that divided into slave states and free states, slave catchers and abolitionists, while she made ends meet and protected her children from being nabbed.

Solomon Northup’s story is a powerful epic, lived by a Black man. The story of his wife, Anne Hampton Northup, is just as powerful. This audio experience, produced by Black Gotham Experience, commissioned by the Morris-Jumel Mansion and funded by Humanities New York, seeks to find her voice in the shadows and explore her story.

Registration is required for this free virtual event; $5 suggested donation. The confirmation email will contain the Zoom link to attend the Virtual Parlor Chat.