Fermat’s Last Theater presents
An Evening with James Baldwin
Concept and curation by Quanda Johnson
November 14, 2019, Urban League of Greater Madison
Program
Letter to My Nephew and a passage from Giovanni’s Room
Read by Melvin Hinton
Six poems read by Quanda Johnson
- The Giver
- Staggerlee Wonders
- Le Sporting Club de Monte Carlo (for Lena Horne)
- Munich, Winter 1973 (for Y. S.)
- Untitled
- Amen
Recollections of my meetings with James Baldwin in Madrid and Paris, by Melvin Hinton
Slave song/spiritual sung by Quanda Johnson
Dance by Akiwele Burayidi
Bass by Oliver Gomez
Cast information
Quanda Johnson is a Fulbright Scholar and a current doctoral student in Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies at UW – Madison. A performer from Broadway to grand opera, she seeks ways to utilize performance to disrupt and consequently alter entrenched, cyclical conversations about Blackness and the African Diaspora. An AUDELCO Award nominee for her portrayal of Marian Anderson, she appeared in Broadway’s Tony award winning Ragtime and made her New York City Opera debut in The Mother of Us All with Lauren Flanigan. Her work is dedicated to the memory of the first artist in her life, her mother, Vernetta. Her full biography is here: https://dept.english.wisc.edu/intertheatrestudies/people/its-students/
Her next performance will be:
I Know My Robe Gonna Fit Me Well, I Tried It on at the Gates of Hell: a reading — First Person Narratives of Female Slavery in Atlantic Modernity.
Thursday, December, 12, 2019, 7pm, Helen C. White Building, UW-Madison Campus (room TBD).
Melvin Hinton produces and hosts Radio Literature on WORT and Between You and Me on Madison College’s Clarion Radio. He completed a paid internship–and turned down a full-time job offer–at The New York Times News Service before going on to Stanford University as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. Two years in France as a Fulbright Scholar and teaching assistant in a secondary school were followed by a long residence in Spain. Other honors include a Martin Luther King Scholarship at New York University, a University Fellowship at Texas A&M, and a doctoral fellowship at the UW-Madison.
Besides acting with The Madrid Players, and with Kathy Seley in Murray Schisgal’s The Typists, Melvin toured Spain with Donna Hightower’s gospel music ensemble. He has directed students in theater at the U. S. Cultural Center in Madrid, at Tennessee State University, and at The University of the South. He directed a Queer Short at the Bartell, and at the Overture Center he was Rev. Sykes in CTM’s production of To Kill a Mockingbird. He has taught Spanish and French at several universities, among them Texas A&M and The University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Oliver Gomez is a senior at Sun Prairie High School and says his favorite bassist is Ray Brown, and he is currently studying with John Christensen.
His next performance will be with Happy Feet at Café Coda on Williamson Street, Friday, November 22 from 5 to 7 PM.
Akiwele Burayidi is currently a second-year student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison pursuing degrees in Dance and Health Promotion and Health Equity. She has received several scholarships to train at summer programs such as the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, Paris Summer Academy, and most recently Perry Mansfield Performing Arts School where she worked with Shannon Gillen and Vim Vigor Dance Company.
Akiwele will be performing in the Kloepper concert of the UW Dance Department on December 7 and 8 at Lathrop Hall on the UW campus.
