Kameron Locke THE BLACKER THE BERRY 8 low res
© Alexandra Polina
Kameron Locke THE BLACKER THE BERRY 8 low res
© Alexandra Polina
International Summer Festival 2024
Performance / Theatre

Kameron Locke

The Blacker the Berry / Perhaps Home is not a Place but Simply an Irrevocable Condition

Intimate performance at the Fleetstreet Theater about identity, queerness, and the legacy of the two friends James Baldwin and Fritz J. Raddatz.

Tickets:

Attention: Limited seating capacity. Entry from 19:30 for a donation at the Fleetstreet Theatre.

Past dates

Archive

Friday

8/23/24

8:00 PM

Archive

Saturday

8/24/24

8:00 PM

James Baldwin would have turned 100 in August 2024. He is tied with Hamburg through visits, the attempt to get his friend Tony Maynard out of prison, and a lifelong friendship with his editor at Rowohlt and later ZEIT feuilleton editor Fritz J. Raddatz. The Chicago-born, Hamburg-based performance artist Kameron Locke takes this as the starting point for his performance at Fleetstreet Theater. Inspired by Baldwin’s texts and his correspondence with Raddatz, he draws connections between his own identity and the two men, who were known for their sharp, analytical texts, their political stance, and for being openly homosexual despite social rejection. In collaboration with two other performers, Locke interweaves their writings with his own narratives, dance, sound and other forms of storytelling to create an intimate performance that meditates on identity, race and the shared experience of being openly queer, as well as the relationship with fathers, reconciliation and the activist potential to love.

Kameron Locke THE BLACKER THE BERRY 5 low res
© Alexandra Polina
Kameron Locke THE BLACKER THE BERRY 11 low res
© Alexandra Polina
Kameron Locke THE BLACKER THE BERRY 18 low res
© Alexandra Polina
Kameron Locke THE BLACKER THE BERRY 12 low res
© Alexandra Polina
Kameron Locke THE BLACKER THE BERRY 14 low res
© Alexandra Polina
Kameron Locke THE BLACKER THE BERRY 2 low res
© Alexandra Polina

Concept, Artistic Direction Kameron Locke Performance Kameron Locke, Jules Elting, Pascal Schmidt Text Kameron Locke Sound Tobias Purfürst, Kameron Locke Mise en Scène Benita Rinne Production Management JC Hernandez

Produced by Kampnagel International Summer Festival in cooperation with Fleetstreet Theater

Supported by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Hamburgische Kulturstiftung, Rudolf Augstein Stiftung, the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the Corny Littmann Stiftung for art and culture.

With Permission by the Estate of James Baldwin, the Estate of Fritz J. Raddatz and Beacon Press, Boston, Massachusetts.