(New York, NY – February 20, 2025) – As the global community continues to celebrate the legacy of James Baldwin, The Town Hall presented a program devoted to one of the most enduring debates in American and World History during Black History Month. The Town Hall celebrates James Baldwin and the 60th anniversary of the Baldwin/Buckley Cambridge debate with the highly anticipated New York premiere of the chamber opera, THE TONGUE & THE LASH by the creative team of Damien Sneed, composer/conductor and Karen Chilton, librettist, with direction by world-renowned mezzo-soprano, Denyce Graves-Montgomery, who made both her Town Hall and New York directorial debut. Dr. Frank Leon Roberts, writer, activist, scholar, and author introduced the chamber opera.
The Chamber Chorus, Chorale Le Chateau featured Olanna Goudeau (Soprano), Patrice P. Eaton (Mezzo-Soprano), Justin E. Bell (Tenor), Briana Sheriff (Soprano), Chenee Campbell (Alto), Kaleb Alexander Hopkins (Tenor), Sean Holland II (Baritone) and Angelo D. Johnson Jr. (Bass). Dustin Z West was the Assistant Director.
Joseph Parrish (Bass-Baritone, “Baldwin”) sings the aria, “Time Is All We’ve Got.” Photo Credit: Anthony Mulcahy
On February 18, 1965 as the Civil Rights movement gripped the U.S., another epochal event centered on race relations was being waged at the University of Cambridge between cultural giants, author/activist James Baldwin and leading conservative, William F. Buckley, Jr. Televised live on the BBC Network (and later on American TV), the two public intellectuals debated the motion: “Is the American dream at the expense of the American Negro?”
The contrast between the two men was stark in terms of their backgrounds, life experience, and political ideology. Baldwin, a Black expatriate writer, born and raised in Harlem; Buckley, a Yale man from a wealthy family and a staunch conservative. Though the packed crowd was riveted by both debaters’ perspectives, Baldwin was the ultimate victor in a 544 to 164 vote. THE TONGUE & THE LASH picks up at the debate’s end, imagining their intimate exchange after the cameras were off and the crowd had gone.
THE TONGUE & THE LASH, commissioned by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, had its world premiere in 2021 to critical acclaim. In this production, the role of “Baldwin” was performed by baritone, Joseph Parrish and the role of “Buckley” was played by Andrew Morstein, with Christian Pursell as the “Adjudicator,” accompanied by Damien Sneed’s Orchestra of Tomorrow.
Panel Discussion, seated left to right: Moderated Edwidge Danticat, and panelists Dr. Frank Leon Roberts, Dr. Brenda M. Greene, Matt Brim, PhD, and Nicholas Buccola, PhD.
Following the Chamber Opera, screenwriter and producer Trevor Baldwin, the nephew of James Baldwin opened the panel discussion, A Return to Civic Discourse: Revisiting the “American Dream” 60 Years Later, which was streamed globally. Moderated by esteemed novelist/poet and MacArthur Fellow, Edwidge Danticat also included panelists: Dr. Frank Leon Roberts, a writer, activist, scholar, and award-winning political organizer. He is the professor of English and Black Studies at Amherst College. He is also the founder and executive director of The Baldwin Hansberry Project; Dr. Brenda M. Greene, author and literary activist, founder and executive director of the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York; Matt Brim, PhD, Professor of Queer Studies at the College of Staten Island, author of James Baldwin and the Queer Imagination (2014); and Nicholas Buccola, PhD, award-winning author of The Fire Is Upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate Over Race in America.
To view the video of A Return to Civic Discourse: Revisiting the “American Dream” 60 Years Later
Revisiting the “American Dream”: 60 Years Later
