Emmett, Down in My Heart

As you may know, I am the new Associate Minister for Mission, Social Justice, and Community Action at Middle Collegiate Church.  I am pleased to announce that Danny Glover is supporting our mission by participating in a benefit for our mission.  Our work includes a long-standing meal and community hour for those living with HIV, feeding the homeless in Tompkins Square Park, working with LGBTI homeless youth, a long-term commitment to the just rebuilding of the Gulf Coast, and expanding justice works in the Middle East and Africa.  Please purchase your tickets to support our mission today.

Until justice reigns,
Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou

Emmett, Down in My Heart featuring Danny Glover, Kathleen Chalfant, Kenny Leon and the Middle Church Jerriese Johnson Gospel Choir

October 6th, 8pm
Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South
New York, New York

Ticket Prices:  $15 with valid student ID;  $30 general admission;  $150 Patron ticket (includes private afterparty with cast)

On October 6th at 8pm, at Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South,  Danny Glover will star in a staged reading of Emmett, Down in My Heart featuring Middle Church Jerriese Johnson Gospel Choir. Directed by directed by Kenny Leon, who led the Tony Award winning and Emmy nominated revival of A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway and ABC.   Written by acclaimed playwright and psychotherapist, Clare Coss, Emmet, Down in My Heart is a profoundly moving play inspired by a disgraceful landmark event in the history of our country: the 1955 lynching of fourteen year old Emmett Till in the Mississippi Delta.    

Produced by The Culture Project, the staged reading will benefit the social justice ministry of Middle Collegiate Church.   The legacy of activist programming at Judson Memorial Church, the dynamic multi-racial and multicultural mission of Middle Collegiate Church, and the Culture Project's history of social advocacy programming makes this one time event especially unique.  

Purchase tickets online. 

About the Play

This is a vital play for our time.  The intertwined stories of Emmett Till, his mother Mrs. Till-Mobley, and white school teacher Roanne Taylor all collide with the historic moment of the smoldering civil rights movement, where this tragedy helped to ignite an ongoing process of change.  Themes of white silence and responsibility emerge amidst the harmonic balm of gospel hymns sang by the Middle Church Jerriese Johnson Gospel Choir to create a rich, dramatic work that touches the heart and provokes thought and action.

Mamie Till-Mobley's monumental choice to have an open casket for her son begins her transformation from a private grieving mother to an activist for justice.  Roanne Taylor, haunted by Emmett's screams for mercy, comes face to face with her denial and failure to act as she begins her own journey from fear to recognition and involvement.

At this defining moment in our nation, this play provides an opportunity for audiences to see how each character negotiates the struggle for identity and humanity in our embattled world.  We follow them on their individual paths to meet the limits and open the infinite possibilities of societal advancement and confront how race is embedded in our social narrative.