Testify: A Ritual Reading for James Baldwin

On March 31st, you are invited to witness Testify, the fourth performance in a series of Ritual Readings celebrating the work of Black literary ancestors in the African diaspora. Testify celebrates the life and works of James Baldwin by gathering artists, scholars, activists, spiritual workers, and everyday people to create a shared space for grief, reflection, and ancestral veneration. Readers perform as a choir to create sound, music, and movement through an embodied engagement with the text, and the public is invited to bear witness and engage through deep listening, stillness, and call-and-response.

This reading is conducted by Courtney Desiree Morris and Martín Perna. Readers include Brett Cook, Odaymar Cuesta, Babatunji Johnson, Khalil Anthony Peebles, Brontez Purnell, Bryant Terry, Zacarias Musele Thompson, Henry Washington Jr., and Marvin K. White.

Testify is supported by Berkeley Civic Arts, E.A.R.T.H. Lab SF, and the UC Berkeley departments of Gender & Women's Studies, African American Studies, and English.

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Host or Publisher Courtney Desiree Morris