{"id":263527,"date":"2026-06-11T18:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T18:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/263527\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T18:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T18:49:11","slug":"north-star-explores-frederick-douglasss-ties-to-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/263527\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018North Star\u2019 Explores Frederick Douglass\u2019s Ties to Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1845, Frederick Douglass<\/a> was living in intense fear. Living on the run after escaping slavery in Maryland seven years earlier, he had just published his first memoir, \u201cNarrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave,\u201d which both told his powerful personal story and argued for slavery\u2019s abolition. Fearing recapture by Southern slavers, Douglass set sail for what would become a lecture tour of Britain and Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the flickering light of the North Star,\u201d Douglass wrote, \u201cstood a doubtful freedom \u2014 half frozen \u2014 beckoning us to come share its hospitality.\u201d<\/p>\n

These words and other reflections of Douglass\u2019s visits to Belfast form the basis of \u201cNorth Star,\u201d<\/a> a moving, meditative and propulsive 70-minute music and spoken word performance, created and directed by the British D.J. Kwame Daniels, that recently opened at the Irish Arts Center in Manhattan. Interwoven with Douglass\u2019s own words are responses from young people and performers about what \u201chome\u201d means to them.<\/p>\n

Standing center stage during a recent rehearsal, Zasha Singh, 11, recited her poem \u201cNew York Is My Home\u201d: \u201cI love everything in New York. Everyone speaks different languages! \u2018Hello,\u2019 \u2018Hola,\u2019 \u2018Shalom,\u2019 \u2018Bonjour,\u2019 \u2018Wa alaikum assalam!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, Singh, a fifth grader from P.S. 69 in Queens, said her experience of New York was \u201cso welcoming. I\u2019m Indian and Muslim. Where I live in Jackson Heights, there are so many diverse cultures. I love that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alysha Ciprian, 17, read a wrenching poem about grieving the recent death of her father. \u201cNew York is missing this special person,\u201d she said afterward. \u201cIt won\u2019t ever be the same, but it will always be my home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNorth Star,\u201d produced in association with the Lyric Theater Belfast, premiered in that city in 2024. The show begins with a Douglass quote \u2014 \u201cWherever else I feel myself to be a stranger, I will remember I have a home in Belfast\u201d \u2014 spoken by the disembodied voice of the actor Colin Salmon playing the abolitionist. His words are interspersed with a rousing live soundtrack of hip-hop, rap, funk and gospel, led by Kaidi Tatham, and the poems of young people from Belfast (here on video) and New York (in person).<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m rewriting the history, trying to shed the skin of all the layers that were missed by me,\u201d writes Jaleel Brown Howard, a 15-year-old 10th grader, about moving from Georgia to New York. Joseph Pucci, 15, writes a witty paean to his uncle Phillix, \u201cthe first person in our family to go to college, and who set me on that path too,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Shola Jinadu, 10, sings her poem, \u201cWhy New York Feels Like Home,\u201d later saying of its genesis, \u201cThis place is home. I would rather be here some of the time than any place in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The young performers share the stage with a choir and band. Positioned among the audience members roaming around the space are three podiums, where the poet Nandi Jola, the singer-songwriter Winnie Ama and the rapper OneDa, whose songs are written by Leo Miyagee, perform. (There are seats for audience members who require them.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe show is immersive because I want to literally bring people closer to Black culture and Black people, spatially and on the same level, to encourage empathy and compassion,\u201d Daniels said.<\/p>\n

For Aidan Connolly, the executive director of the Irish Arts Center, the show \u201cfeels like a ritual, a coming together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t imagine what Frederick Douglass went through,\u201d Tatham said. \u201cI so respect what he did.\u201d One of OneDa\u2019s raps goes, \u201cShall I pack my bags and run away? Should I hedge my bets and stay?\u201d A British lesbian born to Nigerian parents, OneDa said the show \u201crepresents Black struggle and resilience and the importance of allies, as the Irish were to Frederick Douglass.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Daniels, a 51-year-old Londoner of Ghanaian heritage who moved to Belfast in 1997, the themes of \u201cNorth Star\u201d were sharpened when anti-immigration riots broke out in Belfast and other British towns and cities in the summer of 2024, mere months before the show\u2019s premiere. (A new wave of riots erupted<\/a> this week after a man was stabbed in Belfast.)<\/p>\n

The riots \u201cshattered,\u201d Daniels said, his \u201csense of home\u201d as a Black person living in Belfast. And yet, he added, many thousands of people marched against anti-immigrant sentiment, mirroring the city\u2019s citizens in the 19th century who mobilized to ensure ships carrying enslaved people never launched from Belfast\u2019s port. Douglass would eventually write three autobiographies detailing his experiences and beliefs. He died in 1895 at around 77 years old. A bronze statue of Douglass was unveiled in Belfast in 2023.<\/p>\n

Before \u201cNorth Star,\u201d in 2020, Daniels founded Solab<\/a>, a digital platform for artists across Africa and the African diaspora in response to the murder of George Floyd<\/a>. Performing \u201cNorth Star\u201d is especially pertinent now, he said, \u201cwhile there are so many forces dividing and tearing us apart, and when people feel more emboldened to be openly racist. Also, young people\u2019s voices are often overlooked. I\u2019m glad this show gives them the space to express themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another of those young performers, Ashly Fernandez Nu\u00f1ez, 16, was inspired by \u201cHamilton.\u201d Her passionately recited poem evokes the highs and lows of living in New York. \u201cThe point of life is to push through tough situations to be your better self,\u201d she said. \u201cExpressing that in art can make it into something beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1845, Frederick Douglass was living in intense fear. Living on the run after escaping slavery in Maryland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[102171,83707,102172,102170,9,24,55,54,102168,56,102169,905],"class_list":["post-263527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-douglass","tag-frederick","tag-irish-arts-center","tag-kwame-daniels","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-north-star-play","tag-ny","tag-off-broadway-play","tag-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}