collaborate with the museum in our living history projects our diversify living history initiative and after the performance, i'm gonna vacate my seat give it up to mike idris, who is the museum's african-american interpretive fellow lifelong, philadelphia, and who was really the the brains behind this incredible play. they're gonna see the historical advisor on this piece written by marissa kennedy, which you'll see performed by nathan alfred tate. we're really excited to be doing a lot with james horton story. not just right now when you can visit this cool painting daily here more about later, but also in the future we've got exciting programming and exhibitions about the fort and family coming up, but i don't want to steal any of that thunder. i'm gonna let you ask questions of kalala and and nathan later, so feel free to drop your questions into the chat either during the performance or afterwards when khalila will be moderating a conversation and selecting some of those questions for these guys to answer. so without further ado take your seats and meet james fortin. william my dear brother-in-law so this is the commerce ready to take us to england. it's almost time to set sail. a new voyage a new opportunity i know this kind of journey is familiar to you, but this is a new adventure for me. this this is my home. dark lord the noise of the wharfs the mingling of different accents and languages irish german west indian west african british i've spent years watching the arrival and departures of ships filled with traded goods like this one. main loading cargo roadmakers at work i was in all of the ship's carpenters shaping the wood and repairing damage from each ship's most recent voyage. i especially loved watching the sailor's hoist the sails that my father made. you know how much we all talk about my father. thomas my father taught me to read we would practice reading scripture or father would teach me the words of the hymns that we sing on sundays? as a boy i followed him to robert bridges sailoft where he worked alongside white and black men. the only free african there. my father was meticulous in his work. he gave clothes and careful attention to every sale he crafted. i would sit close to him watching as he laid out the canvas across the floor and cut out the shapes of the sails. the sales the sales were so big they had to be hoisted through the window. i had to stay clear of the way. so now to get knocked down by their size and weight. when i got older my father began teaching me sale making i'd help out around the loft by sweeping the floor or picking over scrap canvas to preserve the usable pieces. i'd prepare beeswax for sewing thread. it's sweet, honey. you smell at my fingertips? my father gave me the sale making fit. it was his i learned how to use it. stretching the canvas for grommets i even learned how to feel so if you canvas pieces myself. and by the end of the day, my hands were stiff and feet apes from all the work. my devout anglican father reminded me that god would indeed bless us if we followed the work of the lord and not of many. eventually he ventured on his own making a few sales here and there. i was proud to be following in his footsteps. hi imagine. that would be my work someday until he died when i was seven years old. after my father's death, my mother margaret felt that receiving an education was the next important step. she sought the help of anthony benezee. still admire her for that asking a white quaker teacher to take me as a student. okay, probably hope that beneze was always ready to point out the contradiction between slavery and the christian doctrine. he knew that we could achieve the same things as white people. i think most of society sees us as inherently flawed lazy a burden at least when we're not making a profit for them. some people like robert bridges and anthony benezee see us for who we are a people with the rich culture in history. but then again robert bridges is a slave holder himself. that's the corruption slavery. my mother and sister your dear abigail provided for the household and my education but were barely making ends meet. i was only at school for two years before i had to stop to find work. i had heard of other free african children being forced into indentured servitude if they or their parents were found to be a burden on society. boys younger than me being forced to work until they were 24 years old. but how how would that help them or their families? i did whatever i could just support my family. i picked up our jobs here and there running up and down tuck ward sweeping floors stocking shelves. i worked at venezates grocery store and sometimes i ran errands for bridges. i might have stopped school, but i did not stop learning. a red my bible the newspaper and the pamphlets. i will come across in the street. news of the rebellion was everywhere. frightening and exciting at the same time. delegates held meetings people here in the city boycott british goods. and then reports from new england about lexington and concord bunker hill. the revolution had begun but what did this rebellion mean for africans? the enslaved africans at the sale loft did much of the same work as the white journeyman, but their only hope and aspiration was that one day they would be free. maybe it's a cycle. first you work your life away trying to earn your freedom like my grandfather. then once you get it, you work your life away trying to keep it. i read a pamphlet by thomas, paine. thomas like my father's name. he was the one who showed us the error of our ways. how could americans say they were slave to british tyranny when there were actual slaves among us enslaved by the very same people who screamed the loudest about taxation and representation. how is nine but even i could see there were two wars over freedom being fought around. one was for the liberty and independence of america. one was for the liberty and independence of all americans. i was at the state house when they read our declaration of independence. the bell was called me. i weaved in and out of the crowd trying to get as close as i possibly could. we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they're endowed by their their creator with certain unalienable rights. that among these are life. liberty and the pursuit of happiness that was how i know we are all equal. we deserve life liberty and happiness. anthony beenezaet talked africans how to read and write because of this truth thomas paine's pamphlet spread the word the declaration made it real. but sometimes freedom wears a red coat. the british offered freedom to enslaved africans who abandoned their rebel masters so some of us found liberty that way. i can hardly judge the people who joined that cause. what else might the british give free africans in exchange for their loyalty? might it be better than what they would get in a newly forged nation. who held the greater promise? which side to choose? for me, there was no question the declaration rang in my ears. this was my fight for independence liberty and the future. at this time enslaved africans were granted gradual emancipation. maybe after this fight we can get more rights. opportunities maybe even citizenship. but i had to beg my mother to let me go and fight. i joined a private tier not the navy mind you this was a better chance join a private ship and set sail to fight for the calls and in no small incentive a chance at prize money. we were commissioned to capture enemy ships and keep the profits as our own so i could risk my life for the revolution and also provide for my family. i chose the royal lewis captain stephen decatur and joined as a powder boy at the young age of 14. my job was to transport the gunpowder from the ship's hold to the cannons on deck amid battle. all i had with the clothes on my back and hope. we were a motley crue. i wasn't the only african aboard the royal lewis, but i was one of few people that could read and write his name. but really none of that mattered our lives were in each other's hands. who we were alone was not as important as who we were together a crew. and our first cruise on the royal lewis was a success. we captured many enemy ships from new york down to charleston south carolina many of these ships surrendered without a single shot. and when i returned home, i was in good health with money in my pocket and the glory of victory in my heart. i turned 15 the day. i watched the continental army marched to the streets of philadelphia on their way to yorktown. the road island regiment now with two all african companies much proudly by as brave men as ever fought. they were determined unstoppable. and i was too. we were doing our part to carve out our place in the new country. i was only home a few days before we were put to see again. i was ready to capture more british ships. but we were not as untouchable as i thought. we sailed over the horizons. and right into british hands i knew that death and battle could be a possibility but as a prisoner. for my white shipmates. i knew at best they would be exchanged for british prisoners. at worst they would be in prison for the extent of the war. but for me i had heard of other captured african sailors being shipped to the west indies. slavery death in the cane field i was terrified. i kept the lessons of my parents and the church close to heart. when we board it the british ship the ambient i promised myself that i had been taking a prisoner for the liberties of my country and would never prove a traitor to her interest. that promise kept me alive. it guided me sometimes even away from the easy ways out. because the british captain offered me a new home. to go with his son to england where education and new opportunities awaited. it was a good offer as anyone in my position could only hope to achieve something more than sweeping floors are stacking crates. but i refused i had sailed too far to abandon the cause now. and the cost of that decision was the jersey even the single word is horrible to me now. a ship with the mask cut off anchored in new york harbor a floating prison filled with men and boys younger than i i met daniel bruton a white -- only 13 years old. but it didn't matter whether we were black or white. free or enslaved we were literally in this together. short rations in either hard work cleaning the shipper unending boredom in the airless lower deck there was sickness and death everywhere. the whole field with prisoners held tightly together. the stench was unbearable and unforgettable. sometimes i wonder if this is what it felt like to be held on a slave ship. escape seemed impossible men who tried to swim ashore risked two miles of open water if they were lucky enough to get over the mud flats undetected. they still had to get along island, which was under the control of the british. we skimed of course and once i came very close and in prison officer was to be exchanged. he would take his sea chest with him. i was just small enough to fit inside covered by his clothing. but so was daniel bruton. and he was two years younger and in far worse shape than me. so i switch places to let my white brother in arms to part. i helped him in. and wished him well. i thought i could wait it out and be exchanged. months passed slowly my name moved up the ledger. each month. i knew i was getting closer and closer to freedom. i was on the jersey for seven months. the war ended before my name ever came up. that that was just a year ago. so i walked shoeless from brooklyn to trenton where i received aid before arriving in philadelphia. the warhead ended but i had had missed most of the celebrated. my reward was reuniting with a healthy, daniel, bruton. and i certainly didn't think i'd be ready to return to the sea again. so soon william, but when the wind shifts we must trim our sails to suit. who knows what london might hold our revolution as only just begun and the horizons have opened wide. i can't let my parents down. i have a good foundation and the lord said in the gospels to whom much is given much is required. the problem is is i'm not sure what i'm required to do. i know i can do more than what i've done already. i've risked my life for our nations independence my family and our people. philadelphia will be here when we get back. and who knows but we might just learn a thing or two in london from the british after all. become william enough of this talk. it's high time. we put to see and find out what kind of voyage we're in for. so in this in this painting you actually get to see 15 year old james fortin on his birthday. james fort was born on september 2nd 1766. so on his 15th birthday fortin is seeing troops from the rhode island regiment as they linked with washington's troops on their way to yorktown. so it's just an awesome scene to see james fort and given that that moment of reflection with his hat in the middle there. you can see as these members of the rhode island regiment predominantly african american members of this particular group moving through so just an awesome scene, so we are just getting ready for our actor nathan all for tate as we begin this discussion that coleila will be moderating. so good to see nathan. and then as we get ready to get started appreciate it. hello everyone. thank you so much for coming. thank you. so gosh, so many questions somebody so many questions to ask i'm going to start with the idea of why we're all here tonight. why are we here? what does james horton story has to have to tell us today. well for me james fortin story, what's so critical is is as a person of african descent who has a nine year old witnessed the words of the declaration of independence being read by sheriff. john nixon for the very first time places him in a very integral point in american history and then to see a free person of african descent making decision is to decide how in my life am i going to choose to? serve this burgeoning country and he is seeing events as a young man in this in the city where the first continental congress the second continental congress to taking place. so all this is happening within the backdrop of young james fortin's life. and so and to think that he will serve as a privateer and then go on to do incredible work as a sale maker, but connecting that work to other pursuits is something that's really important and something that we need to center and to think about thank you. i'm going to actually before we go to you nathan. it's going to quickly ask that question again, because i know that there is a little bit of a glitch with my sound. so the question is what does james horton's story have to tell us today? all right. it for me, it tells such a great story of hope and tenacity the fact that he did all of that in his, you know, very short 18 years of life. you know, he did more afterwards but to do so much in so little time. i think that it's just very inspiring and not only to think about what america is but imagine what america could be, you know, we see that in his actions and when he lets daniel bruton onto the sea chest to go in place of himself, you know, that's just the equal that something that that rain true for him that equality. thank you. thank you that that was such a that was such an just a really compelling part of this piece. it's it's really great how there's new talent brought in and then of course south rhine got who directed the piece is someone who the museum has worked with many times marisa kennedy who wrote the the play is someone who the museum has worked with so michael this question is for you. can you you talk about the conception of this from the ground up and creating this program from the ground up. it's like you to understand like it's so much to of james ford's life that you really wanted to unpack. and the hardest part was sort of just boiling it down. so to look at just his service in as a privateer was really important because like nathan just said he managed to do so much in a short period of time his connection into the sale making trade from his father up until the age of seven where he has to make a shift into pursuing his education, but then also taking up odd jobs to support the family, but then again seeing the backdrop of all the things that are taking place not just in philadelphia, but up and down the colonies at that time then deciding he wanted to serve but all of the you put it all together and it becomes something that's incredibly compelling something that can incredibly rich and i think that's really where this begins to take shape. so we started by learning objectives one of the things i want to do is how where how do we want individuals to meet james fortin? we don't want to necessarily make him out to be just this incredible untouchable hero, but we wanted to give him some scope and space so that you could feel who he is from the neighborhood that he's in here and doc ward and just giving some some lift to who he is and just kind of understanding some of the spaces and people that he would encounter in his young life. so to start from there really kind of focusing on ways to to bring that space out, but then to understand his skillcraft utilizing the fade, so we wanted to put that all together and to sort of a real educational component. that was very entertaining as well. it was i loved the physicality of this and and nathan actually, my next question is for you and that is you've been you've been doing this role for quite a bit. what was it like becoming james wharton as a young man. what was it like stepping into this role? and what is it? like now that you've done it for a little bit of time. what is it like inhabiting this role now? hmm. absolutely. it's a big shoes to feel you know in the beginning there was you know, i had to really focus on getting all the lines down and you know things of that nature, but once i got began to get comfortable with the text, and i was really able to play and think about you know, what could james be thinking in these moments? what does it mean to hear these words the declaration of the independent of independence for the first time and what does it mean to be in these different settings? and i'm just so grateful and really honored to be able to do this in multiple times. i think that it's such a pleasure to be able to share this information with so many people and i try my best to treat each performance as the first performance. it really does. the performance really does just it just embodies the space and my next question. you mentioned don triani's painting which is right behind us. well, we're actually in a whole gallery full of his paintings, but as brave men as ever fought is right behind us, and how did this inform both the production of this the creation of this as well as the the of this piece. it really comes down to visuals and giving it's always great to have a multi-sensory experience and to to know of the moment to read it a reflection of it and julie winch's book a gentleman of color. it's it's incredible, but then to actually see it come to life and to see the dirt roads to understand the different faces. so also really just think of james fortune just being a 15 year old and what that means and then of course the iconic space that's in this painting isn't independence hall quite yet. it is the state house but being able to also center, you know this iconic image of america and to have a young man of african descent be right at the center of this and how it shapes his life and his reflections of looking at other men of african descent, march through philadelphia in their rhode island regiment uniform with their hunting shirts. just again that threat of connection. it's an intergenerational connection some of these men are are older than james might be some could even been around potentially t