BLACKBOX to Make UK Premiere at Edinburgh Fringe
Rickerby Hinds' BLACKBOX blends hip-hop theatre, gospel music, and stage illusion at the Fringe.
This Edinburgh Fringe will see the UK premiere of Blackbox, a groundbreaking theatrical event by pioneering hip-hop theatre artist Rickerby Hinds. Combining spoken word, gospel music, stage illusion and raw historical testimony, Blackbox tells the extraordinary true story of abolitionist Henry 'Box' Brown, the enslaved man who, in 1849, mailed himself to freedom in a wooden crate. Performances will run 5 - 30 August (not 17), Underbelly Cowgate Belly Button @ 12:40 pm.
Part play, part magic show, Blackbox theatrically reimagines Brown's daring 27-hour journey from Richmond, Virginia to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in a box measuring just 3 feet by 2.5 feet. Through illusion, movement and music, audiences witness a story of love, loss, faith, resistance and liberation.
What is less known about the remarkable true story of Henry Box Brown is that he escaped in 1850 from America to the UK, fearing re-enslavement, spending 25 years here. In 1855 he married an Englishwoman, Jane Brown, and they had 3 children.
Whilst in the UK he toured the country as a lecturer, magician and hypnotist, as well as presenting his Panorama! about slavery and his escape to freedom. He also worked as an actor, in various plays in London.
And - very significantly - Henry also frequently performed in Scotland, including in Edinburgh.
After 25 years of re-enacting his escape from enslavement, Henry and his family crossed the Atlantic again to spend his final years in Canada. He died on June 15, 1897, and is buried in Toronto's Necropolis Cemetery.
In his magic act boxes figured literally and symbolically, as vessels of both death and deliverance. He was a performance artist, a visual artist, a public speaker, a magician, hypnotist, singer and author, using his artistry as a form of resistance, publishing two versions of his life story, Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, Written by Himself (the first one in 1849).
Despite his adoption of personas, showy promotional stunts, and onstage illusions, Henry Box Brown's political message about the inhumanity of slavery and the wrongs of racism remained unchanged.
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