National Black Theatre To Present SOLJOURNEY INTO TRUTH: STAGING THE UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT

The National Black Theatre (NBT) will honor the enduring legacy of its founder, Dr. Barbara Ann Teer, with a one-night-only staged reading of her unpublished 1979 work Soljourney Into Truth on Thursday, November 20, 2025, at 7 PM.

Presented as part of NBT’s Fall 2025 Art Institution Residency at NYU’s Hemispheric Institute, the event will be held at 16 Cooper Square (CBA Studio) and is free to attend with RSVP required.

Soljourney Into Truth—last performed in 1979—is a visionary theatrical exploration of self-discovery, liberation, and ancestral memory. Under the direction of Ebony Noelle Golden, the revival brings together a new generation of performers in celebration of Dr. Teer’s groundbreaking artistry and her influence on the evolution of Black performing arts.

“This revival offers audiences an opportunity to engage with Dr. Teer’s genius and vision in a new light,” says Golden. “We are honoring her brilliance while bringing her unpublished work into conversation with the present.”

The cast features Ashni, Tẹmídayọ Amay, Savon Bartley, Lance Coadie, Drew Drake, Paige Gilbert, Travis Raeburn, and Adrienne Wells, with Danielle Harrow serving as stage manager. The event reflects NBT’s ongoing mission to preserve, uplift, and reimagine the canon of Black theatre through archival restoration, contemporary reinterpretation, and community-centered storytelling.

About the Director

Ebony Noelle Golden is a theatre artist, ceremonialist, and scholar whose work merges performance, ritual, and social transformation. She is the founder of Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative and Jupiter Performance Studio, organizations dedicated to culture strategy and Black diasporic performance traditions. Golden’s practice centers liberationist ecowomanist principles, and she is the recipient of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s Transformational Practice Award.

About National Black Theatre

Founded in 1968 by Dr. Barbara Ann Teer, the National Black Theatre is a Tony Award-winning, Emmy-nominated institution recognized as the longest continually operating Black theatre in New York City. NBT has developed more than 350 original works by Black artists and has been honored with numerous accolades, including Obie, Lortel, Audelco, and Drama Desk Awards. In 2023, the company made Broadway history as co-producer of James Ijames’s Fat Ham, and in 2024, earned its first Tony Award for the revival of Purlie Victorious. Under the leadership of CEO Sade Lythcott and Executive Artistic Director Jonathan McCrory, NBT continues to champion innovation, ownership, and the liberationist vision that defined Dr. Teer’s legacy.

About the Hemispheric Institute

Based at New York University, the Hemispheric Institute collaborates with artists, scholars, and activists across the Americas to study and preserve performance and culture as acts of resistance and community-making.