Danny Glover to Star in 'Emmett' Reading at Judson Memorial Church

Culture Project (Allan Buchman, Artistic Director) and Judson Memorial Church, in collaboration with Middle Collegiate Church, announced today that they will present a special one-night-only reading of Emmett, Down in My Heart, the never-before-seen play inspired by one of the most disgraceful events in America's history – the 1955 lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in the Mississippi Delta.  Written by acclaimed playwright and psychotherapist Clare Coss and directed by Kenny Leon (A Raisin in the Sun), Emmett will be performed by Danny Glover, with additional casting information forthcoming.

In August 1955, Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American Chicago boy, rode south to visit his cousins in the Mississippi Delta, at that time a rigidly segregated police state.  White supremacists ruled, with fear and anger paramount.  Accused of wolf-whistling at a white woman storekeeper, Emmett was abducted, tortured, murdered and thrown in the Tallahatchie River weighted down by a hundred pound cotton gin fan.  His murderers were later acquitted of any crime.

After Emmett's mother insisted on an open casket so the world could witness the horrors inflicted on her son, a floodlight of attention gave new inspiration to the Civil Rights Movement.   Three months later in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks said Emmett Till was on her mind when she refused to move to the back of the bus.

 Emmett, Down in My Heart will be performed at the Judson Memorial Church (55 Washington Street at the corner of Thompson Street).  Tickets are priced at $150 (patron tickets – includes post-performance reception), $30 (general admission) and $15 (with student ID) and are available by calling 212-352-3101 or by visiting www.cultureproject.org.  All ticket proceeds with support Middle Collegiate Church's social justice programs.  For more information, visit www.middlechurch.org.

Culture Project's mission is to bear witness to injustice, to stimulate challenging conversation about the most profound and urgent matters of our time and to convert interest, energy and engagement into a motivational demand for progressive change.  Culture Project has premiered celebrated shows including The Exonerated, Sarah Jones' Bridge & Tunnel, Guantanamo, Lawrence Wright's My Trip To Al-Qaeda, Tings Dey Happen and the Lucille Lortel Award-winning World Premiere of George Packer's Betrayed.  They are currently presented the acclaimed Temple University production of In Conflict at The Barrow Street Theatre.

For over one hundred years, Judson Memorial Church has been a home for provocative, socially engaged, and marginalized artists.  Judson has long maintained an anti-censorship stance that welcomes art, whether rough or refined, as a voice of "secular prophets."

Middle Collegiate Church was founded in 1628 and is the oldest continuous congregation in the U.S.  As a multi-racial and multi-cultural congregation, Middle Church is a bold, welcoming, inclusive and artistic community, serving as a leading progressive voice for social justice in the East Village.  The social justice ministry includes a long-standing meal and community hour for those living with HIV, feeding the homeless in Tompkins Square Park, working with LGBTQI homeless youth, a long-term commitment to the just rebuilding of the Gulf Coast, and expanding justice works in the Middle East and Africa.