BLACKOUT Night
BLACKOUT Night is for individuals of the African Diaspora, inclusive of Black folk of all identities. For questions regarding BLACKOUT Night, please contact Ticketing Services at tickets@huntingtontheatre.org
Join us for Blackout Night at Purpose on September 20th
Presented in partnership with Embrace Boston and Castle of Our Skins
♦ Pre-show reception with Castle of Our Skins starting at 6 pm
♦ Featuring light bites, drinks, and live music from Díjí Kay
♦ 7 pm performance of Purpose
Tickets are Pay What You Wish starting at $5. You can select tickets for the performance only, or the performance and pre-show reception.
Purchase Tickets for Blackout Night at Purpose
Embrace Boston is a racial justice non-profit organization founded in 2017 that works at the intersection of arts, culture, research, and policy to dismantle structural racism and build an equitable, radically inclusive community. Together, The Huntington and Embrace Boston will offer audience engagement experiences and community programming inspired by Purpose, enriching conversations sparked by the production. embraceboston.org
Castle of Our Skins is a Black arts institution dedicated to fostering cultural curiosity and celebrating Black artistry through music. In classrooms, concert halls, and beyond, Castle of Our Skins invites exploration of Black heritage and culture while spotlighting both unsung and celebrated figures of the past and present. castleskins.org
About Blackout Performances:
A BLACKOUT performance is the purposeful creation of an environment in which a majority-Black-identifying audience can experience and discuss an event in the performing arts, film, athletic, and cultural spaces – free from the white gaze.
A concept birthed by Slave Play playwright Jeremy O. Harris, the inaugural BLACKOUT night took place on September 18, 2019. For the first time in history, all 804 seats of Broadway’s Golden Theatre were occupied by Black-identifying audience members in communion, celebration, and recognition of Broadway’s rich, diverse, and fraught history of Black work. Based on the success of the first BLACK OUT, Slave Play hosted a second BLACKOUT on January 8, 2020, to bookend its Broadway run. Since then, other BLACKOUT events have organically taken hold.
In the fall of 2019, inspired by the BLACKOUT night on Broadway, Boston based Black-led theatre company, Front Porch Arts Collective launched its first BLACKOUT community engagement event during a performance of Choir Boy by Tarell Alvin McCraney directed by Maurice Emmanuel Parent and produced by SpeakEasy Stage. Together these companies designated a specific performance to be taken off sale to the general public and through targeted outreach they curated an audience primarily composed of Black-identifying individuals. While the event intentionally centered on creating a cultural affinity space it also subverted the usual predominately white racial dynamics of the theater. The event was a huge success, with attendees sharing that it was a transformative experience—the first time many of them felt the cultural experience on stage was fully mirrored in the audience. Since then, BLACKOUT nights have evolved to include pre or post show gatherings with food, drink, and an opportunity for audiences to connect and mingle. To date The Porch has played a part in BLACKOUT nights all over the city and beyond, including collaborations with The Huntington, SpeakEasy Stage, Central Square Theatre, and Greater Boston Stage Company. The initiative has also ignited other Boston based organizations, such as Teatro Chelsea and Chuang Stage, to create similar cultural affinity spaces for their work.