International Black Theatre Festival 2024

Finding Holy Ground

Discourse on Race, Justice and Religion in Performance at the International Black Theater Festival

Wake Forest University School of Divinity and the Wake the Arts Initiative were thrilled to collaborate with NC Black Repertory Theater for the 2024 International Black Theater Festival. We are deeply grateful to the Henry Luce Foundation for their generous support. The festival, held July 31 – August 3, 2024, was the first time Wake Forest partnered with the Festival to commission two new plays, which premiered on our campus.

In addition to the two new plays, the Finding Holy Ground project brought together Luce-funded scholars to share expertise and knowledge with festival audiences through panel discussions and post-performance engagement. Finding Holy Ground became a “festival within the festival” by combining a film screening of “gOD-Talk,” a staged reading of “Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom,” and musical performances by Common Hymnal.