Passing Ceremonies November 7, 2009

'Passing Ceremonies,' set in the hereafter, is a gay, black love story based on an imagined meeting between Harlem Renaissance poet, Bruce Nugent, and '60s era poet-journalist, Essex Hemphill. In a cafe somewhere between "earth life and paradise," poet, essayist and activist Essex Hemphill (1957-1995) meets Harlem Renaissance writer and visual artist Richard Bruce Nugent (1906-1987) and together they try to figure out if they really belong "on the other side". Essex is anxious to finish a project he was working on shortly before his death: a book on the lives of older black gay men. He wants to interview Bruce, but Bruce insists that it is now impossible for Essex to complete the book. Throughout the play, the two spar, lament, share stories about their passions, and challenge those left behind to "pick up [their] weapons."