Strange Fruit

Originally written and performed in 1999 by Northwestern University School of Communication Dean E. Patrick Johnson, this autobiographical work unfolds in eight movements, tracing Johnson’s journey as a queer Black man coming of age in the American South. Now, twenty-five years later, director Joseph Megel and actor Jamar Johnson revisit the piece in a dynamic workshop presentation that reimagines the many identities through which Johnson’s queerness flows — professor, preacher, drag artist, club kid, and more. The performance culminates in a transformative voyage to Ghana, West Africa, where Johnson confronts and redefines his relationship to race, gender, and sexuality in a deeply personal reckoning.