North Star

Wherever else I feel myself to be a stranger, I will remember I have a home in Belfast”—FREDERICK DOUGLASS In 1845, only seven years after escaping slavery, the abolitionist Frederick Douglass journeyed across the Atlantic to Ireland, where, in Belfast, he felt so welcomed that he declared of the city: “Wherever else I feel myself to be a stranger, I will remember I have a home.” Inspired by Douglass’s historic visit and galvanized by racial tensions in the aftermath of Brexit, the celebrated Belfast-based artist and DJ Kwame Daniels set out to create an artistic production that would bring the people of Belfast closer to Black cultures. His North Star, a flagship project of Belfast 2024, the city’s largest cultural program to date, melds music—jazz, gospel, classical, hip-hop and electronic—with spoken word and storytelling for a large-scale, immersive theatrical experience featuring artists and young people from the community responding to the question: What makes a place home to new people, to new ideas? This is a show about belonging like nothing you’ve ever seen. Join us.