Historic debate between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley Jr. will be re-created live this week
Who: Teagle F. Bougere, Eric T. Miller, Spencer Hamp, Charlie O’Rourke, Kevin Cristaldi, Daniel Marconi
What: Online play re-creating famous televised debate
Where: BRIC YouTube, Spectrum 1993, Optimum 951, and Verizon 47
When: October 22-24, free with advance RSVP, 7:30 (extended through November 15 on YouTube)
Why: On February 18, 1965, James Baldwin and William F. Buckley Jr. faced off in a televised debate at the Cambridge Union at the University of Cambridge in England, answering the question “Has the American Dream been achieved at the expense of the American Negro?” MP Norman St. John Stevas introduced the event by saying it could be “one of the most exciting debates in the whole hundred and fifty years of the union history” as he noted that undergraduates had packed the debate hall and were flocking outside to be a part of this seminal happening, which began with arguments from students David Heycock and Jeremy Burford, setting up the two sides of the issue. The forty-year-old Baldwin, essayist, activist, playwright, and author of Go Tell It on the Mountain, Giovanni’s Room, and Another Country, and the forty-year-old Buckley, author of Up from Liberalism and Rumbles Left and Right: A Book About Troubling People and Ideas and founder of the conservative National Review, then made their cases, standing in front of a microphone at a podium one at a time. You can watch the original debate below.
Now the american vicarious, in collaboration with BRIC, is re-creating that fascinating evening with Debate: Baldwin vs Buckley, three live, online presentations taking place October 22-24 at 7:30; admission is free with RSVP. [ed note: It can now be viewed on YouTube through November 15.] Teagle F. Bougere will portray Baldwin, with Eric T. Miller as Buckley; the cast also features Spencer Hamp, Charlie O’Rourke, Kevin Cristaldi, and Daniel Marconi, with costumes by Elivia Bovenzi, lighting by Zach Weeks, sound by Andy Evan Cohen, and video and graphic design by Adam J. Thompson. The debate tackles many issues that are still relevant today, from systemic racism to white supremacy to voter suppression; it is also not anything like the recent debates between Donald J. Trump and Joe Biden and then Mike Pence and Kamala Harris. It harkens back to a day when civilized, intellectual discourse was still part of politics and everyday life in an America that is not so recognizable anymore — or has it not really changed that much, for better or worse?