MEDIA CONTACT: Wendy Leopold at (847) 491-4890 or at w-leopold@northwestern.edu

February 3, 2004

Play on Life of James Baldwin To Be Presented

EVANSTON, Ill. --- A one-man play tracing the fervent life of writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin will be performed by Tony Award nominated actor Calvin Levels at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 6, in the Mussetter-Struble Theatre at Northwestern University.

Admission to the performance is free but tickets must be reserved in advance. The theatre is located in the Theatre and Interpretation Center at 1949 Campus Drive on the Evanston campus.

“James Baldwin: Down from the Mountaintop” is written and performed by Levels, a member of The Actors Studio who studied with Lee Strasberg. His play traces Baldwin’s childhood in Harlem to his relationships, rivalries and associations with Martin Luther King Jr., Richard Wright, Marlon Brando, Truman Capote, Malcolm X and other formidable figures in the literary world and the struggle for civil rights.

Born in 1924, Baldwin by 14 was a fiery young minister at the Fireside Pentecostal Church. After graduating from high school, he worked as a journalist writing for The Nation, Commentary and Partisan Review. His first novel, “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” was based in part on his experiences as a teenage minister in Harlem.

After living in Paris for almost a decade, Baldwin returned to the U.S. and joined Martin Luther King Jr. and Medgar Evers in the civil rights movement of the fifties and sixties.

Actor Levels has worked with theaters across the country, including the Ensemble Studio Theatre, Lincoln Center Theatre and the Music Box Theatre on Broadway. He received the Theatre World Award for Outstanding New Talent and was nominated for the New York Drama Desk Award.

To reserve tickets for the admission-free performance, call Northwestern’s Department of African American Studies at (847) 491-5122.