Garden State New Play Festival 2026 A Staged Reading of DRAPETOMANIA: A NEGRO CAROL Written by M.D. Schaffer Dramaturgy by Vincent Ireri Lanagan Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic & Black Lives Matter Protests of 2020, Wayne Pensky, an anxious new Black father, feels the stressors as he considers the future that his newborn son will face. When his White partner, Maggie, leaves him with their child to visit her mother, he's visited by three ghosts of Black Liberation past: LD, a 21-year-old leader of the Attica revolt; Anna J. Cooper, a famed civil rights activist; and John Brown, a white radical abolitionist. They come to Wayne, declaring he's the next great liberator of African Americans, and lead him on a journey that forces him to face the question, "What is he willing to sacrifice for the liberation of his people?" Friday, May 15th @ 8:00 PM The Grace Church Van Vorst 39 Erie St, Jersey City Please join us for a discussion following the reading! #newplay #theatre #supportthearts