A Packed House Takes A Walk to Respect

Editor's Note: What if creating more understanding in our communities starts with something as simple and as difficult as listening? Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass: A Walk to Respect creates space for different perspectives and meaningful conversation. And the conversation doesn’t have to end here. Learn how you can host A Walk to Respect in your community.

What happens when we take the time to truly listen to someone whose experiences and perspectives may be different from our own?

On Saturday, August 29, and Sunday, August 30, two packed houses at the Glenridge Performing Arts Center explored that question during Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass: A Walk to Respect.

Presented by The Patterson Foundation, the powerful one-act staged reading brought together history, theater, spoken-word poetry, and conversation to tell the story of two men who approached some of our nation's greatest challenges from very different perspectives.

Written and directed by Beth Duda, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass: A Walk to Respect takes audiences back to 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist Frederick Douglass met for the first time. Lincoln was focused on preserving a nation torn apart by the Civil War. Douglass was pushing urgently for freedom and racial equality. They did not enter their relationship agreeing with one another, but they were willing to listen, challenge each other, and continue the conversation.

That journey from difference to understanding was brought to life by Jeffery Atherton as Abraham Lincoln and Joel PE King as Frederick Douglass. Using the actual written and spoken words of Lincoln and Douglass, Atherton and King gave the audience a glimpse into the conversations, disagreements, and growing respect between these two historic figures.

Throughout the production, Cedric Hameed, serving as narrator and spoken-word poet, helped connect those historic moments to the present. His original poetry added another powerful layer to the experience, reminding us that while Lincoln and Douglass lived more than 150 years ago, the questions they wrestled with about equality, division, respect, and our responsibility to one another remain relevant today.

The result was a passionate and meaningful production that could be felt throughout the room.

But the experience didn't end when the performance did.

Following both shows, audience members were invited into a Q&A with Duda, Atherton, King, and Hameed. The conversation let attendees ask questions, share their thoughts and feelings, and reflect on what they had just experienced.

Those conversations were an important part of the weekend. Theater can give us a space to think and feel, but conversation gives us an opportunity to take those thoughts a little further. Audience members weren't simply watching the story of Lincoln and Douglass finding their way toward mutual respect, they were considering what that example might mean in their own lives and communities.

Perhaps that is one of the most lasting lessons of A Walk to Respect.

Lincoln and Douglass did not have to abandon their beliefs to listen to one another. They didn't have to agree on everything to develop respect. They were willing to remain in conversation, hear another perspective, and allow that relationship to grow.

More than 150 years later, their example still gives us something to think about.

How can we listen more deeply? How can we stay in conversation when we disagree? And how might our communities be different if we approached one another with curiosity and respect?

This weekend's packed performances showed that people are willing to come together and explore those questions.