The walls 'In This House' have ears

It's hard to imagine that an integrated, interracial neighborhood described by New London residents as a "welcoming and wonderful place to live," rose out of the dark history of slavery, but that's the story of the Hempsted Historic District.

The history of the Joshua Hempsted House, around which the neighborhood is built, inspired dance/theater artist Judy Dworin to create a multi-media performance piece titled "In This House" that premieres April 7 at the Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford.

The impressionistic, collaborative piece combines live song and dance with recorded voiceovers and projections, to tell the story of slavery, abolition and race relations surrounding the Hempsted House.

While working on another project with Connecticut Landmarks, which oversees the Hempsted House, Dworin, the founder of the Judy Dworin Performance Project and co-chair of Trinity College's theater and dance department, says she became intrigued with the house's background and felt it would make a great subject for her performance ensemble.

"Connecticut Landmarks has other houses with interesting stories," Dworin says, "but what struck me immediately about this was the generational shifts in the attitudes toward race and slavery-it was a story I wanted to look into further and tell."

She also wants people to realize that "slavery in this country was not purely a Southern phenomenon, but a northern institution as well."

History of Hempsted Historic District

Dworin based "In This House" on Hempsted's voluminous diaries, which was "very unusual for a man of that time," she notes.

In 1678, Joshua Hempsted built the house, which is one of New England's oldest and best-documented dwellings. He lived there his whole life, working in various occupations, from farmer to judge to shipwright, and raised nine children on his own after the death of his wife in 1716.

Later on, Hempsted came to "own" a third-generation, New London-born black man named Adam Jackson, who lived and worked side-by-side with him, yet when Hempstead died, he didn't leave anything to Jackson, instead listing him as his property at a value of two pounds.

"That's the conundrum," Dworin says. "He was always seen as property, despite their (close relationship)-it's shocking, but it was the accepted way things were at the time."

The uplifting part of the story is the unusual enclave that evolved over the next generation, in which Hempstead's female descendents and husbands wrote anti-slavery tracts, poems and hymns; the women opened a school attended by both black and white children; and a New London abolitionist built four houses for freed African Americans that he sold to them at less than market value.

Dworin spent many months doing research in New London to write the script for "In This House," including interviewing people who had lived there. It wasn't easy, but she was able to locate a small group of women who grew up in the neighborhood in the 1950s, when it was integrated but predominantly black.

"Three women had grown up together and hadn't seen each other in years, so it was like a reunion," Dworin says. "They said they loved the neighborhood, and since everybody was poor you didn't think about being poor. Everyone knew each other, there was a sense of family and concern for one another, and it didn't matter if you were black or white.

"Racism," she adds, "wasn't a big factor until they got older-in junior high and high school-and (one's) friends became all white or all black."

Dworin also interviewed Ralph Sidberry, who is now in his 80s and still lives in the neighborhood, where he told Dworin, he's very happy. He said he found racism much more extreme and difficult when he lived in the South.

The house as leading role

Dworin decided to make the house itself the main character of the performance piece and chose prominent jazz percussionist Alvin Carter Jr., as the dwelling's "wonderful deep and resonant" voice.

"I thought, 'Who can tell this story?' Anyone who tells it can only tell it from the point of view of when they lived. The house lived through it all and still stands, and is a kind of vessel for the entire experience. It felt like a natural choice."

A pivotal aspect of the piece is the abstract, moving set, designed by Marcela Oteiza, comprised of six-foot windows on wheels that represent the house and time passing. Dancers move throughout the space, in which historic photographs are projected.

Songs were composed by Leslie Bird (who also performs in the piece) and include spirituals and gospel music based on actual abolitionist hymns Dworin was able to find, and original songs by Byrd.

In October, Dworin is planning to bring the piece to the Provenance Center at Mitchell College in New London.

"I hope people will come to Hartford to see it," she says, "but I also would love it to be performed at its home base."