Zhailon Levingston

Challenging Black & Jewish Identity on Broadway

Broadway director and arts activist Zhailon Levingston has been making waves in the New York theater scene through his ability to challenge audiences emotionally at the same time he is entertaining them. In this episode, Zhailon, who is not Jewish, describes his love of the very Jewish practice of “Havruta,” a collaborative method of rigorously debating ideas with a single partner over a long period of time, and how this intense intellectually wrestling is a far more productive method of bringing folks together than trying to get everyone to agree on the same positions. As artistic director of The Inheritance Theater Project, Levingston reveals deep insight into how collaborative playmaking can be a powerful technology for bringing disparate communities together. In this week’s episode, Levingston joins Jonah for an illuminating conversation on a number of deep and difficult topics, from Jewish and Black identity, to the Israel/Gaza war, to Gen Z’s struggles with social media, to the ideas of “Black Aliveness”. Don’t miss this complex, thought-provoking discussion you can only find right here, on Being Jewish with Jonah Platt!

• Mentioned in this Episode

  Inheritance Theater Project: https://www.inheritancetheater.org/

  Jon Adam Ross: https://www.inheritancetheater.org/our-staff

  Dr. Rebecca Schorsch: https://www.inheritancetheater.org/our-team

  Havruta Meaning & Definition: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/havruta-learning-in-pairs/

  The Story of The Exodus: https://njop.org/passover/the-story-of-the-exodus/

  James Baldwin Text About Black/Jewish Relations in 1968: https://e3w.dwrl.utexas.edu/black-aliveness-or-a-poetics-of-being-by-kevin-quashie/

  Kevin Quashie on How to Read & Interpret Black Text Through “Aliveness”: https://e3w.dwrl.utexas.edu/black-aliveness-or-a-poetics-of-being-by-kevin-quashie/

  Juneteenth Seder: https://www.inheritancetheater.org/losangeles2024

  Douglas Lyons: https://www.douglaslyons.net/

  Chicken & Biscuits Play: https://playbill.com/production/chicken-biscuitscircle-in-the-square-theatre-2021-2022

  Table 17 Play: https://playbill.com/production/table-17-off-broadway-the-robert-w-wilson-mcc-theater-space-2024

  The Normal Heart Play by Larry Kramer: https://playbill.com/production/the-normal-heart-john-golden-theatre-vault-0000013734

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  Host & Production Team - Host: Jonah Platt; Produced by Rainbow Creative (Executive Producer: Matthew Jones; Story Producer: Sean Leviashvili; Editor: Patrick Edwards); Social Media Manager: Yuval Yosha; Designer Noah Bell Research Associate: Samantha Greenwald, and Consulting Producers: Shield Communications (Ariella Noveck & Bethany Mandel).

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