Soundtrack
Host: This episode was recorded on the eve of the 59th Annual West Indian American Day Carnival & Parade, in celebration of the Caribbean Diaspora. In the early 1820s, members of the Diaspora, carried a Caribbean story into the heart of New York: the story of Garifuna resistance.
Conch sound
Host: Mabuiga! Welcome to The Garifuna Experience Podcast. I'm your host, José Francisco Ávila. In episode 67, we asked the question, What would New York City look like if Garifuna history, culture, and community contributions were fully recognized, properly counted, and permanently built into the fabric of the city?
Today we are going back more than two centuries - to the birth of Black theatre in New York, and to a connection that changes how we understand both Garifuna history and New York City history.
Host: This episode is called 'King Shotaway: The Garifuna Story at the Birth of Black Theatre in New York.' It is part of our fall campaign to establish The Garifuna Experience as a trusted gateway to Garifuna New York - where culture, history, education, civic power, and cultural tourism meet.
Conch sound
Segment 1 - A Black Stage in New York
HOST: In the early 1820s, New York was not yet the theatre capital it would become. It was also a city where slavery had not completely ended; New York's gradual emancipation process would not reach its final legal date until 1827.
HOST: Into this city stepped William Alexander Brown - sometimes identified in later accounts as William Henry Brown - a Black man born in the West Indies, some who had worked as a ship's steward, according to some historians, he was likely born on St. Vincent and may have been Garifuna. Brown created what became known as the African Grove and the African Theatre: a space built for Black entertainment, Black artistry, and Black audiences.
HOST: This was more than a venue. It was cultural self-determination. Black New Yorkers were not waiting for permission to appear on somebody else's stage. They were building their own institution, presenting Shakespeare, music, popular drama, and original work. The company's leading performers included James Hewlett, and the world-famous actor Ira Aldridge would later be connected to this pioneering theatrical environment.
HOST: The African Grove operated in a hostile city. Its performers and patrons faced racial harassment, police interference, and commercial pressure.
Accounts differ on some details of its locations and final closure, but the broader pattern is clear: Black people created a successful cultural space, and that success challenged the racial order around them.
Conch sound
Segment 2 - From Yurumein to the New York Stage
But what original story did Brown choose to place before this Black New York audience? He turned to St. Vincent - Yurumein, the ancestral homeland of the Garifuna people - and to the resistance led by Paramount Chief Joseph Chatoyer, also known as Satuye.
HOST: In 1795, Chatoyer led resistance against British colonization. He was killed on March 14 of that year. The struggle continued, but British victory was followed by the forced removal of thousands of Garifuna people, first to Balliceaux and then across the Caribbean Sea to Roatan. From there, Garifuna communities took root along the Caribbean coast of Central America, especially in Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, and Nicaragua.
HOST: That history is not a side note. It is a history of land, sovereignty, survival, and forced displacement. It is also a history carried through language, music, dance, spirituality, foodways, oral tradition, and family memory. UNESCO today recognizes Garifuna language, dance, and music as intangible cultural heritage. But long before that international recognition, the story of Garifuna resistance had already reached a Black stage in New York.
Conch sound
Segment 3 - The Lost Play: The Drama of King Shotaway
HOST: Brown's work was known as The Drama of King Shotaway. A surviving handbill describes it as founded on facts concerning the insurrection on the island of St. Vincent and written from Brown's experience. The spelling in that period was inconsistent and often colonial, but the historical subject is recognizable: Shotaway was Chatoyer.
HOST: Here we must be precise. Many histories date the production to 1823. Research presented by Folger Shakespeare Library fellow Desha Osborne points to a debut in January 1822 and another performance documented in 1823. For this episode, the responsible formulation is that the play was performed in the early 1820s - in 1822 and again in 1823 according to the surviving evidence.
HOST: We also cannot reconstruct the play's scenes. The text is lost. We do not know Brown's exact dialogue, staging, or ending. Yet the surviving title and playbill tell us something extraordinary: a Black theatre company in New York centered an Indigenous and African-descended Caribbean people resisting empire.
HOST: Theatre historians often describe King Shotaway as the earliest known full-length play by a Black writer produced in the United States. The exact superlative varies by source, so we should resist turning a complex record into a slogan. What does not require exaggeration is the achievement itself. At a foundational moment in Black American theatre, Garifuna history stood at the center of the stage.
Conch sound
Segment 4 - Who Was William Alexander Brown?
HOST: Brown's own story invites both pride and careful scholarship. We know he was born in the West Indies, worked at sea, settled in New York, and built a theatre for Black artists and audiences. Desha Osborne's Folger research argues that he was likely born in St. Vincent and may have been of Garifuna heritage.
HOST: That interpretation is compelling, especially because the handbill says the work was written from experience. But it is not a fully settled biographical fact. We should say what the evidence allows: Brown was a Caribbean-born Black theatre pioneer with a profound connection to the St. Vincent story. His exact ancestry and personal relationship to the 1795 conflict remain important questions for further research.
HOST: That distinction matters. Responsible cultural storytelling does not weaken our claim; it strengthens our credibility. When we acknowledge uncertainty, we show that Garifuna history deserves the same rigor given to every other field of scholarship.
Conch sound
Segment 5 - Why This Changes New York's Story
HOST: What happens when we place King Shotaway back into New York City's cultural history? We see that Garifuna heritage is not a recent addition to the city. It is connected to one of the earliest institutions of Black performance in New York.
HOST: We see a transatlantic and Caribbean New York long before today's language of multiculturalism. A story born from resistance in Yurumein traveled through a Caribbean-born Black artist into a theatre serving Black New Yorkers. The stage became a bridge: between St. Vincent and Manhattan, between collective memory and public performance, between survival and cultural power.
HOST: This is why The Garifuna Experience matters. Our history should not appear only during Garifuna heritage month, only in a community room, or only when somebody happens to remember us. It belongs in New York City classrooms, theatre histories, walking tours, museums, libraries, archives, and public cultural programs.
HOST: And it must be presented as living history. King Shotaway is not simply a lost artifact from 1822 or 1823. It raises present-day questions: Who gets remembered as a founder? Whose freedom struggle becomes part of the curriculum? Which communities are visible in the cultural map of New York? And who has the authority to tell the story?
Conch sound
Segment 6 - From Recognition to Action
HOST: Here are three practical ways to move this history forward.
- First, educators: include King Shotaway when teaching early American theatre, Black cultural institutions, Caribbean migration, Indigenous resistance, or New York City history. Let students compare what is documented with what has been lost, and ask why some archives survive while others do not.
- Second, theatres, museums, and libraries: invite Garifuna historians, artists, and cultural bearers into your programming. Consider a staged reading of a contemporary response, a public conversation about the lost play, or an exhibition linking the African Grove to Yurumein and today's
- Third, listeners: share this episode with one teacher, one theatre professional, or one cultural institution. Do not share it only as an interesting fact. Share it as an invitation to partnership.
HOST: Our goal is not symbolic inclusion. It is permanent cultural visibility - built through accurate research, community authority, educational resources, public programs, and responsible cultural tourism.
Closing
The script of The Drama of King Shotaway may be lost, but the history it carried is not lost. Chatoyer's resistance lives in Garifuna memory. Brown's theatre lives in the history of Black New York. And the connection between them gives us a new way to see this city - not as a place where Garifuna history merely arrived, but as a place where that history helped shape the Black cultural stage from its earliest chapters.
HOST: This is The Garifuna Experience Podcast, where we turn community narrative into tangible power. I'm José Francisco Ávila.
SIGN-OFF
HOST: Our stories matter. Our history belongs in the public record. And together, we are Garifunas Driving Prosperity, Power and Progress.
HOST: And that wraps up another illuminating episode of The Garifuna Experience Podcast.
Thank you for listening. Remember: The future of the Garifuna people is in our hands.
Until next time, stay united, stay proud. Sungubei Lidan Aban. Ayo!
HOST: Find new episodes of The Garifuna Experience Podcast every Tuesday on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart Podcasts, YouTube, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favorite shows.
Please rate and review The Garifuna Experience Podcast —it helps our history reach the world
Soundtrack
