Dinner with Dinah

Dinah, an enslaved Black woman who was brought to the site of the Stenton Mansion in Germantown as dower property c.1753, was manumitted in 1776 by William Logan. An oral tradition that first appeared in the 19th century recounts Dinah’s role in saving Stenton from being burned by the British in November of 1777, and she is documented in correspondence and diaries kept by Deborah Norris and George Logan, who lived at Stenton from c.1780-1838. Co-created by poets Trapeta B. Mayson and Yolanda Wisher, Dinner with Dinah is a participatory performance in the gardens of Stenton Mansion that reimagines Dinah’s life and the complexities of freedom during the American Revolution. Act 1 of the show is a shared meal accompanied by poetic prompts for discussion and Act 2, a performance of a choreopoem written by Mayson from Dinah’s perspective.