The Stratford Festival has postponed by one week the release of its online programming out of respect for the victims of anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism and those peacefully protesting for change. Today through June 7, the Festival has given free rein over its social media platforms to its Black artists.

This includes a special live stream this Saturday, June 6, at 10 a.m.: Black Like Me, past, present and future: Behind the Stratford Festival Curtain. It will feature panelists Robert Ball, David Collins, Erica Croft, Allan Louis, Ngabo Nabea, Kimberley Rampersad, André Sills, E.B. Smith and Amaka Umeh, with moderator Beck Lloyd.

In this 90-minute event, a panel of Black artists and artisans will discuss how the last few weeks have affected them; the experience of living in conservative and 95% white Perth County; and the complexities and challenges they have faced while working at the Festival. Stratford Festival patrons are invited for a singular look at what it’s like to be Black in the world, and in this town and company.

A link to the live stream will be posted on www.stratfordfestival.ca Friday afternoon.

The Festival’s Indigenous artists have been offered a similar platform later this month, around National Indigenous Peoples Day.

The viewing party of Hamlet, which was to have taken place at 6:30 tonight, will now be held on Thursday, June 11, when the film will be made available for free streaming for a three-week period ending July 2. Complementary programming that was to be released this week will now roll out next week.