Michael Fosberg brings "Incognito" to Hopkins

On Wednesday, January 27, the Hopkins community assembled in the Walter Camp Athletic Center for a presentation of Incognito, a one-person play written and performed by Mr. Michael Fosberg. Incognito presents Fosberg’s journey of discovering his own identity and the complexity of ‘race’ in the United States. Fosberg was raised in a working-class white family in the suburbs of Chicago, and discovered, at age thirty, that his biological father was black. In the play he shares the journey of finding and connecting with his birth father, being welcomed with open arms by a family he never knew he had, as well as the complex range of emotions in discovering his own African American identity after living a life of white privilege. He raises questions of perception of race and ethnicity and stereotypes that pervade society. 

 

Following the presentation, Fosberg stayed on to facilitate grade-specific workshops on Wednesday and Thursday. Students engaged in group discussion and activities about race, stereotypes and identity.

Mr. Fosberg’s visit was presented as part of Hopkins’ year-long Conversation on Race. The next program in the Conversation on Race is a keynote address by Charles Blow, New York Times Op-Ed columnist and author of Fire Shut Up in My Bones, on Friday, February 19.