Kwame Daniels brings exuberant, immersive Frederick Douglass-inspired North Star from Belfast to New York
When Frederick Douglass left Belfast in 1845, only seven years after escaping slavery, he declared: "Wherever else I feel myself to be a stranger, I will remember I have a home in Belfast." That remarkable statement from a Black abolitionist finding radical welcome in a 19th-century Irish city is the beating heart of North Star, the immersive musical and theatrical experience that Northern Ireland-based DJ, broadcaster, and creative producer Kwame Daniels brings to New York's Irish Arts Cente...
When Frederick Douglass left Belfast in 1845, only seven years after escaping slavery, he declared: "Wherever else I feel myself to be a stranger, I will remember I have a home in Belfast." That remarkable statement from a Black abolitionist finding radical welcome in a 19th-century Irish city is the beating heart of North Star, the immersive musical and theatrical experience that Northern Ireland-based DJ, broadcaster, and creative producer Kwame Daniels brings to New York's Irish Arts Center, June 3–21.
Irish Stew cohosts Martin Nutty and John Lee met Kwame at the Irish Arts Center a few days before opening night and recorded this episode in the IAC Library
He relates that his journey to Belfast began in a Ghanaian household in East London, where identity was worn proudly inside the home and navigated carefully beyond it. "As soon as we entered the house again, it was absolutely back to the background, the roots, and the culture," he recalls. "But outside, there was almost a code-switch going on. We were firm in our identity, and yet we were also aware of our surroundings and how we had to move within them." That same fluency served him when he arrived in Derry in 1997 and found a city divided along lines he didn't yet understand. Music became his passport across the sectarian divide. "I was bringing in sets of decks (the equipment DJs use to play, control, and manipulate music). That's the conversation, all the other conversations come out of that."
Kwame relates that Douglass's Belfast story with his evocation of finding a home in the city hit him with the force of revelation. "A Black man, an enslaved man on the run in 1845 and that's his response to being in Belfast. That has to be the starting point for us to reset."
The result is a 77-minute production, one minute for every year of Douglass's life, an immersive experience fusing hip-hop, jazz, gospel, classical, and electronic music with spoken word, choral arrangements, and the honest voices of young people from both Belfast and New York. "You're going to be presented with a level of musicianship that is extraordinary, and it's unlike anything you've ever seen."
North Star runs June 3–21 at the Irish Arts Center, tickets at irishartscenter.org.
Next up from Irish Stew, Fresh Stew LIVE with Terry Golway on his new thriller Terror From America: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, recorded before sold out audience in the Malachy McCourt Room at Ernie O’Malley’s Pub in NYC with the fiddler Eileen McLain and actor Mick Mellamphy enhancing the experience.
LINKS
NORTH STAR
KWAME DANIELS
ORGANIZATIONS
IRISH STEW LINKS
- Website Home Page
- Media Partner: IrishCentral
Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 18; Total Episode Count: 159
00:00 - Introduction
01:44 - How does Frederick Douglass Speak To Us Today?
04:11 - Growing Up Ghanian in London
10:50 - Musical Background
12:53 - Moving to Derry
16:06 - Understanding the Northern Ireland Conflict
18:03 - Straddling Communities in Northern Ireland
21:02 - Bounce, Solab & North Star Origins
30:04 - Assembling North Star Performers
36:31 - The North Star 77 Minute Experience
39:04 - Bringing North Star to NYC
40:25 - Seamus Plug
41:37 - John & Martin Recap
43:57 - Credits
DJ / Broadcaster / Creative Producer
Kwame Daniels is a Belfast-based DJ, broadcaster, and creative producer with over two decades at the heart of Northern Ireland's cultural scene. Originally from London, he arrived in Derry in 1997 with just £400 and a bag of CDs, going on to build a hugely popular residency at Sandinos and becoming a defining figure in the city's music community.
He is the founder and CEO of Bounce Culture, established in Derry in 1999, and founder of Solab, a culturally responsive initiative building a digital platform for artists across Africa, the African Diaspora, and their wider creative networks.
Galvanised by racial tensions in the aftermath of Brexit, Kwame set out to create an artistic production that would bring the people of Belfast closer to Black cultures. The result was North Star, a flagship project of Belfast 2024, the city's largest cultural program to date, melding jazz, gospel, classical, hip-hop, and electronic music with spoken word and storytelling for a large-scale, immersive theatrical experience. Inspired by the historic 1845 Belfast visit of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, the production was first staged at the Telegraph Building during Black History Month 2024 as part of the Belfast International Arts Festival.
North Star is now making its US debut at the Irish Arts Center in New York City in June 2026, supported by Belfast City Council and the British Council. In Kwame's own words, the show is "a lifetime's work that brings together all that I am passionate about — connection, creating and collaboration.&…
