Passing

Nella Larsen's novella follows friends Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, two Black women who can pass as white. Their anxieties about passing culminate in tragedy, revealing the powerful repercussions of hiding one’s identity, including the risks associated with it, and its implications for intimacy in romantic and familial relationships. Larsen uses the act of passing to refer to elements of subterfuge outside of the implied racial context, invoking the kinds of masquerade involved in assuming a class, ethnicity, or sexuality different than one’s own. Nearly a century later, Larsen's novella remains as urgent and relevant as ever.

Narrated by Bahni Turpin.