Beacon actor preparing shift to farming
Hampton Fluker has only lived in Beacon for a few years, but he’s fast becoming a familiar face.
You might recognize him as the manager of the Beacon Farmers Market, or maybe you’re taking an adult acting class he’s teaching at Compass Arts. Maybe you’ve watched him play Marcus Tufo on Shades of Blue, the NBC series that starred Jennifer Lopez
Fluker is accustomed to the spotlight. Growing up in Georgia and excelling at football and track will bring that, as will making a splash in a Broadway debut, fresh out of Boston University’s acting conservatory, in a 2019 Roundabout Theatre Company revival of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons.
The role earned him a Dorothy Loudon Award, which recognizes an outstanding performance in a Broadway or Off-Broadway production.
But despite experiencing success as an actor before the pandemic, something was missing, said Fluker. He and his wife, Amber Reauchean Williams, also love community-building and farming. “Gardens give us peace,” he said.
Now, the couple are about to embark on the next phase of a transition that began with a move to Beacon, in 2020, during the pandemic and led to Fluker becoming manager of Beacon’s farmers market.
He is leaving that role so he and Williams can build, on 5 acres they are leasing, a dream: a “theater farm” to be called Fable and Sow, where they sell organic herbal tea and offer diversity and inclusion workshops, particularly for BIPOC people [Black, Indigenous and other people of color].
“Covid taught us that we’re not always going to get what we want immediately, but something will happen,” said Fluker. “We needed this time. We can now go back to work and do this. Every single chapter in Beacon has led us to this farm.”
Being an admired athlete and a lauded actor were what Fluker was expected to have as traditional goals. His father, whom Fluker calls his best friend — he describes his mother similarly — was, until his recent retirement, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Ethical Leadership at Boston University.
“I was raised with a work ethic from early on, and while he supported my endeavors, he’d say things like: ‘You want to study acting? Good, but college ends in four years; you’re going to have to plan and not waver,’” said Fluker.
After graduating, Fluker pounded the pavement like many aspiring actors, and experienced the typical frustration that comes from repeated rejections. His low point came when he auditioned for Romeo and Juliet. The wind scattered the pages of his script and, having not memorized his lines at that point, he went in and improvised, with no success.
Success did come, but Fluker is a seeker — not of fame or breaking a track record, but of things less overtly coveted. “I like falling into things, truly enjoying them, going with the flow,” he said.
In that way, he and Williams fell into Beacon during the pandemic. While having a “rough time with identity” during the period, Amber suggested they go camping, something Fluker had only done as a Boy Scout.
The couple watched YouTube videos on camping, drove upstate to a tented site and on their return stopped in Beacon for a meal, said Fluker. While there, he recalled, “my wife said: ‘We don’t need to be in Brooklyn anymore. What if our getaway became forever?’”
Fluker started vending for Obercreek Farm at Beacon’s farmers market to understand the rhythm of small-town life. At the market he met “a lot of interesting people, different characters. I saw hard workers who reminded me of how I was raised.”
So, he applied for the market’s assistant manager job, and underwent a six-month mentorship under its manager after being hired. Soon, he took over as manager.
As he learned while doing at the farmers market, Fluker and Williams embarked on a search for land to farm and hold workshops. They recently were approved to lease 5 acres across the Hudson River. Fluker plans to resign from the market effective Sunday (Nov. 26).
His father, born in Mississippi and part of the Great Migration to Chicago, had family members with a background in agriculture, and Williams’ family were sharecroppers near Philadelphia, said Fluker.
“There has been a disconnect between Black folks and the land,” said Fluker. “We’ll have a farm that feels safe to grow not just herbs, but stand in confidence in the lower Hudson Valley.”
