Hello all,
As Black History Month comes to a close, I have begun reflecting on my own history. I write this with the awareness that being the loudest one in the room has provided me the platform I have but being loud, for me, was never a choice.
I grew up Black, obviously queer and tall in a small, predominantly white town in Virginia. And, whether I was speaking or not, I stuck out — a loud presence in a serene mountain town.
There are few places one can be purposefully loud. Theatre became a space where I could. In my performances, I could hone my loudness and the audience had no choice but to reckon with me at full volume. Yet, the longer I worked in the space it became discomfiting to see that the loudness I moved with was so rarely reflected in the plays I read because the canon had so few queer characters, let alone black queer ones.
So, I decided to start writing works of my own like Slave Play, which had its Broadway debut late last year. And I discovered the work I was yearning for was out there, just not given the attention from history it deserved. Much of it work by black women like Adrienne Kennedy, Lorraine Hansberry, and Alice Childress, not to mention black queer heroes like Robert O'Hara, George C. Wolfe and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.
Representation in storytelling matters. And there’s no better time to be reminded of that than during Black History Month. I’m honored to work with the Human Rights Campaign and its president, Alphonso David, to remember the Black leaders — LGBTQ and allies — who have contributed so much to our history and to support the next generation of leaders to come.
HRC just released an updated coming out resource for those who are Black and a part of the LGBTQ community. I hope you’ll share it with those in your life who seek and work to create supportive spaces.