Black stories on stage.
No maids.
No crackheads.
No Tyler Perry.
I've named the project I'm working on Crossroads, since the works of all 3 of us come from or deal with how race intersects with other identities - namely gender and sexuality. It also links to an idea in Vodoo, African American folklore, and Delta blues songs about the crossroads being a place where strange and unexpected happens. Essentially, our works, simply by the fact that they exist, challenge popular notions about what Black theatre is and what it means.
The Crossroads also where they buried actors rather than the graveyard due to their shamanic deal with the devil to incarnate others people.
ReplyDeleteI like it.
Black people don't want stories outside of what they've already been fed for years now. That's why I'm no longer attempting to push alternative representations of black womanhood to the forefront. I will focus on the status quo and finally make money out of it. Pursuing this project will only get your heart broken.
ReplyDeleteThe essential conservatism of black culture is reactionary -- if the majority culture depicts you as lower savages with no emotional control, then the response is over-control. How do we get past that, unless we try?
ReplyDeleteMay all go well with your work.