In the summer of 2022, 3Views sent out a call for contributors. In our search for more voices, we began to talk about a lack of intergenerational perspectives in our work. That led us to ask, “where are the critics of color from the generation above us? And where are their elders?” We scanned the web, reached out to our mentors, spoke with colleagues across the field, and were fortunate enough to speak with three kind and brilliant Black critics of varying ages:
Jan Simpson (70s) – the critic behind the website Broadway & Me; host of the BroadwayRadio podcast “All the Drama”
Eric Deggans (50s) – NPR’s first full-time TV critic.
Regina Victor (20s) – an artist and critic; founder of Rescripted
Here’s how these three critics found their way to the field and what they see now. The interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.
3Views: What were some early doors that opened for you in the field of cultural criticism?
It is something that I fell into. I think it was a need. The first thing I ever wrote professionally was a 2017 interview titled, #BreakingtheBinary for Howlround. I did that interview on Trump's inauguration day with Lisa Evans and SK Kerastas on the work they were doing at Berkeley Rep. I was an essayist and interviewer at the start of my writing career and founded Rescripted about a year later, and then The Key — a young critics mentorship program — after that. Can you believe I just started the outlet and then started the training program that same year? I can't believe I had the audacity.
No, we need audaciousness.
Thank you.
What was the impetus to start a publication and program so quickly? Were you not seeing the criticism you wanted to read?
I really wanted to hire other writers right away. And I realized that they didn't exist and that I would have to train them. I partnered with Oliver Sava, who at the time was a critic for The Chicago Reader, to build the program. He brought along a more formal sense of criticism, even though he was also in his twenties and a dramaturg.
It’s very natural for a lot of people to want to create opportunities for people coming after them. Was there anyone in your life that gave you any sort of mentorship, specifically a person of color, about what it would mean to forge a career in criticism?
I wouldn't say that there was someone who championed me into it, it’s the opposite if I’m honest. My biggest champion in starting Rescripted was my co-founder, Katherine O’Keefe, who stepped away from the publication and is now enjoying a career as a successful intimacy director. She built our first website, Michael Locher designed me a free graphic. Emjoy Gavino and The Chicago Inclusion Project lent The Key and Rescripted their brand. I was championed by the community, not the industry. I would say that there were precedents for it, just enough to get the idea to start writing. There was one, part-time critic of color at a major paper when I started Rescripted and that was Loy A. Webb. Loy was also a playwright (I dramaturg’d the world premiere of her first play, The Light in Chicago shortly after) that was writing for New City at the time. I invited her to my Cultivating Critics of Color panel put on with Tanuja Jagernauth. Coya Paz and Ike Holter were on that panel, and we had a mentor/mentee from a program at the Goodman Theatre [Cindy Bandle Young Critics Program] that paired adult female journalists with young women. That panel is a big part of our history.
Wow, I didn’t know that about Loy! Living in NY, I’ve only known her as a playwright. I wish I could ask her the same question I’ll ask you which is, can you honestly say that you have seen a lot of change between when you started writing critically and today? Or rather, what is the change that you see?
Yeah, there's been pushes both from myself and my training program, The Key. And then also I think the national scene has realized it needs to start training people. I would say the biggest thing that's probably come out of my work was the administration of the BIPOC Critics Program that Jose Solís* is now running. And also the one out of Boston at Front Porch.
The Young Critics Program at Front Porch Arts Collective. Yeah, we recently partnered with that Boston team – they're wonderful.
Those both came after The Key, and I talked to the coordinators of both programs. A really important thing about The Key is that, at the time, it was the only other free training program in the country besides the Eugene O'Neill Critics Institute, which is run by Chris Jones. So the fact that Front Porch exists and Jose's program exists are big victories for me.
They are direct reflections of your influence.
It means a lot that the work is continuing in other regions. That's what I really hoped for. Especially because The Key has not been able to run through the pandemic safely, but I’m trying to plot ways to reinvigorate it.
I'd like to talk a little bit more about your life working in criticism. In your experience, has it been feasible to have a good quality and spirit of life as a professional critic?
I am a part-time critic so I feel like it's easier for me than some of my counterparts if I’m honest. It’s very hard to do this full-time. Chris [Jones] talks about that a lot because he is at the theater six nights a week. It’s only possible to be a full-time critic if you have one of those staffed positions at a major paper. Like most people who aren’t in that position, I do other forms of writing.
Who are your peers, in Chicago or elsewhere, that you are able to lean on? Who are you able to talk shop with about the industry about maintaining a well-balanced life?
Diep Tran** is a peer and a mentor. If there’s a person who really mentored or pushed me through, it would be her. I believe in lateral mentorship, and we’ve learned a lot from each other’s experiences in the field over time. And Kelundra Smith was one of the first Black critics I met from another state.
Kelundra is wonderful and has written for 3Views.
Also Katie Drexel from New England Theater Geeks, for sure. I feel like what Katie's doing for criticism — centering the perspective of folks with disabilities — is what I’m doing for trans and BIPOC folks in my career.
If you could talk to the Regina who was first starting out, or to someone else who maybe wants a Key, a BIPOC Critics Lab, etc., what advice would you give them about pursuing a stable, sustainable, and safe life as a critic?
The number one thing is the ability to make a career as a journalist. To me, it’s one of the last disciplines you can practice into, rather than train into if that makes sense. At The Key, every semester we would have a multimedia segment where the cohort would be able to do any form of media review that they wanted to. We would bring in Angelica Jade Bastién, she is an amazing Black woman and a film critic for Vulture. She's truly the shit. We would bring in different directors and journalists so there’d be a new discipline every week with a unique perspective on criticism. Also lessons on how to pitch, how to build your platform, how to diversify your portfolio, essential things I needed to know when I started.
Is there anything that you would change about your career up to this point? Or how you maneuvered through these different systems when you're creating so many platforms of your own?
I certainly wish that I learned the rules better before I broke them. But I don't actually know if I would've been able to break them. You know what I mean? So that's kind of a backwards answer. Critics didn't critique other critics, you know what I mean? They just don't. Apparently, that's a really big rule that I didn't know, and therefore, didn’t always follow.
Blind support of your fellow critic is often encouraged.
I actually got called out for that at a Theatre Communications Group conference because of a series called “Dear White Critics” published on Rescripted. But why not critique people? Why not push the art form, you know what I mean? Why not demand integrity? Why gossip about injustice behind people's back and not bring it up? What’s the point of that?
If you’re able to dish it, you’ve got to be able to take it.
Exactly.
My final question which might be more of a manifestation for you because you're really ambitious, but if you think about an alternate path of your life, let's say you were a chef or a librarian, what are the ways you feel criticism would've still shown up?
The mission of Rescripted is to re-program the way that we critically engage with each other. It uses theater criticism as that vehicle. But I think ultimately, it's a lot of discernment, of how to engage with a source. A lot of it was motivated by the way people were reading (or not reading) the news and the lack of critical engagement through 2016. I needed to invest in that, bring balance to that. Criticism would always show up in my alternate life path, it already does because I am also a spiritual practitioner; I read tarot. Practicing tarot is also a form of critical engagement and interpretation of your life and environment.
I lied, this is the last question. What does our field need to progress? What are the tangible steps folks can take, whether they're a vet at a publication, just starting out, or are a gatekeeper in some way?
Ultimately, it's all about funding. We’re severely lacking staffing because we’re lacking funding. I wanted to hire folks from The Key, but I can't offer them a full-time salary position the way that The Reader can, you know what I mean? Resources need to actually go to people of color and programs of color.
*Jose Solís is a former co-editor of 3Views on Theater
**Recently named the Editor-in-Chief of Playbill
Photo by Gracie Meier.
