KEISHA
Do you think that I could –
What if I could?
But if I could ask the folks who call themselves white to come up here, do you think they would?
Could I ask them to come up in here,
so that we could go down out there?
Do you think I could ask the folks who call themselves white to do that?
To switch for a little while?

How should I ask them, if I could?

Could I say
“Hi, white people.
Come here, white people. Come on up here.
If you’re physically able to.”

KEISHA steps through the fourth wall.
It’s as simple as that.

KEISHA
Could I say
“Come up here folks who identify as white,
you know who you are.
you can choose to come up here
to where I’ve always been, where my family has always been.
Sit on the couch.
Make yourself a plate.
Look out from where I am.
And let me and my family go out to where you’ve always been.”
Would it help if I told them that the show is ending?
Would it help white people to come up here to where I’ve been
if I tell them that we’ll all leave soon?
That there are things in motion already?
That we are all going to leave anyway?
Could I tell them that those seats are not theirs,
even though they paid for them?
That no one can own a seat forever?
That no one should?

Could I say
“See, there’s Leslie.
She’s our stage manager.
She’s amazing.
She’s white.
She’s coming up here.
You can come on up here too.
Maybe you stand on the stage. Maybe you stand near the stage. But you can go up there.
Leave your coats. Leave your bags. Leave your things.
Just stop worrying about your things, for a minute
and worry about where you can go
what you can do to make space for someone else for a minute,
if you could.”

Do I sound naïve?
Does that matter?
Do I have to keep talking to them
and keep talking to them
and keep talking only to them
only to them
only to them
until I have used up every word
until I have nothing left for
You?

I’ve been trying to talk to You.
This whole time.
Have you heard me?
Do I have to tell them that I want them to make space for us
for them to make space for us?
Do I really have to tell them that?
Do I have to tell them why I want them to go up there for them to go up there?
Why I want them to sit on the sofa
and sit on the chairs
and sit on the carpet
and touch the walls
and touch the fake food
and touch your own face pretending to look in a mirror
but really looking into the lights?

They’re bright aren’t they?
Should I tell them that the lights are there to help people see them not to
help them see anything?
So I can be out down here with all my people of color?
With all my colorful people?
And we can be all of us together alone?
And if I were to go out down here with my colorful people,
could I tell us a story?
If I were out down here, just us, I’d want to tell us a story.
If I could tell the story I want to tell us,
my people,
my colorful people,
you would hear it
if I could tell it,
and it would be something like
a story about us, by us, for us, only us.
But that’s not telling the story.

If I could tell the story I want to tell it would begin like this:
Once upon a time, there was a bright little girl who knew that if she worked twice as hard as–
No.
That’s not what I wanted to tell.
Once, there was a little boy born with the deck stacked –
No.
Once, there was an exceptional –

It’s difficult because I’ve already heard so many stories.
It’s hard to find the one I’d wanted to tell.
It would be something like ...

Once ...
not once,
not at all once.
Many many many many times,
there was a person who worked hard,
a person who tried to work hard,
and tried to do their best,
and tried to do well by their family,
and tried to be good, and tried to do better.
Many many times they tried this.
And so.
The person became who they always were –
who we all always are –
A Person Trying.

So they tried and they tried and they looked around
at the mountains of effort that they had built with their trying
at the piles of half built bests
at the heaps of family
at the hills of good enough and hills of better next time,
and as they looked around,
as they took in the view,
they saw what they had done to make the life that they had lived.

And they looked to the left and saw what you had done
to try to make the life that you have lived,
and they took in that view.
And they looked to the right and saw what you had done
to try to make the life that you have lived,
and they took in that view.
They took it all in.
And in their estimation
they found all of it,
their view over all of it,
the sum of all of it,
to be fair.