the year two thousand and sixteen
i read the ground on which i stand for the
first
time
i recite the speech on the mccarter stage
where wilson first spoke the words
and made the call to action
where i first performed as a college student
before knowing the black legacy that vibrated within those walls
my voice undulates into the space
mingling with the black voices that precede me
joining the sonic landscape activated by wilson
the speech reverberates with
relevance with
urgency with
the sense nothing has changed
his words name all the wounds i nurse in silence
it is exciting
it is excruciating
it is essential
1996.
august wilson
calls on white theater
to do better
« I have come here today to make a testimony, to talk about the ground on which I stand and all the many grounds on which I and my ancestors have toiled, and the ground of theater…»
wilson offers a thorough blueprint
wilson articulates several of our needs
i emerge from his speech with a militarized vocabulary
desperate to scream
desperate to act
i look to history not to absolve our present
i look to history to refuse the erasure of our past
history reveals why we are here
history reveals how we are here
i convene with my inherited histories
to reimagine our futures
to reimagine our now
2020.
we
call on white theater
to do better
« White people literally need not one Black person to become a Broadway sensation, to become a millionaire, to become a Tony winner…they do not need Black people to reach the pinnacle of success, and that is why I say, burn it down. » -- griffin matthews
we could gather resources
we could detail action items
we could write intricate instructions inciting initiatives to make their theater less anti-black
less anti-asian
less anti-disability
less anti-femme
less anti-indigenous
less anti-latinx
less anti-queer
less anti-trans
less anti-women
we could recount the inextricable trauma of existing-while-black in their theater spaces
we could use rational reasoned prose to convince them that
it all needs uprooting that
it all is overdue for upheaval
wilson gave them a blueprint
wilson told them what we need
but rationale must not work cus
they remain complacent
and reason must not work cus
they remain complicit
1996.
august wilson
calls on white theater to
do better
« So much of what makes this country rich in art and all manners of spiritual life is the contributions that we as African Americans have made. We cannot allow others to have authority over our cultural and spiritual products. »
our negro spirituals
our tactics of antebellum survival
our acts of slave fugitivity
our minstrel shows
our folklore
our anti-lynching plays
our harlem renaissance
our black arts movement
our ancestors
our bodies
our souls
all flow through the veins of the american theater
we are the red white and blue blood cells
yet they are the ones who thrive
their white theater thrives
and leaves us
with one-time-only celebrate-black-history-month risky-ethnic-show slots
constricts us into conditions of scarcity and competition
their white theater thrives
and leaves us to
die
wilson gave them a blueprint
wilson told them what we need
twenty-four years ago
the blueprint was deserted
twenty-four years later
our needs remain discarded
2020.
we
call on white theater
to do better
« Broadway is closed down. Great equalizer. There is no Broadway right now. Black folx, are we running back when this is over? What do we want? Protests are happening everywhere; change is in the air. It's palpable. What do we want? » -- mykal kilgore
the love we black artists have for the theater is undoubtable
while the theater’s love for us is
undoubtably
absent
imagine
imagine being dedicated to something that
imagine walking into a room with
imagine catering to people who
imagine being told you should
imagine explaining
again
and again
and again
and again
that racism is plaguing our industry
only to receive actionless words of solidarity
glimpses of representation magnified as progress
minute gestures glorified as revolution to sooth their white guilt
but we don’t need to imagine
we need space
we need funding
we need a place at the table
we need our own fucking table
for our theaters
for our casting agents
for our producers
for our playwrights
for our designers
for our administrators
for our directors
for our schools
for our board members
for our artistic directors
for our literary managers
for our actors
for our audiences
for our crews
for our academics
for our technical directors
for our stage managers
for our educators
we are here
we have been here
we need their white theaters to extend support
we need their white gatekeepers to relinquish control
we need their white gazes to stop regulating our worth
wilson gave them a blueprint
wilson told them what we need
but they closed their ears
and they closed their eyes
and they kept the american theater for themselves
and they keep the american theater for themselves
for whites
by whites
about whites
with traditions that exclude us
with seasons that limit us
with theaters that tokenize us
with rehearsal rooms that exploit us
with stories that distort us
with pain too tumultuous for my humanity to hold
they remain convinced an occasionally visible black or brown body justifies the whiteness of it all
it is isolating
it is suffocating
and
i
can’t
breathe
NOW.
august wilson
still
calls on white theater
to do better
« We reject any attempt to blot us out, to reinvent our history and ignore our presence or to maim our spiritual product. We must not continue to meet on this path. »
wilson already gave them a blueprint
wilson already told them what we need
and so did shange and so did parks so did locke so did brooks and so did santiago-hudson and so did hughes and so did levi blanco and so did hurston and so did baraka and so did morisseau and so did baldwin and so did deveare smith and so did lorde and so did spike and so did hansberry and so did jacobs-jenkins and so did hartman and so did woodie and so did grimké and so did dunbar and so did nottage and so did robeson so did childress and so did sanchez and so did matthews and so did kilgore and so have you and so have i and so
where do they stand?can they ever do better?
This essay was commissioned in collaboration with SideLight, an ongoing series of curated essays from a contingent of the next generation of artists and arts leaders. As the theater and entertainment industry rebuilds and reimagines, these pieces speak directly to our present, yet also seek to envision our future.
