ARTISTIC STATEMENT
I write for the theater because theater is the most human
thing I know.
I write to assert my humanity in a country that tells me
[and others who look like me]
that our lives don’t matter.
I write to assert that my black queer body
[and other black queer bodies]
are worthy of narrative space.
I write
[as Toni Morrison says]
to pull back the veil
that has historically been drawn over
“proceedings too terrible to relate.”
I write
[as Suzan-Lori Parks says]
to “make history.”
I write
[as August Wilson says]
“to tell the story.”
I write
[in my own words]
In hopes of ushering in a kinder,
gentler,
more equitable,
more accepting,
more courageous,
more compassionate,
more loving,
world.
My plays are
About broken — heart-broken, body-broken — people
Who find strength
In their imperfection(s).
My plays are
Emphatic
Empathetic
And poetic.
They are sweet
And sincere.
My plays are punctuated by
Fragments,
Odd rhythms,
Inarticulateness,
Incomplete sentences
And monologues;
Quiet conversations,
Ringing phones,
Ten-minute long voicemail messages
And direct address.
In my plays people
Sing,
Dance,
Fall inlove,
Fuck,
Talk to the sky,
Remember when,
Shovel snow,
Jump rope in five-inch heels,
Laugh so hard they cry,
Climb fire escapes,
Burn shit down
Fly.
And sometimes for no real reason at all
It snows.