My identity
As a cis-gendered, black, queer womanist and mother of a black woman, my intersectionality will always find its way through the characters I write. Our layers and complexities give us depth and humanity. When you can predict exactly what each character in my play will do next -- that's when I know I need to go back to the writing table.
My Inspiration
June Jordan, Nikki Giovanni, Audre Lorde, August Wilson, Lynn Nottage, James Baldwin, Ava DuVernay, Percival Everett, Beyonce' Knowles, Lorraine Hansberry, William Shakespeare, Oprah Winfrey, Sam Greenlee.
My Interests
- Explorations of race, gender and sexuality
- Subverting gender roles
- Investigating marginalized identities
- Punctuating the elements of intersectionality
My tools
I strive to write characters that actors will be excited to embody. While workshopping Mon Chaton, I ended up replacing a monologue that I'd cut after actors insisted that I was taking away one of the most important moments of the play. It excited me to know that the actors had grown so close to their characters that the story was now as much in their world as it was in mine.
Humor is important to me because it breaks down walls and disarms audiences so that they are more available to appreciate each other's humanity across lines of difference.
WTF Happened to Baby Sister?!
WTF Happened to Baby Sister? is a satiric, cross-gender adaptation of the 1962 cult classic film “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” that features the Jenkins sisters, former drag ball icons who have fallen on lean times.
Sister B decides to compete in the 1995 Golden Diamonds Grandeur Ball to re-launch her career, but Sister J will stop at nothing to gain the title that she feels her sister stole from her back in 1972. The play was conceived by James Foster Jr. and inspired by Michael Sainte-Andress.
