The Chicago Tribune did a story about Being the Dream, the production I directed.
“I, for one, was very adamant that I didn’t want this production to be trauma born, because Black history is so often trauma born,” said Kelly Campos, one of the project’s curators. “I didn’t want it to be necessarily rooted solely in the past because history happens now.”
This is actually a slight misquote, because what I actually said was trauma PORN.
This is exactly why in my storytelling and music, even when I directly address the heavy and sad; I try to balance it with the joyful.
African Americans have a LOT of practice finding pockets of joy, and we REALLY need to celebrate that joy...