For a lot of queer black people, living is surviving. House of Dinah shows the ways five black Queens are taught or have been taught to own their survival story and speak truth to it. As a queer, non-black person of color, it was an honor to be let in to the sacred space.

A smattering of thoughts during and after House of Dinah: 

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Tough love is necessary. Silence is golden. Don’t let anyone see you cry.

Over the years, I’ve asked artists, producers, and directors their stance on art as social responsibility. Not one has put it as plainly as Jerome A. Parker, mastermind behind House of Dinah.  On a rainy Seattle Saturday, I sat down to converse with Jerome regarding his take on the project and how it acts as a catalyst for exposing Northwest audiences to marginalized stories.

I just got home from watching Markeith Wiley’s IT’S NOT TOO LATE and my mind is swimming with reactions to the show and to the post-show Q&A—

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“Wokeness” especially in light of the recent election results is of a fashion at this point—a moral imperative as performance. Ally theatre. A safety-pin. A t-shirt. A tote-bag.  All signals that are meant to convey: I will not laugh at the wrong jokes. I will not say the wrong thing. I will not be that person. I am not a bad person. 

drawing by Tessa Hulls

This season, an Ambassador Writers Corps* Member will write a profile on each of the nine local artists in 16/17. These in-depth conversations between local artists and local writers will take the place of curatorial notes in the performance programs. 

To witness Ezra Dickinson’s newest performance is to be invited into the birthing room, to be led by the hand behind the white curtain to witness raw emergence and then, after one birth, a rebirth, and another, and another.

Dudes, there are some heavy themes in Ezra Dickinson’s Psychic Radio Star - mental illness, police violence, alienation, the struggle that defines life, reincarnation. Instead of discussing these, I’ll talk about the themes of revealing and concealing, and the unseen unsettling forces that shape our actions - namely, the people included by choice or circumstance in our lives.

This season, an Ambassador Writers Corps Member will write a profile on each of the nine local artists in 16/17. These in-depth conversations between local artists and local writers will take the place of curatorial notes in the performance programs. 

Response from Petra Zanki, OtB Writers Corps Ambassador

Response from Natalie Singer-Velush, OtB Writers Corps Ambassador

I.