Seven winners of the nation's most distinguished award for African American playwriting.

Three winners of the nation's most distinguished award for African American playwriting.

August Wilson's radical and provocative call to arms.

"Fine reading and a superb resource." -- Ms. "Highly recommended." -- Library Journal "Perkins has chosen the plays well, and her issue-oriented introduction places the women and their works in a literary and historical context." -- Choice "As well as being centered on the black experience, the plays in Black Female Playwrights are centered on the female experience." -- Voice Literary Supplement "Perkins' anthology is valuable for a number of reasons... Perkins' book (which includes a bibliography of plays and pageants by black women before 1950 as well as a selected bibliography of critical works) is a major help in providing access to [the world of black drama]." -- Theatre Journal The need to acknowledge these works was the impetus behind this volume. Perkins has selected nineteen plays from seven writers who were among the major dramatizers of the black experience during this early period. As forerunners to the activist black theater of the 1950s and 1960s, these plays represent a critical stage in the development of black drama in the United States.

I want to find it all now know our names know the others in history so many women have been lost at sea so many stories have been swept away Chiaroscuro: (noun) the treatment of light and shade in drawing and painting. Aisha, Yomi, Beth and Opal couldn't be more different, but when Aisha hosts a dinner party, the friends soon discover that they're all looking for an answer to the same question. Does it lie in Aisha's childhood? Or in Beth and Opal's new romance? Who will tell them who they really are? What starts out as a friendly conversation between women, soon turns heated when Yomi reveals what she really thinks about Beth and Opal's relationship. A searing, tender look at queer Black womanhood by award-winning writer and Scots Makar Jackie Kay.

Selected and edited by the award-winning American playwright Reginald Edmund, who produced Black Lives, Black Words across the US, which premiered in Chicago, July 2015. The international project has explored the black diaspora’s experiences in some of the largest multicultural cities in the world, Chicago, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Toronto and London. Over sixty Black writers from the UK, USA, and Canada have each written a short play to address Black issues today. "I started Black Lives, Black Words because I felt there needed to be an opportunity for me as a playwright to speak out against the sins committed in this world inflicted upon black bodies: Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Rekia Boyd, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, and the countless many others. This in turn caused me to wonder what other artists were out there that possess this overwhelming desire to speak out for the unheard voices. Companies in Minneapolis with Guthrie Theatre, Carlyle Brown and Company, Bedlam Theatre, Freestyle Theatre, the Million Artist Movement, in Maryland – Columbia Arts Festival, Chicago – Polarity Ensemble Theatre, Toronto – Obsidian Theatre, Buddies and Bad Times Theatre, and the National Arts Centre, along with many others joined us and now, two years later we have given voice to over sixty Black Playwrights and over a hundred performers. From city to city, Black Lives, Black Words has remained an event that is accessible and affordable to all. Embraced by a wide range of different theatres that vary in capacity, playing to houses from 70 to 300 audience members. Selling out in every venue. I collected these works showcased at BLBW events from all over in hopes that the narratives that have been placed in here speaks to the Black Struggle, Black Achievement, Black Love, Black Aspirations, Black Hopes, Black Dreams, BLACK EVERYTHING. I hope that the narratives amplify the importance of the Black Lives Matter Movement, that these plays find themselves in theatres both community and regional, in classrooms and libraries, church houses, and communal gathering serving as a rallying cry for those that are artists and even those who are not that OUR BLACK LIVES MATTER, individually, globally, and spiritually." - Reginald Edmund, Managing Curating Producer, Black Lives, Black Words Featured in this collection are: Reginald Edmund, Idris Goodwin, James Austin Williams, Rachel Dubose, Becca C. Browne, Marsha Estell, Aaron Holland, Loy A. Webb, Lisa Langford, Christina Ham, Harrison David Rivers, Dominique Morisseau, Winsome Pinnock, Trish Cooke, Mojisola Adebayo, Rachel De-Lahay, Max Kolaru, Yolanda Mercy, Somalia Seaton, Courttia Newland, Luke Reece, Tawiah BenEben M’Carthy, Jordan Laffrenier, Meghan Swaby, Mary Ann Anane, Allie Woodson, Elliot Sagay, Amira Danan, Cat Davidson, Noelle Fourte, Kori Alston

The Old South lives on at the MacGregor Plantation - in the breeze, in the cotton fields... and in the crack of the whip. Nothing is as it seems, and yet everything is as it seems. Jeremy O. Harris's Slave Play rips apart history to shed new light on the nexus of race, gender and sexuality in twenty-first-century America. It opened at New York Theatre Workshop in November 2018, and transferred to Broadway the following year. This edition is published alongside the West End production in 2024. 'How to explain Harris? He is like Tennessee Williams, if Williams had been Prince. Or Truman Capote, if Capote had been Paradise Garage. He is a firebrand writer with whipcrack humour. He has two brilliant plays under his belt, Slave Play and Daddy. He is such a queer hero of our times that the New York neighbourhood he lives in has become fleetingly famous. One of Jeremy O. Harris's plays coming to London is a major event' Evening Standard

African American women have increasingly begun to see their plays performed from regional stages to Broadway. Yet many of these artists still struggle to gain attention. In this volume, Sandra Adell draws from the vital wellspring of works created by African American women in the twenty-first century to present ten plays by both prominent and up-and-coming writers. Taken together, the selections portray how these women engage with history as they delve into--and shake up--issues of gender and class to craft compelling stories of African American life. Gliding from gritty urbanism to rural landscapes, these works expand boundaries and boldly disrupt modes of theatrical representation. Selections: Blue Door, by Tanya Barfield; Levee James, by S. M. Shephard-Massat; Hoodoo Love, by Katori Hall; Carnaval, by Nikkole Salter; Single Black Female, by Lisa B. Thompson; Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine, by Lynn Nottage; BlackTop Sky, by Christina Anderson; Voyeurs de Venus, by Lydia Diamond; Fedra, by J. Nicole Brooks; and Uppa Creek: A Modern Anachronistic Parody in the Minstrel Tradition, by Keli Garrett.

It's About Forgiveness by Albi Gorn. A delightful comedy about a man who seeks out his wife in heaven to ask for forgiveness. When The Cherry Blossoms Bloom by Steven A. Shapiro. Two joggers who meet in a park breathe life into each other's lives. Do Us Part by Alan Lutwin. Sometimes forgetfulness can be the best tonic for soothing the stress of a long-term relationship. Love-This Game Is Real by Tremane Hickman. A poetic story about a girl and a guy anxiously waiting to play the game of love without getting played. Cause And Regret Loss Of Sanity by Frank Tamez. A woman at a Bus Stop contemplates regret and guilt while life interjects in this surreal world of love, loss and lust. Other plays include: About The Rabbits by Frank O'Donnell; Summer's Time by Michael Alvarez; Virgin Rock by Kevin Christopher Snipes; Loyal Companion by Joseph Wohlgemuth; The Upside Down Mirror by Emanuel Fleischmann; Protect The Crotch by Tim J. MacMillan; Madrid by Paul M. Buzinski; Requiem For A Life by Tony Macy-Perez; Fun On The Bayou by Vivian Neuwirth; Grave Concerns by Susan E. Sneeringer; Cut Short by Jonathan Zungre; The ABC Slump by Ernest Curcio; and many more!

Sonia Sanchez is a prolific, award-winning poet and one of the most prominent writers in the Black Arts movement. This collection brings her plays together in one volume for the first time. Like her poetry, Sanchez’s plays voice her critique of the racism and sexism that she encountered as a young female writer in the black militant community in the late 1960s and early 1970s, her ongoing concern with the well-being of the black community, and her commitment to social justice. In addition to The Bronx Is Next (1968), Sister Son/ji (1969), Dirty Hearts (1971), Malcolm/Man Don’t Live Here No Mo (1972), and Uh, Uh; But How Do It Free Us? (1974), this collection includes the never-before-published dramas I’m Black When I’m Singing, I’m Blue When I Ain’t (1982) and 2 X 2 (2009), as well as three essays in which Sanchez reflects on her art and activism. Jacqueline Wood’s introduction illuminates Sanchez’s stagecraft in relation to her poetry and advocacy for social change, and the feminist dramatic voice in black revolutionary art.