Artist Statement

I am a Black feminist writer, actor, and dramaturg. 

As a pastor’s daughter, the performance traditions cultivated in Black churches form the cornerstones of my theatrical practice. Dancing in the liturgical dance troupe, singing in the children’s choir, and speaking in the youth pastoral ministry were my introductions to the practice of authoring performances in community. I experienced performance as an embodied orientation to storytelling and communal enunciation, and as an avenue to self-making, spiritual expression, and historical memory. Grounded in these cultural roots, I began creating my own work at the age of five; I would write and perform skits inspired by my father’s ministry, my teenaged sister’s phone life, and my own adventures in the city of Miami. As I grew older, I became attracted to the performance art of spoken word due to its ability to bridge poetry with live performance and its power to hold space for uncomfortable truths. My love for spoken word grew into a hunger for contemporary and classical writers, whose words created worlds on stage and on screen. My own creative and pedagogical practices are deeply informed by the work of playwrights, screenwriters, spoken word artists, solo performers, dancers, actors, and everyday people.