“I don't believe you have to be the same background as the playwright to be able to fairly and professionally review or write about a piece of work. I do believe that you have to be a student of culture and a student of humanity to be able to do it. If your cultural lens is limited, if your world is provincial, it’s hard for you to then give that person a fair shake because you don’t understand their experience, because you’re not around people like them, you don't engage with people like them."
This week, we talk with Kelundra Smith about the many writing hats she wears as a culture and theater critic, playwright, arts and culture journalist, and Managing Editor of American Theatre Magazine. We dive into what inspired her to write The Wash and Younger (a prequel to Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun), how her Southern perspective informs her work, and which regions of the country are capturing her theatrical attention.
Recommendation: They Cloned Tyrone, I’m a Virgo, Book of Clarence, and Toni Morrison’s The Source of Self Regard.
Shout out: Everybody Black. Everybody who is showing up. The Black Women Speak Collective.
Follow Kelundra on Instagram and Twitter. You can buy tickets to Kelundra’s play The Wash for its June 7 - June 30 run at Atlanta’s Synchronicity Theatre here and July 10 - 28 run at Impact Theatre Atlanta here.
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