Chicago Reader: At the end of September 2020, I wrote a piece for the Reader titled “Black artistic leaders take charge at several Chicago theaters,” which framed the influx of new (and preexisting) Black leadership in Chicago theater against the backdrop of a historic disruption in the industry. That disruption was powered in part by COVID-19 leading to budget cuts and mass layoffs, and in part by intense public criticism of the shortcomings of many predominantly white theater institutions, with a call to action for faster and more concrete gains in racial equity in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement’s impact on the arts sector.
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Growing up in such a small place, the feeling of community has always meant so much to me. I created communities in the smallest things, such as school, dance, Girl Scouts, or even the girls that I would sit on the sidelines with at my little brother's soccer games. One of the things that I value the most in life is the relationships that I create with other people, and when a group of people can bond together over something, a community is made. When covid hit, everybody in the performing Arts were definitely caught off guard. In a community where you get to share your talent with a large group of people, it quickly became very hard to fulfill this thing that a group of us have been doing for so long. I'm glad that through the pandemic, people involved in the Performing Art specifically were able to turn to each other for support and the things that they were creating. For me specifically, although I hated Having to go to my online company dance classes, it was still really great to be able to perform and share the dance that I have been working on with the group of people that I loved. COVID definitely put a damper on my creativity, but having that community of people that I was able to share everything with definitely really helped.
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