*Please note that this event is sold out. Space may open up on the day of the event, but we can’t guarantee it. We encourage you to check out the other happenings that are part of Black to the Future by clicking here.

Artist-in-residence Amoke Kubat and artist Jennifer Johnson will present their original play, “ANGRY BLACK WOMAN and Well-Intentioned White Girl,” with a Q & A and refreshments to follow. The reading is part of Black to the Future: Yo Mama’s House Northside Black History Month Pop-Up Museum. Curated by Amoke Kubat, the exhibition runs from February 8 – 29 and features work from Northside Minneapolis-based artists, inviting visitors to experience the Northside’s own Afrofuturism—reimagining a future through the lens of the African diaspora.

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ABOUT THE PLAY (Words from Amoke Kubat)

“What BLACK WOMAN AIN’T ANGRY? We live in America! We live in Minnesota—the NICEST RACIST Place on the planet! We are overworked, underpaid, and under-resourced. We take care of everything and everybody; the living, the dying, the crazies, the hopeless … at home, at work, in relationships. All around the world some black woman is bending and stretching to make it work for everybody else.” —ANGRY BLACK WOMAN 

“Sometimes, I feel this deep sadness. I don’t know why. I feel naive and stupid and NOT wanting to be white because, I mean ME, gets lost in all this WHITENESS. I hear White Supremacy. White Christian Superiority. White Patriarchy. I wonder how I fit into all of this. What part do I play to keep the status quo and keep all of this in place? How does what I DON’T SAY or DO matters?” —Well Intentioned White Girl/Ghost of Wonder Bread Good Old Days 

“You certainly sent me on a path of raw awareness”! — A white woman who attended a public reading of “ABW&WIWG”

“Minnesota Nice is White People’s illusion of not being racist” — A black woman who attended the performance.

This is what happened … two friends who hadn’t seen each other in a long minute had this exchange. One said, “I am so tired of being called ANGRY when I’m not. My frustration, annoyance, boredom, not giving any more @%#!s are all perceived as ANGER. I have many other emotions! I am so tired of being called an ANGRY BLACK WOMAN!” 

The other friend, who had listened intently, replied, “Like the well-intentioned white girl?” The recognition of the intersectionality of shared dehumanizing and hurtful stereotypes stunned both women into silence. And that set into motion the exploration for understanding and dismantling the Angry Black Woman and Well-Intentioned White Girl stereotypes. RIP. Radical in Possibilities! 

This play, “ANGRY BLACK WOMAN and Well-Intentioned White Girl,” “GOES THERE!” by expressing the daily “unsaids” between black and white women. The accusations and silences reflect our miseducation about each other—the superficial and deep conflicts around our womanhood, ethnicities, rights, power, and constant juxtaposition of roles within the politics of white male patriarchy. ANGRY BLACK WOMAN and Well-Intentioned White Girl goes deep into those hidden, dehumanizing narratives, through storytelling and audience participation.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Amoke Kubat is a writer and multi-genre artist. She remains curious about self, as an older African American woman, the natural world, and the Sacred. She is reclaiming an African Indigenous Spiritual sensibility to reconnect Black people to the natural world, as practice for holistic wellness. Self taught, Amoke uses artmaking and writing to continue to define herself and hold a position of wellness in an America sick with inequalities and inequities. Her first play, “ANGRY BLACK WOMAN & Well Intentioned White Girl” continues to tour in the Twin Cities and to rural Minnesota cities. She debuted “Old Good Pussy and Good Old Pussy” at Pillsbury House January 15-25, 2020. Amoke is the creator of YO MAMA’s The Art of Mothering Workshops and YO MAMA’S HOUSE Cooperative.

Jennifer Johnson loves, mothers and creates as an artist in residence of life and Earth. She practices as a theatre artist, poet, visual artist, and drama therapist and currently co-creates with Arts in Action and Institute Polaris to build community access to the arts addressing public health, mothering, social justice, the dismantling of white supremacy, and interpersonal, generational, and historical trauma.