BLACK LIKE ME
ST. LOUIS, MO
WE-Making is a suite of resources that explores the relationship between place-based arts practices and social cohesion as a means to advance health equity and community wellbeing. This We-Making story is one example of how place-based arts and cultural strategies uniquely contributed to social cohesion and wellbeing in this community. Throughout this story you’ll see terms paired with actions in parentheses (e.g., social capital, collective action, place attachment, civic engagement, self-determination of shared values). This is to denote for the reader how the WE-Making framework was specifically incorporated. Explore the WE-Making framework and resources.
Image credit: St. Louis Repertory Theatre & Monty Cole
In 1959, John Howard Griffin went undercover for six weeks — posing as a Black man in the Deep South. Griffin was a white Texan journalist who wanted to know what it was like to be Black... so he went to a dermatologist and temporarily darkened his skin to the point where friends no longer recognized him and strangers assumed he was Black. His plan was to perform a science experiment to test how simply changing the color of one’s skin might affect their ability to survive in America. He then journeyed through the south as “a Black man” and chronicled his experiences in a journal that was published two years later to considerable acclaim under the title, Black Like Me.
But the book has fallen out of favor. Some modern readers have called it patronizing, others tone-deaf. Smithsonian Magazine reported that Griffin himself later “curtailed” his speaking engagements on the book, saying it was “absurd for a white man to presume to speak for Black people when they have superlative voices of their own.”
Chicago-based artist Monty Cole has one of those voices, and he found himself drawn to Griffin’s material in complicated ways. Cole first came across a movie poster for the 1964 film adaptation featuring a tagline that read, “I changed the color of my skin. Now I know what it feels like to be Black.”
“That in itself just kind of blew me away,” he said. “I was immediately intrigued.” Upon reading the book, Cole found himself grappling with conflicting emotions. “I had an experience reading it where I was both deeply intrigued into this almost Twilight Zone story of what was happening to John Howard Griffin, but also pushing off from it, too,” he explained. “Like, ‘I don’t think that’s right. I don’t think that’s what it’s like to be a Black man.’ Or, ‘That is what it’s like to be a Black man, but how does John know that?’ Just being sucked in and pushed away. And I wanted to make a play that’s a theatrical version of that reading experience.” So, he created modern-day Black characters to reenact the story, respond in real time to the events of the play and wrestle with their own concepts of equality and social justice (creative responses to trauma and racism).
Cole’s play, also titled
Black Like Me, grapples with Griffin’s book by featuring modern-day Black characters. He knew he had to avoid blackface (the idea of having an actor wear it in 2020, he said, is “terrifying”). Instead, the white actor playing Griffin is joined by various Black actors who embody him in his disguise.
“In the play, he goes to put some of the makeup on his face, and the [other] actors just shut it down — ‘No, we’re not doing that, we’re not doing that in this production!’” Cole said. “[The actor portraying Griffin] is speaking his own dialogue, but any of the narration is spoken by a Black author offstage. … You’re never really forgetting it’s a white actor playing John. But you are hearing the narration in a new light because you’re hearing it from Black voices instead.” Cole has called it “both an adaptation and a commentary on the book,” adding, “If the original book was an Idiot’s Guide to Being a Good Ally in 1961, the play is an Idiot’s Guide to Being a Good Ally in 2020.”
The play was featured in a staged reading at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis (The Rep) on September 10, 2020. In addition to Cole, the Chicago-based cast and artistic team of
Black Like Me
included Dramaturg: Regina Victor, Project Manager: Christopher Maxwell and Actors: Adia Alli, Breon Arzell, Brianna Buckley, McKenzie Chinn, Joe Dempsey, Eric Gerard, Daniel Kyri and Netta Walker. They workshopped the script for four days and recorded a staged reading, incorporating the changes honed during those rehearsals.
Black Like Me
is attempting to ask BIPOC people what we expect of our allies and where is the line ? What is the country that we want to live in? Who are the people we want to be? Where were we before? The play is intended to start discourse and create open lines of communication, just like John Howard Griffin did (collective action- community participation in arts activities to facilitate dialogue and deeper engagement).
“Of the many doors that theatre opens, civic dialogue is one of my favorites,” said Hana S. Sharif, The Rep’s Augustin Family Artistic Director. “Monty Cole’s brilliant new play is a compassionate and creative entry point. The Rep is thrilled to elevate this artist and this work.”
Black Like Me is along the lines of the type of work Sharif said that she was eager to present when it was announced that she would take the helm of the award-winning theater company in 2019.
“To create authentic conversations to create space for the type and level of healing necessary to happen has been exciting to be a part of, but it’s not without its own set of challenges. It’s not an easy process, but it is a necessary one,” Sharif told The St. Louis American in 2018.
“I feel like art has the power to liberate – and art has the power to transform lives and art has the power to heal. To be in a community where we can leverage that in order to create bridges with real understanding and where real conversations can happen – and not the pretense of conversation – that was important to me.”
How arts and culture moved the dial in St. Louis
Racial inequities have long plagued the city of St. Louis and its surrounding counties, often acting as a representation of broader, nationwide sentiments and practices. It is home to the launching point of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the Missouri Compromise, Dred Scott decision, the 1917 race riot in East St. Louis, and more recently the killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, MO. Furthermore, BIPOC communities in St. Louis face disparities in nearly every realm – economic, healthcare, education, housing, etc. – when compared to their white counterparts. While cross-sector, systemic change is needed to justify these injustices, The Rep is committed to playing a leadership role in the arts community and to expanding public awareness of the essential contribution the arts make to society (mindset- orientation toward common good through cocreating). The Rep strives to provide opportunities for diverse artistic expression, as well as diverse artists, staff and audience. Diversity is a wide-ranging value, encompassing but not limited to diversity in aesthetics, age, class, disability, ethnicity, gender, geography, race and sexual orientation.
Place-based arts and cultural strategies…
Black Like Me is a juxtaposition of historical and contemporary, analytical and emotional, lighthearted and heartbreaking. By reimagining a perspective on allyship from the 1960s for 2020 America, The Rep’s workshop of Cole’s play created a place for voices from the community to be heard. In addition to the reading, many viewers elected to participate in a unique affinity group talkback immediately following the performance, while others received a post-reading survey (civic engagement- initiating desire for hyper-local civic engagement, encouraging participation). These strategies gave both the audience and performers an opportunity to wrestle with real events and their own real responses (social capital- bonding).
…amplify the drivers of social cohesion…
This project amplified the civic engagement, mindset, and social capital drivers of social cohesion. Cole’s play provides a perspective that orients towards the common good, and by providing a variety of means to engage (virtual performance, feedback via chat on Zoom, post-performance surveys and talkback groups), The Rep created space where our communities’ willingness to participate shined through. These efforts collectively create the trust that is needed to lead to social cohesion.
…to increase equitable community well-being.
While a single performance in and of itself may not directly translate to increased equitable community well-being, it does serve as an illustrative example of the type of work The Rep continues to prioritize. The arts, and particularly theatre, open doors to conversations that celebrate and preserve culture, allow for creative responses to trauma and racism, and increase our overall mental and physical health. These pillars drive The Rep’s efforts to become the “town hall for discourse”, in St. Louis. As we move forward with similar projects, we believe our city will reap the rewards of increased social cohesion that will be the foundation of community change.
