This current iteration of “BLKS” – thirty minutes have been shaved off the current intermission less ninety-minute production – plays more like a sitcom than perhaps it should and the seriousness, the somberness of the play’s … photo by Deen Van Meer Set in that weird space where gentrified Brooklyn, Bushwick, meets Bed Stuy “Do or die!” Aziza Barnes BLKS. If you’re good at slam and successful at slam, weird shit happens to you. Aziza Barnes' play opens with a scene of two women having oral sex (loudly heard, but not seen). Aziza Barnes; Aziza Barnes. Imani would go to the club in a white tee, jeans and sneakers and that’s Gucci for her. Qty: Full Length, Comedy 1 man, 5 women Total Cast: 6, Flexible Set ISBN-13: 9780822240693 . And it’s also fun to frazzle people who then have to say it. They weren’t happening to any white people we knew or Ghanaian people we knew… even other Black people that we knew. You know how people in the south sit on their porch and it’s where you can make out with a cute person because your bed ain’t shit. Author bio(s) $10.00. Mentally, what the fuck is going on? Z’s play BLKS has been produced at Steppenwolf Theater, Woolly Mammoth Theater and MCC, and was nominated for the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding play, and winner of the Antonyo Award for Best Play. Aziza is a Cave Canem Fellow and co-host of the podcast The Poetry Gods. Aziza is a graduate of New York University, member of The Dance Cartel and participant in the 2016 Ojai Playwrights Conference. BLKS for me is emotionally rigorous and delightful because I'm constantly laughing with the person I was and am, and the jokes me and my kin tell each other," shares Aziza Barnes. Aziza Barnes’s BLKS is often funny, often vulgar, and sometimes heartbreaking. Aziza Barnes' new play makes its world premiere. sale. So that’s why BLKS exists. It’s the thing to deal with the thing. It feels very aligned. Why don’t we belong anywhere in Africa or the U.S.? Featured. I remember always seeing the world like that. And it won this poetry prize from Button Poetry, the first book to win a prize from that publishing house. That boldness is certainly on display in Aziza Barnes’s terrific BLKS, a searing, raw, and amusing new play revolving around the insecurities of three twentysomething African-American women trying to find meaning in a world of social isolation, prejudices, and constant change. I started playing with voice and creating poems written from the voice of other people. Aziza Barnes's BLKS is often funny, often vulgar, and sometimes heartbreaking. Why is our experience so nuanced from the get? written by Aziza Barnes Octavia played by … MCC Theater continues its 2018-2019 off-Broadway season with the New York premiere of BLKS, a playwriting debut by poet Aziza Barnes. PLAYWRIGHT & POET AZIZA BARNES ON BLKS To experience BLKS is to experience poet/playwright Aziza Barnes. Cuz I was in school with a bunch of very delusional neo-liberal people who would say “I just don’t see race.” To which I say, “Bitch you better! These are all ways of avoiding the actual acute problem: "WHICH IS THAT YOU’RE MISERABLE AND THAT NO ONE LISTENS TO YOU." The script is chiseled by Aziza Barnes in edgy/sexy wit and warmth that will bust your gut and break your heart. December 26, 2017 Becky Sarwate Leave a comment. Nora Carroll (Octavia), Leea Ayers (June) and Celeste M. Cooper (Imani) In the late stages of 2017, critics and publications across Chicagoland are running their “Best of The Year” in theater pieces. Aziza Barnes’s BLKS is often funny, often vulgar, and sometimes heartbreaking. So when I think about the images in my play, I also think about each character’s hair and how they decide to do it. Graduate of New York University and participant … Photo Credit: Deen van Meer. Excerpt from Blks. I was grieving my cousin who had just been killed, and I was getting over this horrendous breakup, and feeling disillusioned and like, jaded in that American fashion. BLKS feels unlike anything I’ve seen on stage, because it was not written for me. We’d go into the club and the most absurd things would happen to us that didn’t make any sense. Her first chapbook, me Aunt Jemima & the nailgun, was the inaugural winner of the Exploding Pinecone … By Kris Vire Posted: Monday December 4 2017 Their full-length collection, i be but i ain’t (2016), won a Pamet River Prize from YesYes Books. Playwright Aziza Barnes on BLKS by Greta Honold. I wrote my first book me Aunt Jemima and the nail gun. Like the laugh so you don’t cry thing. postmaster@dramatists.com. Especially when no one wants to see you, why are you betraying yourself? Aziza Barnes's BLKS is often funny, often vulgar, and sometimes heartbreaking. Written by Aziza Barnes . Aziza’s play BLKS premiered in December 2017 at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, following with its production at Woolly Mammoth in February 2018. This current iteration of “BLKS” – thirty minutes have been shaved off the current intermission less ninety-minute production – plays more like a sitcom than perhaps it should and the seriousness, the somberness of the play’s message becomes lost. Qty: Full Length, Comedy 1 man, 5 women Total Cast: 6, Flexible Set ISBN-13: 9780822240709 . June creates the fantasy that she’s put together; Octavia puts together a fantasy that she can be a different person at any given part of the day; and Imani don’t really give a shit about her clothes. Aziza is a graduate of New York University, member of The Dance Cartel and participant in the 2016 Ojai Playwrights Conference. Like, a couch is communal, you and your homies can sit on it, and it ties the room together, it’s comfy. I am 100 percent convinced that if “BLKS” the Steppenwolf Theatre Company world premiere from Aziza Barnes… And then my first full-length poetry collection i be but I ain’t came out in 2016 and won the Cabinet River Prize for books. Waking up to a shocking and personal health scare, Octavia and her best … FORMAT: Apply for Rights. All Rights Reserved. That boldness is certainly on display in Aziza Barnes’s terrific BLKS, a searing, raw, and amusing new play revolving around the insecurities of three twentysomething African-American women trying to find meaning in a world of We’re Black people. I’m interested in people who run from it, creatively, until they can’t anymore. The play’s strength lies in Barnes’s … But this poignant blast of a comedy at the Steppenwolf Theatre is really all … That boldness is certainly on display in Aziza Barnes’s terrific BLKS, a searing, raw, and amusing new play revolving around the insecurities of three twentysomething African-American women trying to find meaning in a world of social isolation, prejudices, and constant change. Say it! For me as an early 20’s person you don’t care about your bed yet. Playwright Aziza Barnes on BLKS by Greta Honold So I went to NYU, and I spent a semester abroad in Ghana. You’re not happy enough to know that you need to take care of yourself and that kind of starts with having a nice bed. Splash Magazines Worldwide is your destination for in-depth culture coverage including theatre, opera, classical music, jazz, dance and the arts; travel and leisure reviews; restaurant reviews; lifestyle subjects; celebrity interviews; fashion advice; environmentally conscious living; gift-giving recommendations; … You work so hard for this one moment which, to me, is the most important thing. Barnes is author of full-length collections the blind pig (2019) and i be but i ain’t (2016), which won a Pamet River Prize, and the chapbook me Aunt Jemima and the nailgun (2013), … There’s something intrinsic to a couch in black culture. Aziza Barnes. Their clothes are almost like portable houses that way. … Black female friendships take centre stage in the audio play 'BLKS' ... by Aziza Barnes - releasing tomorrow as part of Us: a Black Peoples Month Festival Check out Ensemble Theatre Company for details about their offerings available for free (!) You don’t listen to yourself. Waking up to a shocking and personal health scare, Octavia and her best friends, June and Imani, … BLKS Overview - The BEST Broadway source for BLKS tickets and BLKS information, photos and videos. Aziza Barnes's BLKS seems to offer a rejoinder of its own to GIRLS, bringing the story back to New York and using a similar sort of title that foregrounds how one element of these women's identities instantly shapes who they are The title is quite cheeky because the Chicago-based poet Avery R. Young coined the word BLKS because it’s about people not about a color. MCC Theater celebrates the opening of the Off-Broadway premiere of Aziza Barnes' BLKS May 9.Robert O’Hara directs the new comedy, previously seen in … 2, 2019. Aziza Barnes is blk & alive. Chicago Sun Times- Highly Recommended "...It's difficult to sum up the impact of Aziza Barnes' raw, blistering, hilarious and enraging "BLKS." Aziza Barnes. Theater review by Helen Shaw In Aziza Barnes’s poetry, the crunch of tire irons and the explosions of police shootings sometimes obliterate words. So I went to Ghana with one of my best friends Nora Caroll, who is also in the cast of BLKS, and without her I honestly would not have felt it important to write this play. They try to have sex a lot. THE PASSED DOWN PROJECT PRESENTS | "THE NEW BLACK...Progression or a Setup?" Author. After a morning that includes a cancer scare and kicking her girlfriend out of the house, Octavia decides to have a last turn up with her best friends. Z has participated with residencies such as Sundance, Ojai Playwrights Conference, … New York, NY 10016 The performances and production values are over-the-top outstanding. BLKS. And I think about the clothes that they wear. For the next few years after I graduated I worked on it intermittently and the premise of the play continued to ring true to me – these three very different kinds of Black women in their early 20’s trying to deal with themselves through all the ways we self-medicate. Audra McDonald, Tina - The Tina Turner Musical and its star Adrienne Warren, LaChanze, Aziza Barnes' play BLKS and the Off Broadway revival … I was grieving my cousin who had just been killed, and I was getting over this horrendous breakup, and feeling disillusioned and like, jaded in that American fashion. Which I feel like, is why I’m on the planet. 440 Park Avenue South Now in a world premiere staging at Steppenwolf, BLKS chronicles 24 hours in the lives of three young black women in their early 20s living in New York City. Aziza Barnes on z's play BLKS, opening soon at Steppenwolf. In poet Aziza Barnes’s ingenious portrait of a day in the life of four young black women discovering life’s uncomfortable truths in New York City, BLKS explores the joy and anguish of growing up and out. We are Black. I’m not interested in writing people who are miserable and sad. Why are people having opinions about me when I don’t know them? Winner of the 2015 Pamet River Prize, Aziza’s first full length collection, i be but i ain’t, is from YesYes Books 2016. So I started writing again and focusing on the quietness that comes with it and the reflection that comes with it. This show is closed. It’s very evocative of a pioneer life and what matters and what mattered was a place that you or anyone could feel comfortable. The zest of these women is off the charts.” —Washington Post. They smoke a lot. The ways in which you create fantasy are, I feel, very important. It is by far an bracingly deep dive into intricacies, absurdities and boisterous contradictions of … the … Aziza Barnes' play opens with a scene of two women having oral sex (loudly heard, but not seen). Because she and I would just get into these ridiculous shenanigans thinking that we had like arrived at “African heaven” and really the Ghanaians were like, “you’re just American fools.” It made us really focus on ourselves as Black American people, as Black American women and gender-non-conforming people. 1650 N. Halsted St. Chicago, IL 60614 (312) 335-1650 (c) 2020 Steppenwolf Theatre Company. All artwork by Annabelle … $10.00. And you’ll end up having a time in your early 20’s where you’re couch-surfing; no one is immune from couch. I won this really big collegiate slam and was really disturbed after that. So I went to NYU, and I spent a semester abroad in Ghana. Now in a world premiere staging at Steppenwolf, BLKS chronicles 24 hours in the lives of three young black women in their early 20s living in New York City. The slam world is a strange and magic world. Aziza is a Cave Canem Fellow … “Aiming to be a raucous comedy of misbehavior and a quiet tragedy of mistreatment, [BLKS] amazingly succeeds at both…For quite a stretch of the breakneck 90-minute production, you feel the pure joy of seeing the best of people at their worst…the uncomfortable proximity of terror and pleasure, the mark of mortality in the midst of intimacy, percolates beneath the surface at all times, so that even at its most extreme and obscene—BLKS is not for prudish ears or eyes—it is serious and sad and profoundly human.” —NY Times. Poet Aziza Barnes makes her playwriting debut with the new play, premiering Off-Broadway this spring with MCC Theater. From queer love and entanglements to the pressures of adulting, BLKS is a laugh out loud comedy, and a toast to the sistas who hold you down. Riotously funny and distinctly rendered, Barnes’s playwriting debut marks the arrival of a truly original contemporary … Z’s play BLKS has been produced at Steppenwolf Theater, Woolly Mammoth Theater and MCC, and was nominated for the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding play, and winner of the Antonyo Award for Best Play. In reflecting on my own experiences to write the play I realized my friends and I are fucking funny. Click Here to buy BLKS tickets today! You could put all that life into a page and it’s still true and real. They earned a BFA from New York University and an MFA from the University of Mississippi. Author bio(s) PDF Preview. Performances ended on Jun. Read 3 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. So I went to NYU, and I spent a semester abroad in Ghana. They earned a BFA from New York University and an MFA from the University of Mississippi. 212-683-8960 That was my first entry point into writing. Antoinette Crowe-Legacy, Paige Gilbert, and Alfie Fuller as three roomates on the town in “BLKS”. Aziza’s play BLKS premiered at Steppenwolf. I’ve always written, and it was always poetry, mainly because I was obsessed with condensing very big feelings into singular moments. I think of the horrors of my life, why I felt so out of my body and mind, like the only thing that would have helped was to laugh and to put on some makeup and a wig. BLKS- Steppenwolf Theatre- Some days feel like they will never end. 212-213-1539 Poetry is a huge part of my life. Three Young Black Women Navigate Sex and the City in BLKSPlaywright Aziza Barnes makes their New York debut with this laugh-out-loud comedy. Books by Aziza. Book official tickets to MCC Theater's New York premiere of BLKS by Aziza Barnes at Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space from NewYorkTheaterGuide.com. It’s just horrifying, and you can’t walk around being horrified all the time. That’s my life as a poet. And so I started writing BLKS. I mean if they were like “dang my boyfriend cheated on me” and “dang my dad’s dead” and “dang I don’t know what my own brain is doing…” Jesus Christ no. The play’s strength lies in Barnes’s … To be produced by Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Barnes’s playwriting debut, BLKS, "marks the arrival of a truly original contemporary American voice." BLKS is a rapid-fire, laugh-out-loud comedy about a quartet of twenty-something black women in New York City who are roommates, gal pals, and lovers. Aziza Barnes's comedy benefits from Robert O'Hara's broad-strokes direction and two inspired actors Barnes deftly handles her characters’ sexual fluidity, but near the end of “BLKS… The major plot element involves a young woman anxiously discovering a mole on her clitoris. It’s like a porch for city-dwellers. Aziza Barnes is an American poet. And it’s how you express yourself and align yourself politically. Representative Plays: BLKS (2019) Bio: Aziza Banres is the winner of the 2015 Pamet River Prize; her first full length collection, i be but i ain’t, is from YesYes Books, 2016. I remember when my Grandma passed, it was too big to encompass or understand, but I remember a poem about her. THE STORY: When shit goes down, your girls show up. Aziza Barnes is blk & alive. So it’s a comedy. I’d have those nights in Ghana and I’d have them afterwards and I realized I had had these kinds of nights my whole life. A proud partner of the Dramatists Guild since. They are the author of the chapbook me Aunt Jemima and the nailgun (2013), which won an Exploding Pinecone Prize from Button Poetry. Aziza Barnes is the winner of the 2015 Pamet River Prize; their first full length collection, i be but i ain’t, is from YesYes Books, 2016.Their first chapbook, me Aunt Jemima & the nailgun, was the inaugural winner of the Exploding Pinecone Prize from Button Poetry. People are so fucking sad, it needs to be a comedy. Johnson and Omar Vélez Meléndez are the other playwrights to whom LiveLabs has so far offered a casual, low-impact opportunity to test new ideas. FORMAT: FEE: $100 per performance. Produced by Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Barnes’s playwriting debut, BLKS, "marks BLKS book. Tel. Fax. I thought that was like alchemy; that was like the most magical thing a person could do and it’s why BLKS is only 24 hours. They drink a lot. Zachary Stewart; Locations. I love hearing when people slip up and say something gorgeous. Aziza Barnes, Halley Feiffer, Matthew Lopez, C.A. BLKS for me is emotionally rigorous and delightful because I'm constantly laughing with the person I was and am, and the jokes me and my kin tell each other," shares Aziza Barnes. Excerpt from Blks. Unfortunately, the set and the direction often get in the way of Aziza Barnes’s seditious script. That’s how I envision this couch, like if someone were to take this couch away the world would end. AZIZA BARNES (Z or Aziza) is blk & alive. Splash Magazines Worldwide is your destination for in-depth culture coverage including theatre, opera, classical music, jazz, dance and the arts; travel and leisure reviews; restaurant reviews; lifestyle subjects; celebrity interviews; fashion advice; environmentally conscious living; gift-giving recommendations; … Hair is like a flag. Unfortunately, the set and the direction often get in the way of Aziza Barnes’s seditious script. What is wrong with you?” I see it as such a fearful erasure, it’s dangerous not to see, and it’s dangerous to say it’s not your politics. If you don’t have it you really need it; it could be the shittiest couch but it’s yours. Poet-playwright Aziza Barnes puts many ingredients into their script blender to whip up a “comedic look” at the lives of Octavia (Paige Gilbert), Imani (Alfie Fuller), and June (Antoinette Crowe-Legacy, three twenty something black women living in New York City – a city where black lives seem not to matter and where, for that reason, … Poet and performer Aziza Barnes was born in Los Angeles. But Aziza Barnes’ BLKS (Currently up at MCC, directed by Robert O’Hara) is challenging the narrative of what Black women do. And other people did not have the same absurd perspective on the world. As outrageous as they are, that’s the only way they deal with it. Then when I was in college I did a lot of slam poetry. photo by Deen Van Meer Set in that weird space where gentrified Brooklyn, Bushwick, meets Bed Stuy “Do or die!” We follow three friends and roommates: Octavia (played by Paige Gilbert) , Imani … When shit goes down, your girls show up. “Unvarnished and totally uninhibited, [BLKS] is hilarious in the most uncomfortable ways. Aziza Barnes on ‘BLKS’ The 25-year-old poet’s first play, premiering at Steppenwolf, is a vivid portrait of young black women’s lives. online throughout the month. O'Hara has brought much of the design team from Slave … THE STORY: When shit goes down, your girls show up. “…[a] disarming, vivacious comedy…Barnes’s irreverent and exuberant play, saturated in race and sexuality, is part romantic sitcom, part existential reflection…Before you know it, a deep, soulful riff is unwinding…It’s a persistent, perceptive entertainer. Like shit, please let it be a comedy. Why isn’t our voice heard? Barnes’s playwriting is achingly real and naturalistic, while also showcasing … Aziza Barnes is blk & alive. Aziza Barnes’ “BLKS” begins with the sudden appearance of a genital mole. It’s the kind of comedy you watch with one hand covering your eyes, and the other suspending your dropped jaw…Barnes’s lack of fear as a writer is what makes BLKS a particularly joyous experience…Each of Barnes’s characters is a mess in his or her own special way, and it is in their flaws that we are best able to see reflections of ourselves—and laugh-cringe at the mirror’s harsh truth.” —TheaterMania.com. Chicago Sun Times- Highly Recommended "...It's difficult to sum up the impact of Aziza Barnes' raw, blistering, hilarious and enraging "BLKS." That boldness is certainly on display in Aziza Barnes’s terrific BLKS, a searing, raw, and amusing new play revolving around the insecurities of three twentysomething African-American women trying to find meaning in a world of So I went to Ghana with one of my best friends Nora Caroll, who is also in the cast of BLKS… But Aziza Barnes’ BLKS (Currently up at MCC, directed by Robert O’Hara) is challenging the narrative of what Black women do. Aziza Barnes's BLKS seems to offer a rejoinder of its own to GIRLS, ... That wonderfully reductive name is a signal of how Barnes flips the usual script, moving a white character into the background and using the role to further a Black character's journey of self-discovery.